The Buffalo Blog

China on the rise

The Guardian has today reported that China is set to be the world’s biggest internet user within two years. An increase of 23.4% in users last year, up to 137 million people, represents growth of a startling nature.

Despite the problems that China has experienced with censorship – last month Wikipedia were caught at the centre of a row after it was written that many people viewed Chairman Mao as ‘a mass murderer, holding his leadership accountable for the deaths of tens of millions of innocent Chinese’ – the Chinese economy is booming, and the technology industry is at the heart of this growth.

For companies to ignore China – many cite poor language skills as a barrier to both outsourcing and partnerships – shows a short sighted attitude that will be punished where it hurts most…in the purse. Having an office in China, sending back-office processes to China, creating partnerships with Chinese companies – there are several ways to jump on the China bandwagon, and it seems like a sensible bandwagon to be on.

Jade the Genius triumphs again

For some reason I don’t believe myself to be the first blogger to mention Jade Goody, and I seriously doubt whether I’ll be the last.

However, I do think that I’ll be the first to claim that her whole experience was a PR masterstroke. A cleverly planned and brilliantly implemented campaign that one can only sit back and admire.

Everyone knows of Jade as a big-headed, foul-mouthed, stupid moron. I’m being a little kind, I know. Celebrity Big Brother has re-enforced her position as such. Admittedly her image has taken a small downturn at present, but Jade will bounce back – everyone needs a moronic figure in their lives to make them feel that little bit more intelligent.

Jade’s PR team have been working round the clock this week, making Jade give back her appearance fee, give her interview fee to charity etc. Jade is now a phenomenon so marketable that firms will not be able to resist for long. Pantomime villains are always in demand – her TV and then film career are set to follow. The makers of Eastenders will be licking their lips at the prospect of someone so horrid starring on the show – the marriage between Jade and Grant Mitchell is set to be the surprise hit of Christmas 2007.

Health warning: Believing what you read in the papers can be damaging to your health

It’s official – drinking tea with no milk in is a way to help beat heart disease. It must be true – it was in all the papers.

But, like the chocolate story that this blog discussed at the end of 2006, these stories need to be approached with a healthy dose of cynicism. If you believe what you read in the paper, you will not go outside (because of the danger that sunlight can cause cancer), yet you will not stay in the house (as we are a nation of couch potatoes). What are Brits supposed to do according to the newspaper? Are we going to become a nation of porch-dwellers?!

The reality is that we have started to read newspapers with a pinch of salt (not literally, as we know that salt is bad for you!). Newspapers are increasingly attempting to give general guidelines as to how Britons should live their lives. Some tips are useful, some less so. I can’t imagine that millions of workers entered the office this morning and had a nice cuppa – of black tea.

We don't speak 'American'!

As any professional working in the PR and communications field will tell you, accuracy is of the utmost importance. A press release with errors in the spelling, punctuation and grammar can cause ultimate embarrassment for the PR and much derision from the journalist receiving it. Luckily for us, technology has been provided to help. An instant spell-check on the computer is heaven-sent…or should be…

                              

So why is it that every time I try to write ‘organise’, or ‘colour’, or any other such innocuous word that the ‘American language’ has bastardised, my computer tells me that the word has been spelt wrong, or even changes it to the ‘correct’ spelling automatically? The automatic default on my machine is US spelling, which is in itself a joke, but even when I switch it to UK spelling (for the umpteenth time), it still flags up “realise” as wrong!

It seems that the American technology industry has developed a power beyond its means. I can’t help feel that Bill Gates is on a personal mission to Americanise us all, which gets progressively intense with each release of a new Windows operating system. Wealth should not bring with it the ability to misuse and even make incorrect the English language. Americans have given us so much, especially in terms of technology, but it must be remembered that English is something that we gave to them…if they want to use their own American version of it then so be it, but leave our English alone!