blog

  • Sicilian Haiku – Migrant Shadows, by Freddie Omm

    Sicilian Haiku – Migrant Shadows, by Freddie Omm

    This September, Sicilian Haiku – Migrant Shadows will be published by Mad Bear Books. It’s the first part of a humanitarian project: all profits will go to migrant charities. A collection of poems, mostly haiku, that you can read separately or as one narrative, the book weaves through mythical and modern Sicily, with the timeless global…

  • feeding the future

    feeding the future

    As global population rises to over 10 billion in the coming decades, current agricultural practices will not cover our growing need for food. AgriTech and precision farming will enable us to feed the future, because they revolutionise food production in sustainable ways. In practical terms, precision farming is a range of high-tech software and hardware…

  • speechwriter’s notes II—maximising impact

    speechwriter’s notes II—maximising impact

    If the aim of a speech is to spread a message, the speech itself is just one component of the messaging. To maximise the impact of a leader’s speech, it needs to be embedded into the broader messaging strategy.

  • global branding in education

    global branding in education

    Interesting piece, Global Branding and the Celebrity University, by Sheldon Rothblatt. He focuses on universities, but some of the themes apply to schools and the broader educational context: For universities to thrive in the global economy, they must be world class university brands. A strong brand is required, not just for basic recognition and awareness, but…

  • speechwriter’s notes I: on voice and vision

    speechwriter’s notes I: on voice and vision

    A while back, I was writing a speech for a visionary leader. (To be clear, it wasn’t Martin Luther King… this was 2012!) It was the first time we’d worked together. I was having a hard time finding the right “voice” for the leader, one to suit both the topic and the leader’s character —…

  • churchillplein 6, the hague

    I started working at the Churchillplein in The Hague last week. Churchillplein 6 is home to the International Baccalaureate, the world’s leading non-profit educational organization, motivated by a mission to improve the world through education. It is next to the World Forum, where the Nuclear Security Summit will be hosted on March 24-25 2014. Other…

  • shoredays, yoredays

    Shoredays, yoredays – I see them as special days, days which stay with you all your life. They’re not fixed places in time nor in space – it’s like they’re at the edge of your existence, a kind of metaphorical beach between the sea and the land… freddie omm: shoredays, yoredays: seven haiku on a…

  • endings & beginnings

    For my New Year’s greeting this year I refer to this sonnet by my poetic alter ego, Freddie Omm: For those unable to decipher the handwriting, here’s the text: endings & beginnings (in a winter’s garden) * BEGIN with the word that comes first, like light from a twilit winter’s garden, when soft rainfalls drop…

  • Hitler’s Hot Jazz Band (Transcreation II)

    Although the Nazis claimed Jazz was “Negermusik” – devised by Jews to undermine Aryan culture – they did have a Hot Jazz band of their own, called Charlie and his Orchestra. It was part of the weirdest propaganda effort of the war, masterminded by Joseph Goebbels and aimed at subverting the morale of Allied civilians…

  • Consumed in Bytes (Big Data, Big Profits, Big Government)

    Reviewing Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think (by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier), Mark P. Mills, writing in the City Journal, takes a distinctly rosy view of the data revolution, a revolution powered by an estimated 1200 exabytes (1.2 zettabytes and growing) of stored data. In a week…

  • Karl Lagerfeld – “Auf jung machen macht alt…”

    Karl Lagerfeld, known for bon mots as well as fashion, claims “Auf jung machen macht alt” (Acting young makes you old). This may sound odd coming from a man addicted to his trademark, wrinkle-hiding sunglasses and high collars (He once said: I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like…

  • Kafka’s “Ungeziefer” in “The Metamorphosis”

    I first came across Kafka’s Metamorphosis when I saw Mel Brooks’ Producers on TV. Plotting to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop, the characters look for the worst musical plot in the world – a premise so dire it’ll get booed off stage and close on the first night, so the producers can run off with…

  • I’m Lovin’ It – Ich Liebe Es

    McDonald’s has been running  i’m lovin’ it, its first global campaign, since 2003. Although developed by a German agency (Heye & Partner, part of the global DDB network), Germany is one of a minority of countries where the line is translated – ich liebe es. (The French went for c’est tout ce que j’aime, and…

  • Lost in Translation – Transcreation – 1

    transcreation may seem a bullshitty type of word, a neologism we didn’t need. but is it? here’s a stab at some answers: no, it isn’t bullshit: it fuses the words translation and creation. this is a new discipline, especially geared to international advertising campaigns which are developed in one country and then adapted for others.…

  • Translator’s notes – “Waves” by Eduard von Keyserling

    Translator’s notes – “Waves” by Eduard von Keyserling

    I have started my translation of Eduard von Keyserling’s Wellen (Waves), a pioneering work of pre-World War I literary Impressionism which has never before been properly translated into English.   It doesn’t take long to run into the first hurdle. In the very first sentence a simple little word is untranslateable, word for word (as…