Tag Archives: pr student

DO NOT RESUSCITATE – LEARNING DISABILITIES

I remember my professor Lynsey Watt sat down with me in first year of University, a short discussion meant for her to get to know me, in which I told her of my learning disability(acalculia) which affects the way I process numbers, makes it difficult to remember my own phone number. It was always a source of shame, guilt, embarrassment, when I only wanted to be able to function just like everyone else. I had several breakdowns because of assignments which included creating graphs and budget sheets(which I did conquer, insert smiley face here).

Nope, I’m neurodivergent! Lynsey had never heard of it before which I didn’t mind, it was new to me as well. School psychologists don’t know, but they are the ones who should. Once I discovered it all past shame, guilt, embarrassment was gone and I owned that I was thinking differently. I know I am not defined by my grades(of which I am proud) nor do I care whether I graduate with a First or not. I work smart and hard anyway.

I came across a post on Twitter from Dr. Frances Ryan, columnist and journalist @TheGuardian. She posted a headline which said: ‘’Children with learning disabilities offered ‘do not resuscitate’ orders during the pandemic, investigation finds.’’(The Telegraph). Coincidence or not, Lynsey, me and 2 of my colleagues briefly discussed disabilities, where Lynsey reminisced her friend saying ‘’the body is disabled but the mind is functioning well’’, which I agreed with, knowing I worked hard even through depression.

Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

I also mentioned COP26 which happened in Scotland last year, which famously lacked access for the disabled, specifically Karine Elharrar(Israeli minister) couldn’t attend a meeting ‘’because it was not wheelchair accessible.’’(BBC, 2021). Shocking that the Israeli delegation was blamed for not having communicated her needs(when it falls on the event organizer to make all arrangements). It should have been there already, by ‘’default’’.

But circling back to Dr. Frances Ryan, who expressed her shock of this practice: ‘’This scandal of unequal treatment has been happening right from the start of the pandemic – and long before.’’ Mencap, a UK-based charity, reported people with learning disabilities were told they wouldn’t be resuscitated ‘’if their health deteriorated’’(The Hill, 2021). User ‘’Callduron Vorn’’ replied to Dr. Frances highlighting the need for proper representation, as there are 14.1m. disabled people in the UK(20.6%), but only 5 disabled MPs(0.77%), numbers backed up by Scope which cited the Family Resources Survey (2019 to 20).

I call ‘’Do not resuscitate’’ orders for us people with learning disabilities absurd. People with learning disabilities can still express themselves, on the care they need, we should still receive care despite learning disabilities. Doctors can explain medical terms just fine to anyone, with or without learning disabilities, it’s my right to ask questions on what I may not understand, be it a prescription or procedure. Tell me I can’t even ask because I have a learning disability! Seriously, just how many lives could have been saved without this order? We probably will never know. So what is the point of the Hippocratic Oath then?

SANTA IS IN A LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

For a person like me who doesn’t really watch adverts because AdBlock is on all the time to protect from unwanted ads and occasional porn popping up, it’s quite something when an ad jumps onto my retinas.  

Norwegian Post had an amazing concept for this year to celebrate the nation’s decriminalization of homosexuality ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2022. Titled ‘’When Harry met Santa’’ Pink News was the funniest, who wrote that ‘’When Harry Met Santa” transforms Father Christmas into present-giving daddy of your dreams’’, and now I wonder what Tom Daley will get this Christmas.

Santa delivers gifts to a man’s house and year after year both fall in love with one another.  At first, Santa seems to be taken aback by the beauty of this stranger walking half-naked in his house, stares at him then disappears in the chimney. This man really had love at first sight for Santa because throughout the ad we see him missing him terribly, particularly at family dinners.

COTTONBRO/PEXELS

All until the man of his dreams catches him snoring on the sofa, where Harry fell asleep trying to catch a second to midnight. Then year after year they spend more and more time together. Santa is in a long-distance relationship! It really is so painful for Harry to hear ‘’I’ll be back next year!’’ so much he cries. Love is so well portrayed that it has to win all possible awards for the concept and acting that feels so warm!

Harry then gets beautiful and dressed elegantly, waiting for his man to show up, instead Santa got one of his elves to deliver the gift at the front door, while he sneaks in the house because he wanted to surprise Harry who stayed up for his arrival year after year. A surprise it is! He could not believe his own eyes! We got to witness Santa kissing his Mr. Claus! Harry got what he wanted for Christmas, I do hope they get married and live happily ever after. Santa had to end the long-distance thing!

‘’In 2022, Norway marks 50 years of being able to love whoever we want’’.

You have to see the Youtube comments: ‘’Psycho Paul’’ wrote ‘’ And that’s how elves are made.’’ And there’s more if you scroll.

SOURCES:

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/11/23/gay-santa-christmas-advert-posten/

THE TOXIC SIDE OF FASHION

I am very passionate about the fashion topic, but only because we can’t go out naked(difficult in the UK weather now with Arwen and Barra swirling around, but being cold all the time), even 100,000 years ago we had furs and skins on(Peta was not around yet).

I understand how one can look down on terms like ‘’sustainable clothing, ‘’sustainably made’’ but there are multiple benefits to being more careful what and where you buy your clothing. Your clothing is how you expressing yourself to the world who you are. Because I’m organic I’d want my clothes to be organic too, but companies around the world aren’t as fast to make more changes to their supply chains, to change fabrics with more sustainable ones. It’s all about money. It’s harder and more complicated to make changes to production when you’ve been running a certain way for 10 years, and another when you are a start-up with access to information.

Researching where you buy is increasingly necessary because companies have a lot to hide behind labels. Often, seeing where it was made gives a clear insight of their wages, whether they are exploited or not as much as the selling price. The toxic side of fashion is exposed as a Canadian Marketplace investigation discovered ‘’that a jacket for toddlers, purchased from Chinese retailer Shein, contained almost 20 times the amount of lead that Health Canada says is safe for children.’’(CBC, 2021), obviously not good enough for any child to wear.

Shein messaged Marketplace that the items were removed from their app, but if two items are contaminated, that means there is a lot more, not just at Shein, but others who were tested by the Canadian scientists: Zaful, AliExpress. I wonder how this sits with the influencers who promote Shein and Zaful on Youtube and Instagram, who have children of their own because ‘’Lead can cause damaging health effects to the brain, heart, kidneys and reproductive system’’ with children’s health being at risk more than the adults. If you wonder how the lead got there, one explanation it is ‘’used in textile dye pigments, but there are safer alternatives that can achieve the same results.’’(Joel Mertens).

Cottonbro/PEXELS.com

Another potential health damaging trend among women is buying and wearing transparent handbags, but one such transparent tote from Zaful was found to contain levels of phthalates that worried experts, whilst PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ were found in raincoats, used to make clothes waterproof and stain resistant. These chemicals are known by scientists to be endocrine disruptors and do not break down in the environment nor the body hence the name.

A new requirements for brands selling in California is Proposition 65, which is ‘’officially known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986’’ which ‘’requires the state to maintain and update a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.’’(OEHHA, n.d.). UK’s PrettyLittleThing went viral in 2019 after posting a warning that some of their clothing contain chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm(Capital FM, 2019) and they assured their customers they have nothing to worry about. Yes, I’m not worried at all, because I don’t shop from you!

A solution is to wear existing clothes more as per EcoAge’s advice(#30wears), shopping less, and if you do shop, try shopping in a more eco-conscious way: platforms like Immaculate Vegan offer a variety of brands with clothes, accessories, shoes for both men and women at great prices. Would shoppers consider changing their buying habits? Looking at the success of fast fashion, not too soon.

SOURCES:

Capital FM, 2019. PrettyLittleThing Cancer Warning Explained: What Is Proposition 65 And What It Means For UK Shoppers. Viewed [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://www.capitalfm.com/news/lifestyle/prettylittlething-cancer-uk-proposition-65/

Cowley, Matteis and Agro, 2021. Experts warn of high levels of chemicals in clothes by some fast-fashion retailers. Viewed [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-fast-fashion-chemicals-1.6193385

OEHHA, n.d. Proposition 65. Viewed [12/8/2021]. Available from: https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65

BRITNEY IS FREED AND ASTROWORLD DIED

Few things set the world on fire and united everyone for a cause quite like Black Lives Matter. It gave the movement a lot of fuel and visibility after the world saw how George Floyd was killed by an officer who knelt on his neck and then we found out about Breonna Taylor’s house raid which killed her.

Such an event was #FreeBritney. If you don’t know Britney Spears has spent her last 14 years in a conservatorship. A conservatorship is usually seen as a last resort for the elderly, people who have ailments like Dementia or Alzheimer’s, who cannot care for themselves, not being able to run basic daily tasks. Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are just two of the most famous cases among conservatorships.

Britney’s case caught on fire because of a podcast called Britney’s Gram, featured a voicemail from a paralegal who worked on her case who heard their latest episode, who told them that Britney refused to take her prescribed medication during rehearsals for the Domination tour, which her father then canceled. Her team set themselves up, and created companies off of Britney’s back, examples being TriStar Entertainment founded by Louise M Taylor, the alleged mastermind of the conservatorship and CrowdSurf, the company who managed Britney’s social media and to several other celebrities, like Backstreet Boys.

Fast forward to when her lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III resigned and she got the right to choose a lawyer to better represent her, former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart back in July 2021. Since then, it took ‘’Rosendaddy’’ as fans started to nickname him, around 5 more months to get the judge to terminate the conservatorship on 11/12/2021. It was a hugely celebrated day, but it really was thanks to her fans who reviewed and analyzed each court document and shared insight online, organized protests etc. That’s what one can accomplish with proper support. Fans updated the hashtag to #FreedBritney, who said on Instagram that it was her ‘’best day ever’’.

Another event that heated optic fibers around the world has been Astroworld Festival. It ran between 5-6 November, which is organized by rapper Travis Scott in Houston Texas. This year’s one has been a tad different, because the crowd – a staggering 50,000 – ‘’ surged toward a stage and were crushed against each other’’ (CNN, 2021). The death toll rose to 10, after a 9 year old child died in hospital.

Attendees reported to CNN that they ‘’started screaming for help … I felt so scared, like I was going to die.”(Emily Munguia) while Amper realized ‘’that people were dying’’. So, this wasn’t a regular festival, one that came after a long lockdown which WeForum called ‘’the largest psychological experiment ever’’. That pent up excitement to attend a live concert led to this.

People were seen in various clips posted online climbing the stage and screaming for help, that people are dying. It is clear that the event organisers have done an extremely poor job, considering the festival’s history, where in 2019 people were trampled in the rush of others to get into the festival, so it could have been avoided. Many suffered internal bleeding, spinal injuries and more.

The worse part for me has been finding out that Travis Scott teamed up with Better Help to offer a free month therapy for the attendees. A month free won’t solve trauma. Better Help is known to have sold data to 3rd parties like Facebook/Meta. To date, there are 177 lawsuits filed against Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation and others, with one rising to $2 billion, and another of $750 million. Travis Scott stayed in his mansion to avoid facing the public, presumably the advice of his legal team.

REFERENCES:

Barker and Gray, 2019. #FreeBritney special emergency episode. Viewed [11/24/2021]. Available from:  https://britneysinstagram.libsyn.com/75-freebritney     

Cheyenne Roundtree, 2021. Inside Travis Scott’s Strange Post-Astroworld Partnership With BetterHelp, the ‘Tinder of Psychotherapy’. Viewed [11/24/2021]. Available from: https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-travis-scotts-strange-partnership-with-betterhelp-the-tinder-of-psychotherapy

Elke Van Hoof, 2020. Lockdown is the world’s biggest psychological experiment – and we will pay the price. Viewed [11/24/2021]. Available from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/this-is-the-psychological-side-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-that-were-ignoring/

Hanna, Brown and Flores, 2021. At least 8 dead and many injured after crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, officials say. CNN. Viewed [11/24/2021]. Available from: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/06/us/houston-astroworld-festival/index.html

Hatfield, Mycah, 2021. 177 lawsuits filed two weeks after deadly Astroworld tragedy. ABC13.com. Viewed [11/24/2021]. Available from: https://abc13.com/astroworld-festival-travis-scott-houston-concert-deaths-live-nation/11255030/

FASHION JUST GOT LIGHTER

In my previous blog post I mentioned Stella McCartney. The brand is rated ‘’Good’’ on Goodonyou.eco’s directory, and despite the brand being known to use some eco friendly materials like organic cotton and regenerated cashmere, they still use polyester and nylon which is a major letdown for me and Goodonyou shares the sentiment. I noticed there was no ’’recycled polyester’’ on farfetch.com, when I searched for the brand’s clothing and accessories and they’re still marked as Positively Conscious. I have to say I don’t really understand how that works.

But fashion just got lighter, because a well known fashion brand – CHLOE –  the first luxury maison to become B-Corp certified last month, as reported by EcoWatch. There wasn’t much of press fuss about it, there was no noise on social media about it. They came a long way from being rated ’’Not good enough’’, after ’’18 months of collective work by our teams worldwide’’(Chloe 2021). Prada wants to follow on this path as well, and recently began using recycled nylon.

What is a B-corp certification? On their website, Chloe describes it as being ’’one of the most demanding certifications that evaluates brands’ social and environmental impact, with over 300 questions about governance, workers, communities and impact on the environment’’ and committed to updating their Sustainability section.

There are several B corp directories online which are very useful for every eco-happy wardrobe:

B corporation:

UK:

Latin America and Caribbean

Canada:

B corp directory Australia:

As many climate activists have shared on social media, if all these companies wanted to make changes they would today, but instead get lazy. Not Chloe’s creative director Gabriela Hearst, whose own brand was rated ’’Not good enough’’ yet she’s done her research, inspired by her life living on family inherited farm, where ’’Everything gets used, so that’s where I learned utilitarian skills for sustainability’’.

I don’t want perfect activists but I do want to see that my favorite activists and public figures respect their given word and seeing their commitment reflect in their own closets, outside red carpet events. Most fashion houses rated ’’Not good enough’’ or worse, ’’We avoid’’. Now, of course Goodonyou would need to grow a bigger team to be able to update all ratings, as some of them are a year or two old. Even so, I don’t want public figures to do nice speeches in public and in interviews, posting on social media about what happened with Rana Plaza, asking their followers if they know ’’who made your clothes?’’ then wearing H&M and Topshop, when you know that they are promoting sustainability, fair wages and decent working conditions for garment workers.

REFERENCES:

Anon, 2021. Stella McCartney. Goodonyou.eco. Viewed [11/21/2021]. Available from: https://directory.goodonyou.eco/brand/stella-mccartney

Anon, n.d. Chloé just achieved B Corp Certification. Chloe. Viewed [11/23/2021]. Available from: https://www.chloe.com/experience/en/news/chloe-just-achieved-b-corp-certification/

Fiona Sinclair Scott, 2021. ‘We’re not perfect but we’re freaking trying’: Chloé’s Gabriela Hearst on making fashion sustainable. CNN. Viewed [11/21/2021]. Available from: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/gabriela-hearst-sustainable-fashion/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0p9qTyJ29AmVIt29pUovciZEWmCTpfEgX18xzQxJYekXcUiAXudfnKkqI

Isabella Wolfe, 2018. How Ethical Is Stella McCartney? Goodonyou. Viewed [11/21/2021]. Available from: https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-stella-mccartney/?fbclid=IwAR2v9frxpe5JQHB6V8i6OgR_CrGHIsO6btJ_t5ywMA_mJfQmhICZGnTn7DA  

Paige Bennett, 2021. Chloé Is First Luxury Company to Become a B-Corp. EcoWatch. Viewed [11/21/2021]. Available from: https://www.ecowatch.com/b-corporations-clothes-chloe-2655324118.html?fbclid=IwAR0p9qTyJ29AmVIt29pUovciZEWmCTpfEgX18xzQxJYekXcUiAXudfnKkqI

THE FASHION INDUSTRY SHOULD BE A MAJOR DISRUPTOR

The fashion industry as we know it is a major polluter. ECOCULT reported that it is responsible for 4-8% of global emissions, and it is interesting to see a parallel with the natural gas and oil sectors who are responsible for 3.9%.

Couture is often not sustainable, far from it. Then, I had the inspiration to look at Goodonyou_app, a company who analyzes brands, looking at areas such as People, Planet and Animals. They rate brands from lowest: ’’We avoid’’, ’’Not good enough’’, ’’It’s a start’’, ’’Good ’’, to highest ’’Great ’’. Alexander McQueen’s rating is ’’It’s a Start’’ which is not good enough considering how big and popular the fashion house is, and surely they have to have the resources to accelerate their progress.

I am quite split between being upset over fashion houses not making progress fast enough despite resources they have available, that it is extremely difficult to only buy clothes from brands who are only rated ’’Good’’, or ’’Great’’, price being a factor to most citizens, but that clothing fabric composition often contains polyester even from designers who champion sustainability like Stella McCartney.

I really feel that the fashion industry should be a major disruptor, because as ECOCULT showed, fashion involves other industries in their processes: cotton, linen, silk(produced by silkworms but there is a vegan alternative called lotus silk), plastic (which is often not recycled), leather(when vegan leather can be used instead). The most difficult thing would be to change the perception of the public, to influence them to change their behaviour and buying decision-making process.

When I discovered sustainably made fashion it was like discovering a whole new world 😉. I became an affiliate partner with Immaculate Vegan. I thought I couldn’t do what a stylist does so ended up creating sustainable outfits and made friends with brands in the process. So, buying sustainably is possible but getting consumers on board is a whole other cake, just like getting people to wear their clothes more than once, except for Kate, she’s great at fashion repeats, she takes that #30wears seriously. Hats off to you humans, who wear their clothing(nudity not being an option in public).

Photo by FreeStocks.org for PEXELS

One simply can’t write a blog about fashion and not include the fabulosity which is Eco-Age, a consultancy agency, describing themselves as creative communicators and providing progressive sustainability solutions whose founder is Livia Firth. They started the challenge #30wears because fashion is oftentimes seasonal, based on trends. There’s an app too, and it wants you to ask yourself ’’will I wear it 30 times?’’ before you buy.

Back to polluters, the footwear and apparel together were reportedly responsible for 8% of global carbon equivalent emissions(Wicker, 2021). There are vegan leather options who look absolutely beautiful, you wouldn’t believe that they were made from Appleskin(one type of vegan leather made from apple waste). Other brands use recycled polyester, recycled and upcycled rubber. There are handbags made of Piñatex(textile made of waste leaf pineapple fibers). These products are fair priced, considering their natural leather counterparts. Just think of how often a woman changes her handbags, going after trends or because they wear off.

I have that hope in my heart that one day these vegan brands will be mainstream popular, as much as I hope that companies stop using so called virgin plastics in their clothing. Take the W’s Dynamic Tee as an example, sold by Houdini Sportwear, made of 100% polyester(plastic), and calling it recylable because you can send it back to them once it wears off.

They’ll be surprised that they’ll never run out of plastics to recycle, surely in my lifetime and theirs! Goodonyou_app showed in an entire post how brands are not putting in the effort to make changes and to show leadership, they reported brands getting a low score for environmental policies for example, only 11% of brands achieve the ’’Great’’ rating in that area. The fashion industry should be a major disruptor because they have what it takes, just not the motivation. It’s like with going to the gym, make yourself do it!

REFERENCES:

Alder Wicker, 2021. Fashion Is Not the 2nd Most Polluting Industry After Oil. But What Is It?. ECOCULT. Viewed [11/17/2021]. Available from: https://ecocult.com/now-know-fashion-5th-polluting-industry-equal-livestock/

Anon. n.d. 30 wears app. Viewed [11/17/2021]. Available from: https://30wears.app/

Anon. n.d. Immaculate Vegan. Viewed [11/17/2021]. Available from: https://immaculatevegan.com/

Houdini Sportwear, 2021. W’s Dynamic Tee. Viewed [11/17/2021]. Available from: https://houdinisportswear.com/en-eu/clothing/shirts-and-tops/ws-dynamic-tee-157524?color=157524907

Sophie Benson, 2021. Fashion Climate Inaction. Goodonyou. Viewed [11/15/2021]. Available from: https://goodonyou.eco/fashion-climate-inaction/

LIVING WITH DEPRESSION

I saw Ellie Jones’ posts on self-care and how she dealt with change, and it got me thinking ‘’hmm, I have depression and never wrote about it’’. Depression can happen to anyone, just like any other mental health ‘’disorders’’. Depression is, in my humble opinion, not a disorder, but a part of us like a piece of metal which was hit too many times by the blacksmith(who can be a woman too) and was tired of being strong and broke down at one point.

Like Ellie, I started recognizing I have bouts of not wanting to get out of bed, or getting out of the house at all, these bouts do not happen daily, when they do happen I have to show kindness to myself, and take another route to getting whatever done in that day. It happened today. It rained so I was triggered. It was cold too, and rain and cold combined obviously didn’t go well.

How is it for me to be living with depression? Well, it’s okay. It’s okay because I have had small accomplishments which make me feel proud and these make the week fly by like Ursula von der Leyen’s private jet (for more than 31 miles btw). It’s manageable. It feels great to have stuff to do, important stuff, they feel important and when I get stuff done, I go ‘’YESSSS!’’, booty shakes and all. You forgot booty shakes, Ellie! A PR blog simply has to list those, Ellie!

Photo by Gui Spinardi from Pexels

I arrange my day so that university work is done, so I can argue that lists are indeed useful, but you have to read them, ….every once in a while. Being kind to oneself is terribly important went going through something like depression, taking day by day, as judging oneself over things that you didn’t do in a day simply isn’t useful, it can only make you feel worse about yourself. I’m okay whatever I choose to do. For some, therapy as in talk therapy might be useful, but I already talk to myself so I don’t feel the need for that.

I’m quite the depression specialist after dealing with it since I was 18. You might be thinking, what causes depression? One can’t really pinpoint at a single cause, because we’re intricate humans, it’s rather a combination of factors like stress, bullying, unemployment, financial struggles, grief, medication, or simply genetics. It is like depression embodies a different personality every time or maybe it’s a different side to myself which requires attention? Food for thought there.

What I do for myself, other than taking small steps daily, is listening to music, getting work done because we need as much endorphins and serotonin as possible and getting stuff done means dopamine will make us feel bliss, increasing motivation and concentration. Basically what you need when feeling not so good. Exercising every morning, but random mornings. I cook food that I eat with my eyes, not just my mouth. Oh and keeping hydrated because we’re all 70% water, unless you’re not human. And if you aren’t human, why are you reading this blog?

THE BIG PROBLEM WITH CYBERSECURITY

For this week, I have three blog ideas, one of them being cybersecurity, as I noticed my Facebook and Instagram accounts were being broken into. Cybersecurity in the words of IT GOVERNANCE is ‘the application of technologies, processes and controls to protect systems, networks, programs, devices and data from cyber attacks. It aims to reduce the risk of cyber attacks and protect against the unauthorized exploitation of systems, networks and technologies’’.

Inside your Facebook account(the web address hasn’t changed) you can find several ways to cyber protect your account. Click on the arrow down next to the Notifications bell, go to Settings and Privacy – Settings – Security and Login. This is where you will see all the unauthorized logins to your account, in the ‘’Where You’re Logged In’’ section. This is where I saw logins from different Romanian counties on my account. One cannot be in multiple locations at once, digitally and physically, so I knew I had a big problem with cybersecurity. One enabled option doesn’t cover you.

Facebook login page

I was already using a password manager called LAST PASS, which also generates strong passwords, and you can customize them to contain numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase; I already had two factor authentication enabled but it clearly wasn’t enough. Once somebody hacked your account, they can see your backup codes for your account in Instagram, I know because I tried using several backup codes and didn’t work which means they were already used.

I could tell somebody was spying my accounts because my messages were opening up seemingly at random, when I knew I closed these conversation windows, also my Instagram theme changed from dark to light without me changing it. I had alerts enabled for unrecognized logins as well in my Facebook account but these were never received.

What you can do instead is enabling the Authentication app which is readily available as an option in the ‘’Two factor authentication’’ section. Google Authenticator app is easy to install from the Android Play Store or Apple Play Store and easy to use. As a result, I get random codes sent to me as early as 6am but I sleep well knowing they can’t access my account.

Another tip I have to give is using these strong passwords and changing them often. Strong passwords aren’t strong on their own, but use them anyway. ‘’S3Dg6&E4e4yd’’ is still better than ‘’hotcookie2’’ – which I never used for any account, just made it up for this blog, if you have it as a password do be ‘ashamed’ of yourself, and go change it. Make sure each password is different on each platform.

Your accounts could also be broken into as a result of ‘’phishing’’, which is when the attacker masks themselves as a website or institution you trust to do something like clicking on an instant message, email or fake social media page, online banking. ‘’The FBI has noted about a surge in pandemic-related phishing, tied to the growth of remote work’’(IBM, 2021). My old Myspace account was phished using a fake social media page which looked as normal and I’d have to unlock my account, change the password and it would happen again till I changed the email.

I did notice the difference between the safe and normal Facebook login page and the fake one(the colors are different and the design), where the fake page looked like a mobile version. I apologize for not screenshotting it to use here as an example but be super attentive of these changes in web pages. Hope you found my story useful and stay safe on social media!

REFERENCES:

Anon., n.d., What is cybersecurity? IBM. Viewed [11/9/2021]. Available from: https://www.ibm.com/topics/cybersecurity

Anon., n.d., What is cybersecurity? Definition and best practices. IT Governance UK. Viewed [11/9/2021]. Available from: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/what-is-cybersecurity

How dirty is your closet?

I decided to take the ‘’How dirty is your closet’’ quiz created by ThredUP, world’s largest online consignment and thrift store, not knowing what to expect. My result was ‘’You are a Green Queen’’ which I totally am! The only think missing from the picture was a crown icon, the least they could do. Do I really have to crown myself?

But in all seriousness, do we know how dirty our closets are? Do we know who made our clothes, for example, in what conditions, wages workers had? We have seen Boohoo who was dropped by its partners Next, Asos, Zalado after allegations of unsafe conditions and low pay came to light.  ‘’Financial Times found that labor exploitation in Leicester factories was rife, describing it as being like a “country within a country”(Forbes, 2020).

We don’t know how far spread modern slavery and forced labour really are. Boohoo is probably just the tip of the iceberg that the pandemic pulled to the surface and social media spread it like fire. Will youngsters change their buying habits? From what I see in the Public Relations and Communications Management classes, I’d say that yes, they are and will. As far as Boohoo is concerned, they face an investigation on the allegations so I hope justice to be served soon.

Forced labour is a topic that People Tree’s CEO and founder Safia Minney didn’t shy away from. She’s created a vimeo account and filmed several videos on different topics which one couldn’t believe we still have to confront in 2020. Bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, sexual harassment and intimidation are topics for other videos on her account.

These are some of the things that made me even more sensible to the environmental impact of my closet and since I don’t want my clothes to impact the rivers and oceans, I’ve found Coral Ball and Guppy Friend through stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray. These washing bags help with catching fibers and microplastics so that laundry will indeed be clean.

How dirty is your closet? Have you gotten your result? Let me know in the comments below, looking forward to building on the conversation because we learn from one another. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t a Green King or Queen but do something everyday that will help the environment.

References:

Andrew Busby, 2020, As Slavery Allegations Continue To Surround Boohoo, Why Fast Fashion Will Never Be The Same Again, Viewed on [12/9/2020], Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbusby/2020/07/07/as-slavery-allegations-continue-to-surround-boohoo-why-the-days-of-the-5-dress-are-well-and-truly-over/?sh=7150e91759e0

Babipur, 2020, The Cora Ball, Viewed on [12/9/2020], Available from:  https://www.babipur.co.uk/the-cora-ball.html

Guppyfriend, 2020, Guppyfriend washing bag, Viewed on [12/9/2020], Available from: https://en.guppyfriend.com/

Safia Minney, 2020, Forced labour, Viewed on 12/9/2020, Available from: https://vimeo.com/safiaminney