Friday, December 14, 2007

The Oprah Way

As I am leaving tomorrow to Finland for Christmas holidays and our intern is finishing her time with us, we decided to have a joint dinner with the team tonight. Thai food and intense debate works as a cure against the wind and cold. What did we end up talking about: Oprah Winfrey.

I am a big fan of her next to all those women. I mean Oprah should be running for president, not Barack Obama that she has now endorsed. Who cares about Obama anymore if you have a chance to see Oprah live? She is an amazing figure in the US - she is beyond criticism as one of the strongest symbols of the American Dream - coming from tough background, made her success w
ith hard work and now giving back to the society.

The Oprah factor is a good reminder also of the way we are as people. We can be interested in serious and light subjects at the same time - we can be triggered by an intense discussion on tansgender identities or by a couple interview with Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. Very few of us are either serious or shallow - we can be both. What I love in Oprah is that she manages to introduce difficult subjects into the living rooms through her media conglomerate. She is in not preaching to the converted, which is why she kicks ass.

My Oprah Day could consist of the two following things:

1. Finetuning a Christmas greeting for the staff from our team.
2. Having an article on youth culture published in Eurozine.

As I said, we can be both.

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