Dubai, October 22, 2001: Internationally renowned Indian designer Pallavi Jaikishen lent her support to the BurJuman Safe & Sound programme, by auctioning two of her ensembles in aid of breast cancer awareness at a fashion show yesterday. The amounts raised will go the Al Mosanada Cancer Foundation. The show, held at the Taj Palace Dubai Hotel, also featured the latest designs of fellow Indian fashion experts Bhairavi Jaikishen and Anamika Khanna.
Abu Dhabi Marina Mall October Fun Festival Concludes
Abu Dhabi, October 22, 2001: Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi's premier shopping destination, played host to nine days of family entertainment, as retailers around the mall joined forces to provide shoppers with a host of activities to appeal to all ages.The focus of the October Fun Festival was on "infotainment", and activities were designed to combine cultural understanding and fun. "We wanted to put on a programme that would appeal to adults and children alike," said Mr. Wayne Scherger, General Manager, Marina Mall.
"We were keen to show that Marina Mall is not just a place for high-quality shopping, but has a part to play in Abu Dhabi society as well. And the response has been fantastic - the October Fun Festival has resulted in increased traffic into the mall and throughout the retail and food outlets, and we have had excellent feedback from existing customers as well as new ones."
There was a regular schedule of events throughout the week, with every event connected to the retailers in the mall. One of the most popular features was the food tasting, courtesy of the sit down restaurants in the mall, where visitors had a chance to sample the wide varieties of fare on offer.
Women were well catered for, with four fashion shows taking place. Themes included Shades of Sand, where the models wore clothes from the spectrum of desert colours such as khaki and beige, and Shades of Marina Mall, with the mall's corporate blue colour playing a prominent role. There were also Make-up Marathons, where ladies took the chance to check out the latest cosmetics, and take advice from professional make-up consultants.
Daily events included magic shows, clowns, jugglers, and face painters, which all proved a real hit with the younger visitors. During the evening, the emphasis shifted to culture, with a troupe of highly skilled dancers performing the traditional 'Saiyidhi' dance to the accompaniment of an Arabic band. The dancers, performed a number of routines, including the 'fishing' and 'tabqa' dances.
Julie Rae, marketing manager, Marina Mall, said: "All our activities proved to be a tremendous success, with children enjoying the cultural entertainment as much as the face-painting and clowns".
"The special deals and discounts proved a very worthwhile exercise for our retailers as well as special discounts and offers were announced to customers throughout the evenings. And mall awareness was also raised through the Treasure Hunt, where visitors had to spot glass treasures with the Marina Mall logo in shop windows in order to enter to win one of the five prizes of Dhs 1,000 of vouchers every day"."For the rest of the shoppers, they were able to enjoy some of the fiesta atmosphere thanks to DJ Fadi from Emirates 1 FM. He was spinning the decks in the mall, and really kept the crowds tapping their toes."
Greater Role of Women Media Persons stressed
keralamonitor.com
New Delhi: The Minister of Information & Broadcasting Smt. Sushma Swaraj urged the women mediapersons to introspect and work in the direction of achieving empowerment for women, especially in the rural areas and small towns. She said, there is no work, which can be called male-dominated and male-monopolist area in the field of journalism.
Presiding over a seminar on "Role of Women Mediapersons in Women Empowerment", organized by the Press Information Bureau, here today, Smt. Swaraj said that though the number of women mediapersons have increased enormously over the last couple of days, but this increase has to percolate to the vernacular media and rural and semi-urban areas. The imbalance needs to be corrected. The Information and Broadcasting Minister said that television is a very powerful media and its capacity to change the mindset of the people must be utilized in achieving increased empowerment for women. The women inside the women mediapersons should overpower the mediaperson to change the mindset, she said.
Smt. Nalini Singh said that there is need of a positive discrimination in favour of women journalists to provide than access to the high yielding resources of power to reach the top. Smt. Kalyani Shankar regretted that no progress is made in providing reservation for women in Parliament and wanted that political parties should allot more seats to women.
Smt. Tara Sinha said the women must equip themselves so that they can compete the best in the field. Smt. Ranjan Kacker regretted that the newspapers are obsessed with the political and sensational news items rather than women and social issues.
Smt. Arati Jerath said that a large number of women journalists are now covering the political beats creating a sort of pressure group, which the politicians cannot ignore. Smt. Manorama Dewan said that there has been a marked change in the attitudes of society towards the working women, particularly those in journalism but certain distortions in projection of women in the media itself have to be corrected. In this connection, she mentioned some serials on electronic channels, which were not projecting women in proper light.Smt. Neerja Chaudhary said TV has played a great role in spreading social messages and its power needs to be utilized in the direction of women empowerment. In her address the Principal Information Officer, Smt. N. J. Krishna said that as mediapersons, women have a great asset in their hand, which they must utilize to extend the benefit of empowerment to those who are still deprived of their rights. She said, they can play a great role to change the perception and mindsets. No amount of reservation can help, only you can help to sensitize, she urged the mediapersons.
