Iran's medicine shortage under sanctions

Despite the intention of the recent U.S. and E.U. economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear program, it has led to the suffering and agony of the civilian population and the public services. The recent news and events on the shortage of medicine and its victims in Iran have raised a red flag to the rethinking the sanctions and their impacts which lead to human rights violation.

Although the sanctions do not directly impose any bans on the exports of medicines to Iran, their economic boycotts and the aftermaths have created circumstances resulted in the shortage or, in some cases, lack of medicines. The economy of Iran is dominated by the exports of its oil and gas production. The finances consequently generated are used to supply food, medicines, and other services. The blockade on the gas and oil exports as a result of the sanctions has interfered with Iran's currency and banking, and hence, affected Iran's medicine supply. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed a regulation which inquires the firms to apply for a licence from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in order to export and sell medicines to Iran.

In addition to the international ignorance to the current severe situation of the medicine shortage, the Iranian authorities and their media misinform the public by their false information. Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, the former Iran's Minister of Health, claims that the current sanctions have provided the opportunity for Iran to domesticate the majority of its production of the required medicines. Yet, the increasing number of the reports from the challenges the patients suffering from chronic diseases, such as, hemophilia, cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis, are confronted due to the shortage of their required medicines is an indication of the significance of the situation for further investigations.

Consequently, the impact of all these is the rising number of the events where the patients' conditions worsen, or in some cases they lose their lives. The recent news of the death of the teenage Iranian boy suffering from haemophilia caught the attention of the international community; however, unfortunately, nothing has been done to minimize the impact of this devastating situation. Once again, the world has closed its eyes to the inhumane condition that is unfolding in front it. 

The hardest decision I've ever made — the saddest day of my life

Catty (June 1st,  2002 - July 23, 2012)

Stuff on typography

Manual Kerning for:
AT, TI, LV, Te, Wo, and Ya

Between circular letters, such as two O's, less space is required than between straight letters, such as an I and an H. Angular letters and letter  that have overhanging strokes, such as V, Y, L, A, and T, also require less space and, in some cases, extreme kerning.

Stop confusing social media marketing with advertising on social sites

by David Meerman Scott

I'm amazed that so many seemingly smart people are *still* using the words "marketing" and "advertising" interchangeably.
While I see the silliness everywhere, a good example is all the hoopla around General Motors' decision to stop advertising on Facebook.
The GM news broke during the same week as the Facebook IPO a few weeks ago.
Mainstream media reporters and citizen journalists jumped on the story. Except for the awesome newsjacking of the Facebook IPO by GM I didn't think it was a big deal so I chose not to write about it.
The resulting headlines such as The Real Reason GM Left Facebook and General Motors unfriends Facebook imply that GM was no longer communicating to fans on Facebook.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Some people like Mitch Joel and Yaseen Dadabhay got the story right. But most did not.
Marketing is not just advertising
While GM did pull $10 million in ads from Facebook, they continue to use the Facebook channel.
A very quick search shows GM has hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Facebook pages including brand pages like Chevrolet, model pages like Camaro (2.8 million likes and tons of fan engagement), location pages like Chevrolet India, and even specialty pages like Team Chevy auto racing.
So GM has certainly not left Facebook.
Heck, imagine if they used that ten million dollars to hire a huge team of brand journalists to engage people on social networks! (That’s what I would do).
GM is certainly engaged on Facebook. They just stopped spending money on Facebook ads.
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
As regular readers of this blog and The New Rules of Marketing & PR will recall:
OLD RULES -- buy your way in with advertising and beg your way in with the media
NEW RULES -- publish your way in on the Web for free
As many successful marketers know, on the Web, marketing is not the same as advertising. Winning is all about creating great content. For free. To be successful, you must unlearn what you have learned.
It's not about advertising on YouTube, it is about making a YouTube video. It's not about advertising on social media sites like Facebook, it is about participating by creating pages, personal profiles, and events on Facebook like GM does.
Attention journalists: Stop intermixing the terms "advertising" and "marketing."
It's difficult for CMOs to make the transition to a world where there are alternative ways to reach an audience other than spending buckets of money on expensive advertising campaigns. Many reporters aren't helping.

Source: http://www.webinknow.com/2012/05/stop-confusing-marketing-via-social-media-with-advertising-on-social-sites.html

Good books

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Hot, Flat, and Crowded Why We Need A Green Revolution-- and How It Can Renew America Friedman, Thomas L.
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Adland A Global History of Advertising
Tungate, Mark
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Socialnomics How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business
Qualman, Erik
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Thinking with Type A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
Lupton, Ellen
 ................
Graphic Design Thinking Beyond Brainstorming
Lupton, Ellen

The World Is Flat #01

I am reading the book, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Friedman, the NY Times columnist. I read a full summery of this book a while ago and was really inspired by it. So I decided to read the whole book. I must say, it is one of the best analytical work I have ever read. As I am reading, so many of my questions regarding the future, digital technology and social media, the next world, globalization, world politics, social issues, individualism, corporations, and many more are being answered, but still raises so many new questions and concerns for me.

So I have decided to use this platform to write down these questions/concerns while reading the book. Who knows... I might find the answers in later chapters or maybe in his next book.

What a beautiful book, Mr. Friedman.

Save Graphic Design

Congratulations! 'You' are named by Time Magazine for its 2006 'Person of the Year'. The cover design is a mirror on a computer screen intend to literally implies the idea of shift in power from Us to You which refers to the citizens of the wold in shaping the way the world changes in the information age. In the prior year, the New York Times columnist and the American journalist and author, Thomas Friedman metaphorically calls the world flat with regards to the empowerment of individuals as a result of new information and communication technologies in his bestselling book "The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century". The book is a historical narrative in which Friedman takes the readers on a journey from the days of Christopher Columbus to the today's modern state as well as the significant events in between in order to demonstrate the transformation of the world in getting more connected and becoming more flat.

He uses this narration to define globalization in three different eras: Globalization 1.0 between the 16th and 19th century in which colonialism enforced by the countries and governments to expand their markets; Globalization 2.0 between the 19th and 21st century when multinational companies globalized their markets and work force for more profits; at last, Globalization 3.0, the outcome of new information and communication technologies in the present time in which the shift from institutions to individuals is evident that results in the empowerment of individuals and providing equal opportunities for the competitors despite their social or cultural backgrounds. This new Fieldman's interconnectedness theory would definitely reexamine the logic behind the Old World and its transition into the New World, and the unexpected outcomes and growing concerns as a result of this modulation. If what Fieldman proposes is true, then it would clearly take far less than 80 days for Mr. Fogg to travel around the world in this era of great convergence.

Almost a week ago was the 8th-year anniversary of the birth of Facebook. The obvious impact of Facebook and other social networking services on our day-to-day activities and how quickly they have shaped our lives in a new way reinforces Mr. Fieldman's notion of the wold interconnection. The social media have changed the way of communication and interaction. They have brought together different societies and cultures by creating a global platform where information, works, ideas, and people can move around the world faster than ever. The impact of this groundbreaking innovation is so vast that has created a new way of thinking. They have also provided the less fortunates with opportunities to be able to express themselves. As a result of this phenomenon, even Average Joe can easily advertise his business to the market without spending a dime.

Aware of the impact of the growing digital revolution, in order to cope and stay ahead of the trend, corporations are also, slowly but surely, changing their business strategies and plans to meet the market needs. As a result, they are focusing more on digital technologies and social media and the ways they can use these tools to increase their productivity. According to Erica Swallow on mashable.com

, now, businesses even take advantage of the power of social media for recruiting. As a graphic designer these changes raises so many red flags for me as well as many questions with regards to the impact of the digital movements on the world of advertising and publication mainly in print. If every individual is able to easily use the digital and social media tools for advertising, if the businesses are leaning more towards the new communication technologies, what would be awaiting the advertising agencies, design companies, and publishing industries? How prepared are they for these upcoming changes? How are they planning on staying ahead of these trends in order to remain competitive? Are they willing to learn how to learn and teaching themselves to stay innovative? I recently saw a piece designed by Paula Scher on the future of technology which left me in absolute shock. The piece was the repetition of the word "blah" in different sizes, colours, and positioning implied a sense of chaos and negativity. If I see this unexpected reaction from a graphic designer and educator with many years of experience in the field like Paula Scher with regards to the new information and communication technologies, then I would rather find answers and solutions to these questions myself in order to stay ahead of these trends.

I recently finished work on poster designs for the Canadian Medical Association new online learning service on Alzheimer’s. For this project, I decided to experiment the significance of the design process in the creation of a memorable and unique piece. I did many research on the disease and talked to several doctors. I joint the Alzheimer's centre as a friendly visitor in the summer in order to directly interact with the patients and observe the affects of the illness with my own eyes. I wrote about my experiences with the patients after every sessions and compared them to the medical researches on the disease. The outcome of all the research and the thoughts was many ideas lead to the emerge of several strong concepts. My final pieces were two sets of designs with two different concepts: one was literal which garbed the audience attention right away, and one was memorable and unique which wowed the audience.

My point is one thing that certainly differentiates a work created by design firms from other so-called design works is the design process and the thoughts that are put into developing profound concepts. There are many designs to compete with, so in order to stand out, the piece needs to be memorable and unique. That is when the design process becomes significant. When businesses see good quality outcomes that help them to expand their market and stay ahead of their competitors, then they would trust the design firms with their promotional and design plans. Unfortunately, throughout my work experience in different workplaces from advertising agencies like Leo Burnett to the publishing departments at the Canadian Medical Association and Toronto Community News, I have witnessed how this most important stage of the design creation has been getting ignored in several occasions due to the bureaucracy, lack of time and disorganization, or willingness to fully fulfill the corporations' expectations. As the new world is moving forward rapidly in the 21st century, what I have experienced in the workplaces has been at least one step behind this movement. Individuals are being bombarded by information and news as a result of the new information and communication technologies. The design firms are responsible to create masterpieces that speak loud to the audience, so that they grab their attention. To achieve this, the design process is very important in creating an outstanding design in this competitive new world and the era of information. What would be the best practical solution in order to maintain the efficiency of the design process in the creation of the design? Which parts would a design process play in creating a memorable piece? Perhaps, this could be one of the solution that would save the future of the design firms.

I am intimated by the changes happening in my field; however, I strongly believe that by teaching myself to stay curious and innovative, I will stay ahead of these trends.