Dressing the Part

Albert Einstein reportedly used to keep a panoply of identical suits in his wardrobe so that he didn't have to think about what to wear. The wardrobe dilemma was instantly solved. The ingenious hack is employed today - in reverse - by a host of entrepreneurs, CEOs and other influencers in the public eye, to various degrees. Mark Zuckerberg is a prime example - and exception to the rule at the same time. As the product of a generation where social codes, rules and etiquette have been questioned and shunned and 'anything goes', he might consider dressing down as a positive, which indeed hasn't been as detrimental to him as it could have. Yet for anyone else this ultimately is a disservice, especially if aiming high in the career stakes. The social code the hierarchy commands plays the safe card of tradition rather than sloppiness (or eccentricity!) in order to achieve and sustain respectability, credibility, trustworthiness and integrity, the very cogs in the wheels of professionalism. Personal brand image is thus everything: it defines you in a way that either enhances your career and persona or damages them.

Soundsuit #2 by Nick Cave, via ArtSpace

When you resemble a forever teenage dirt bag stuck in the middle of a video game, with a smile like the dork encountered a unicorn on his way to the donut stash, you cannot expect to be taken seriously. Call me old-fashioned and a conservative, but nothing will ever beat an attire that matches the occasion. And in doubt, dress up rather than down. You can always dress down if you are too dressed up: remove that tie, undo that collar, take off that jacket... How can you dress up when all you are wearing is jeans, tees and plimsols?

Jeans, tees and plims are Zuckerberg's trademark. He believes this is all he needs to wear, in a fluid environment that has blurred home, the workplace and the after-hours of socialising. He travels light yet don't be fooled! His bank account is heavy. Those who view Donald Trump as part of the elite (based on his fortune alone) should cast a long hard look at Zuckerberg, worth $76.7b. This rates him 4th on Forbes 400 and the world's 5th richest billionaire. Get the calculator out: he's 25 times wealthier than the US President (#248 on Forbes 400)!

Now I agree that basing an opinion upon looks alone is misleading: looks are superficial and deceptive, and clothing fashion fickle and skin-deep. What truly matters is what is under the hood, the engine (value system, ethics, beliefs, accomplishments, ambition). Though it remains that appearances are the first port of call when meeting somebody. Look at it as a book cover. Is it enticing enough for you to find out more... or do you just walk past in search of something more appealing, more interesting? Or worse, do you run in the opposite direction? Jeans and tees might define a certain segment of fashion but a suit will always defy the vagaries and fickleness of fashion always, and remain a staple that every wardrobe should have - mostly if you are a manager, director, CEO. This includes Zuckerberg.

Untitled (Soundsuits) by ibid, via LA Times

Multi-billionaire Zuckerberg is only fooling himself and his copycat teen lookalikes when pretending to be 'one of us' the populace, wearing slacks day in day out like he has no care in the world and only a few dollars tucked in his pocket. The only reason he has been able to get away with it is because he is putty in the hands of the governing elites. They saw potential in his Facebook creation and dictate to him how he should fine-tune his algorithms in order to skewer free speech into a tool of surveillance, propaganda and subversion - a topic for some other time.

Look at rapper Jay Z: he understood long ago that the three-piece suits, crisp white shirts and a bow-tie would take him places within the corporate music arena that the ghetto-fabulous diamond-encrusted sneakers and the massive gold chain dangling over a pair of low-cut baggy jeans would not...

In The Godfather series, the mafia bosses and their underdogs are all dressed up in suits when they conduct business. They understand that in order to gain credibility, no matter how dubious and downright criminal your motives - businessman or con artist - you must look the part. Indeed the dress-up code works at both ends of the respectability paradigm. In both cases they help you get things done.

Soundsuit #6 by ibid, via Artspace

Dressing up sharpens your attitude: it lends you poise, and gives you presence and clout. What applies to meanswear applies to womenswear. By dressing up, you will instantly behave in a more professional, more restrained, manner. It fine-tunes your mindset, tweaks your general frame of mind. It sharpens your thought and your word. Try this blind test: conduct one business phonecall (from home) wearing casualwear, and one dressed up. You will notice that when dressed up, your body holds a certain way, your voice projects more and you come across as more assertive and focused. Now translate that to a face-to-face situation. You are on to a winner.

You need to know when to push your affairs in terms of dress code. Classic, conservative attire will always be a winner. It will not let you down: it will serve you right.

Five Mantras to Live Your Life By

Life is a bed of roses: beautiful and spiky, delightful and prickly. It throws fireballs at us and teaches us lessons along the way. Up to us to receive the teaching as a learning, or else, repeat mistakes and errors of judgement and go down the wrong path, sabotaging chances. However eventually most of us will mature and develop wisdom through the proverbial school of life (a.k.a. life experience) or school of hard knocks - when life rocks the boat senseless and tests you hard.

Wisdom makes life and lifestages easier to handle and puts things into perspective thanks to the tools we develop (thought process, repartee, extrapolation, problem solving etc.), and the methods we learn - by hook or by crook - on how to deal with new situations, setbacks and adversity under all their manifestations: stress, fear, loss, grief, pain, conflict, etc.

Along the years, I've got into a habit of collating quotes and other pearls of wisdom which resonate with me most, into a Word document. Whenever I feel a little low and in search of a boost or a little guidance - or just for the pleasure of words themselves - I open the file and reach out for them.

My Pinterest board, Unrequited ♥ Love, is an extension of that file, as a collection of quotes and metaphors from prominent artists, authors, thinkers, politicians, as well as from personalities away from the public eye. You may want to refer to my board for further inspo.

Right now, check out my five steadies for a little positive reinforcement

Atomic Parabellum

Despite its cheerful-sounding name, Enola Gay was never going to be a jolly affair. Little Boy and Fat Man neither. Yet in the same breath, Japan had made it clear that they wanted to surrender. America heard it, then pressed the button that dropped the bomb on the city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, wiping out 70,000 civilians in one fell swoop. Then as if this wasn't lethal enough and pointless enough in its nihilism, it went on to drop another bomb, three days later, on Nagasaki. And that is the way WWII ended. In an atomic blast.

Aerial view of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

To say that there are winners and losers in a war is an aberration, because the concept of war itself is anathema to what humanity stands for. War is a failing, a failure. Man's propensity for creation and destruction combine into what I refer to as The Human Paradox.

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic disasters were yet another crime against humanity, although American propaganda chose to shun this. It was at the same time the latest exemplification of human capability in destruction of others. And by destructing others we destruct self. Those scientists who had worked on the atom, with civilisation advancement in mind, never thought for one second that their discoveries would be turned around and channelled towards life extermination. The acute realisation, echoed by Albert Einstein, is that technological progress both serves and unserves humanity: -

'I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.' - Albert Einstein

By blasting Japan, the US showed how far they were prepared to stand as contenders for world domination. The message was sent out loud and clear to the USSR and other nations that would stand in their way. Atomic was the ultimate all-powerful weapon of mass destruction.

The nuclear blasts signed off the end of WWII and the start of another war, insidious and sinister, the Cold War. It unleashed a new era, of shameless consumerism in the atomic age, the trademark of the (not that) 'Fabulous Fifties'. One step closer to the New World Order as we know it today.

The Enola Gay crew

Pain for Gain - An Ode Against Inhumanity

His name was Satao. He was a beautiful tusker, one of those rare elder elephants with the majestic tusks (a genetic trait), his pride and joy - and ironically his ultimate downfall. Satao was a living legend for conservationists, wildlife broadcasters and safari photographers. And a coveted ambling booty for the poachers. In recent years, he had found shelter in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park, and ironically his refuge was unable to grant him the immunity he deserved. Satao used to hide his tusks in the bushes when he sensed danger because he knew poachers were after them.

In the savannah garden of good and evil where nature's equilibrium is a tall order compromised by persistent human interference, greed won the victory and humanity's waning credibility weakened further. Greed, the root of all our evils that feeds the seven-sin matrix, is turning our Eden on Earth into the antechamber of Hell.

Satao (pict source via The Telegraph, photography by Richard Moller/ Tsavo Trust)

I have taken Satao's death very personally, and I think you should too. What crushes me is that Satao was killed by our human counterparts and this is what makes me question my pride as a human being if that means being associated with those who traded their humanity, their innate humane qualities (according to French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau), for the lower basic needs hierarchy that celebrates instant gratification, fast cash, consumerism and hedonism at all cost, with not much of a care for tomorrow, the consequences and the repercussions. We humans are turning our garden of Eden into a shambles: wastelands, fracked out hills, depleted jungles, displaced indigenous populations, polluted soils, GMO cultures, The Pacific Trash Vortex, all incumbent to our unbridled quest for more that takes our garbage heap to Babylonian heights, except I doubt this would take us one step closer to good, one step closer to God. The Horn of Plenty is now running on empty.

When we gloat about being the superior ones, top-of-the-food-chain masters, maybe we should cut the brag and take it down one notch to the periphery of modesty. Because how can elevated spirits like ours be capable to lower and cheapen themselves, stump rationale and morality, go against their benevolent grain, sell their soul to evil, awaken to sadistic pulsions, trade their honour for the lure of the quick buck and ephemeral satisfaction, go on the rampage to inflict pain and death, on cue, on autopilot.

(By Michael North Imagery)

I look at industrial farming, death on a plate, vivisection labs that practice torture to a 'T', bile farms, foie gras industry, big game trophy hunting, canned meat safaris, zoos, panda breeding programmes, shark culls, BlackFish, Taiji slaughters, Great Barrier Reef dredging and the Faroe Islands cetacean killings - to name a few examples that evidence our doomed interference with the natural world. Where is this Frankenstein nonsense leading us?

The destructive powers of humanity frighten me. They frightened Albert Einstein too when he realised that his participation in the evolution, the advancement of mankind would be turned on its head and used to nuke it instead.

Satao died for his ivory, 45 kgs of it, that will be shipped to the notorious Chinese ivory carving factories licensed by the notorious Zhao Shucong. The majestic elephant's pride and joy will be turned to trinkets. That is all it comes down to.

China, a paradox of a country all to itself, the only communist state to ever enjoy American capitalism to the hilt and to the point where it's taken over most of the US manufacturing marketplace (not to mention Europe's) and has been peddling its cheap wares to us by the container-load. Consumerism has turned cheap and cheerless, our high-turnover fast fashion items that burst at the seams after the first wash.

China has infiltrated African states like Kenya and South Africa with organised crime and corruption ensuring a supply of elephant tusk and rhino horn, sourced from the national parks like Tsavo and Kruger. China has also taken over the mining industry, not only across Africa but also Central and South America. And it seems that depletion is the end word. The West are at risk to be named and shamed as accomplices if their heads of state do not take a firm stance against China's organised destruction of our wildlife and embargo it until it complies.



You have no idea how saddened and angered I am. Behind the scenes, behind the ordained composure of this blog, yours truly is a dedicated animal activist and advocate. Elephant protection has been on my radar since childhood. I have always cultivated respect towards our natural environment and my contribution to its preservation may account for 1/100000th of a grain of sand in the grand scheme of things, but I won't just sit still and look pretty, because ignorance and indifference kill more lives than any form of commitment, no matter how small.

"See the animal in his cage that you built
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart
And it's all
Right where it belongs (...)"

Nine Inch Nails, 'Right Where It Belongs'

Further Resources:

• An Obituary for Satao by The Dodo
• Kenya's Biggest Elephant Killed by Poachers by The Guardian
• The Tsavo Tuskers by The Tsavo Trust (donations welcome!)
• The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (donations welcome!)
  
• Elephant Portfolio by Michael North Imagery (+ 'Rise Up For Elephants' video - above) 
• Satao - A Legend by Mark Deeble, wildlife filmmaker
• Satao - The Death of a Great Tusker by Great Elephant Census
• Bloody Ivory by Born Free Foundation
• 96 Elephants (because 96 elephants are killed every single day in Africa!) 
• Elephant Infographic by WildAid
• Is Woodland Park Zoo Failing Its Elephants? by Care2 

Inspire Aspire - Keep Going No Matter What!

Are you (or do you know) a blogger from the dark side? A blogger from the dark side has already clocked some mileage with their blog - via a somewhat hopeful/ hopeless relationship that's spun longer than a couple of yards (ooops I meant 'years'!) and 200+ posts, and you check your visit stats and they're not good, and the tracker indicates that your friends don't even bother with your blog anyway (yeah you lot, you are busted and thanks for your vote of confidence!), and if we are to believe that shameful barometer of success like Google Friend Connect  or your Facebook page to be testament to popularity and yours cries out 'Wallflower' and 'No-one Gives a Fig About My Talent!', then maybe oh maybe you need...

1. To rid of said tracking devices altogether
2. To stop checking those stats (life is indeed easier when we live in a state of blissful oblivion!)
3. A reality check that is apt and to the point, in the form of an Albert Einstein quote... (Who else to instill a waff of intelligence, credibility and common sense into us, therefore with no risk of sounding airy-fairy!)

via Indulgy

Because frankly my dear, as much as you should never lower yourself and your self-esteem as to allow yourself to be jealous of any woman whoever she might be, you should never give up because success hasn't yet showed up on your doorstep. Patience, perseverance, resilience, self-belief and self-esteem will pay off eventually. Just that the audience who are interested in you haven't yet found out about you and discovered your talents! It's as simple as that. Because in this world, in business as in love, there is someone for everyone. Just that getting matched up may sometimes take some timely adjustment.

In our popularity-obsessed culture, it would be tempting to associate popularity with quality. Please don't! I know (and sure you must do too!) of a multitude of popular blogs that are actually mediocre in content and style! So whatever you do, don't give up! Because to give up would be to give that mediocrity out there even more power.