I think that you will all have seen the incredibly moving YouTube video by the organisation Invisible Children over the past couple of days. If not, you can find it here below and I do suggest you spend the next 27minutes watching it. The issue of child soldiers in Africa is absolutely horrifying and can easily leave you feeling entirely helpless. What the #KONY2012 project aims to do is raise awareness about the leader of the LDA (the Lord’s Resistance Army) which is a resistance movement in Uganda who, as part of their regime, abduct children from their homes and turn them into child soldiers, often forcing them to kill their own family and to continue to mutilate and murder. Horrifying is an understatement.

Not long after I shared the video on my Facebook page this morning, I was made aware of a few articles floating around criticising the #KONY2012 movement. The main criticisms are the amount of money that has been allocated directly the cause (only one third) and the lack of transparency around the organisations finances generally. There are also concerns about the financing of the Ugandan military, themselves not immune to criticism about how they operate.

This morning when I first watched this is had almost 1million views, at the point I am posting this it has over 21million views.

.

Some of the points criticising the movement have just been plain pathetic (sorry, but this one just irked me A LOT): Jezebel, Think Twice Before Donating To Kony12, others have been much more reasonable. If you would like to read some of these more reasonable and informed posts that talk about some of the very legitimate questions that any reasonable person should ask before committing to a charity then I suggest: We Got Trouble and Reflections on KONY12

Upon reading the actual arguments and concerns about #KONY2012 movement this is my response:

- Many organisations spend significant portions of their income on awareness campaigns. The sole purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, in their words to “make him famous” so that governments face ongoing pressure to support Ugandan authorities in their pursuit of him.
- The organisers have stated that this is a social media campaign based on Facebook – it will therefore naturally look different to other campaigns as will the way that it’s run. The organisers are not bureaucrats – they are passionate individuals.
- To the people who critices the movement for making out that Joseph Kony is uniquely evil – seriously?! The guy is amoral, whether he is the most amoral person who has ever lived hardly seems something worth arguing about.
- To the people who say the campaign focuses too heavily on emotion – it’s a social media campaign. Of course it does.

Yes, there are problems with the campaign, as the “Reflections on KONY2012″ post says, this campaign feeds into a narrative of white supremacy where as if “we” become aware then “we” can solve a problem that a poor, black nation can’t. Yes, the video doesn’t exhaust the facts about the situation in Uganda at this current time and yes, I would prefer that at least one of the action points at the end of the video wasn’t about donating money.

If you would like to read how the Invisible Children organisation have responded to some of these issues I suggest you read this statement: Critiques

But Joseph Kony is an horrendous war criminal and our “white” nations have the means to support poorer nations in their efforts to bring this man to justice. The goal of this campaign is to “MAKE KONY FAMOUS” and that seems like a pretty good goal to me.

At this time I would however like to urge you to make a donation to another charity who is working in war-torn nations, day in and out, without the support of a viral YouTube campaign.

What do you think? Are you supporting this movement or do you feel skeptical?

i have my iphone back! Oh the joy…I’ve been in instagram overload!

Here’s a peek at the last week in our family.

The other night as I was hanging out on twitter, I saw Mrs Woog tweet a photo of her new, very professional, office space and I replied with a photo of my very paper-laden, in-the-living-room, office space. Somehow the conversation ended with me agreeing to show all of you my very paper-laden office space and run a meme so that you can show me yours. That sounds like Mrs Woog, right? ;)

So here, I go…here’s my humble desk (which The Architect lovingly made for me actually – isn’t he clever!)

Do the two screens freak you out? When The Architect first set them up I was totally overwhelmed – it was far too intense!! Now? I don’t know how I ever got by with only one screen. I can have twitter in one window and then work in the other, or work in both and twitter on my phone – it’s heaven for a tech-addicted mama!!

 

I love being surrounded by photos and have only realised in writing this post just how surrounded I am. With a photo slider on the desk, actual photos on the desk as well as both walls – I’m just in little bubble of love!

The pic of the little boy below is not actually Bear, it’s my brother when he was little. The similarity is amazing! The photo of Bliss holding Bear just hours after he was born is one of my all-time favourites, the look of pride and love on her face melts my heart.

This is one of my fave wedding photos…

and the brilliant Manifesto for Mums from Kelly Exeter and The Smile Collective

And yes, this is a green room!

It’s all a mess on the wall and needs to be made beautiful, but I’m just happy to have such a happy little workspace.

Now I’ve show you mine, please don’t leave me hanging here. Link up below with pics of your own office space or if you don’t have the time, or a blog, then head over to my Facebook page and post a photo of it to my wall.

I don’t know about you, but my make up routine has been pretty much the same thing for the past 10 (or more) years. Same products, same range, same “buy at gift time” approach to the whole shebang. The whole idea of trying anything new was too hard, to costly and for “girls who cared about that stuff”.

That all changed last year when I was introduced to a fabulous new product called the Garnier Miracle BB Cream. I fell instantly in love. But the Garnier BB cream did more than just become my new staple product, it opened my eyes to the world of cosmetics out there.

Did you know that most women only try a new product when their existing product gets discontinued? I didn’t.

Learning that got me really wondering, what’s out there that I know nothing about but that could be totally amazing?? Maybe it’s not just “for girls who care about that stuff” but maybe it could be for me too. So I took the plunge and this is what I found…

Mineral Make-Up.

It had been whispering my name for a while but was a whole scary new world. How do you use it? What’s it for? What brush do you get? Investing in make up can be a bit exxy, and I didn’t want to splash a whole lot of cash one something that could be a disaster when I had my old faithfuls to fall back on.

What made me change my mind? Quite simply, our trip to KL in Jan. KL always brings out the adventurer in me when it comes to fashion and beauty products and this time I was determined to look into some mineral make up. Thanks to the duty free stall at KLIA, I came home with some Bobbi Brown mineral make up and brush…and I liked it. A lot.

Then I branched out further, trying the Bloom range, the Arbonne range and then BareMinerals.

I am in love.

LOVE. I tell you. (as you can possible tell from the picture of my bathroom cabinet above!)

Gone are the days of powdered matte make up for me. Gone! I love the feel of the brush, the lightness on the skin and the ease with which is can be applied.

This is possibly my favourite product: The BareMinerals Concealer and Brush

 

The Bare Minerals 20+ SPF concealer (above) is incredible. So easy to apply, and very subtle at the same time as effective. Totally love it! The best buy for Bare Minerals is one of their starter kits which RRPs for $89.95 but beautybay.com has it for $65.30 + Free postage. The concealer on it’s own is about $25 and the brush $20 so getting the kit is a GREAT deal as you receive 3 brushes, the concealer, a mineral veil, a face cover and two other shades of Bare Minerals. The kids come in Light, Medium and Dark – I have the Medium Kit and I love it.

 —

The Arbonne 10 piece brush set (below) is also stunning. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it feels and how much I love using it! I’m still figuring out all the different brushes but honestly, at $50, this is a totally worthwhile investment! The lovely Jane helped organise this for me and you can find her on Facebook.

 

So how does it work? I am wearing the mineral make up in three different days depending on how much time I have and what I am doing.

Option 1. Bare Minerals concealer + Bare Minerals All Over Face Over. This is what I do when I have no time and just need to look a bit brighter. It’s the quickest option.

Option 2. BB Cream base + A light mineral over either using the Bloom or Arbonne range. This is what I do most days, the BB cream gives a good base and also works as a primer while the mineral veil gives a nice finish.

Option 3. Primer + Arbonne Foundation + mineral viel. This one is for when I am going out somewhere special and want really good coverage.

To be honest, you wouldn’t really notice the difference to look at me – it’s more about how much “help” I feel I need and how much time I have on my hands.

 

Does your make up routine need an overhaul? Have you ventured into the world of mineral makeup?
Some of these items were sent to me for the purposes of review, the opinions stated are all my own.

Incoming search terms:

• klia bobbi brown prices
• mineral makeup
• mineral makeup kuala lumpur