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Advertising placements in major media—including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cinema, billboards, and the Internet—in the Asia-Pacific region is seen dropping by 3.1 percent to nearly $104 billion this year from $107.3 billion in 2008.

According to a recent worldwide study by British media services organization Zenith Optimedia, global ad spend should drop to $444.8 billion this year, 9.9 percent less than last year’s $493.9 billion, dragged mainly by sluggish spending in developed markets.

Zenith Optimedia in its July report projected an ad spend decline of only 8.5 percent for the entire year, but downgraded its forecast in October due to weak first-half performance across all markets.

“However, this downgrade almost entirely relates to first-half activity Since then, improvements in economic confidence have been accompanied by positive signals from media owners that the downturn is bottoming out. We are still confident that the second half of the year will be much less painful for the ad market than the first half, and expect the market to hit bottom before the end of 2009,” the organization said. It related that the second half had started showing signs of recover3ç with declines already tapering off and ad spending starting to pick up again.

For 2010, the company saw the Asia-Pacific advertising market growing 3.3 percent to $107.4 billion vis-a-vis 2009 projections, much faster than the global average of only 0.5 percent.

By 2011, the market should start gaining steam, with Asia Pacific seen registering a growth of 6.5 percent to $114.5 billion. Globally, ad spend should increase by 4.3 percent to $465.9 billion. Developing markets were expected to grow 7.8 percent and 9.8 percent in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Developed markets, on the other hand, were seen suffering a decline of 2.9 percent next year before rebounding by 1.5 percent in 2011. In terms of advertising medium, ZenithOptimedia projected that only the Internet would register growth for the year, at a rate of 9.2 percent.

It should account for 14.9 percent of the global advertising pie.
Newspaper and magazine ad• expenditure, on the other hand, was forecast to decline steadily over the corning years, dropping 25 percent and 28 percent below their respective 2007 peaks by 2011.

MICHAEL JACKSON’S “THIS IS IT” is a must for all music lovers to watch. The movie, drawn from more than 100 hours of footage of MJ’s resold-out concerts that staged last July in London, is No. 1 world-behind-the-scenes rehearsals for 50 would have been wide.

Even non-MJ fanatics will be mesmerized. I got goose bumps during the celebrity premiere, with the audience applause reverberating after every number. I wept at the thought that MJ did not get a chance to show the world some thing that he worked for so painstakingly But through the film, at least, we got a sneak peek at the magic he was raring to unveil.

The King of Pop’s awesome performance here belies his age. (Was he really 50? Obviously, he still had so much to give. There was just no way he could have been sick. He was full of energy and joie de vivre, which he spread around so generously during rehearsals. That’s why it made me all the more sad that he died the way he did.)

“This Is It” is the next best thing to watching MJ live. It gives a glimpse of his gentle and child-like nature, in the way he jokes around with his crew and back-up dancers/musicians. One touching moment is when he tells his lady guitarist, “It’s your time to shine. [I] will be here for you.”

I have become an even bigger MJ fanatic after watching this movie. I love MJ with every beat of my heart and miss him with every breath that I take. That will always be that. And this will always be this. Michael is IT! No other entertainer comes close.

Have you noticed the recent calamities have brought out the worst in people—notably, people in government?

Just take a look at the long queues at government offices waiting for weeks for their calamity loans to be approved and how clients are treated quite shabbily If they so much as to complain, they should brace themselves for some tongue-lashing from ill-mannered government executives.

The public asks: Is anyone in government even listening? Well, we’ve got news for government workers: They exist to serve the public and the public has the right to expect quality service.

Understand

A report adapted from Guidelines for Effective Complaint Management published by the Office of the Ombudsman in New South Wales, Australia, has closely examined the psychology behind complaints from the transacting public. “Complaints arise when clients are dissatisfied with a program or service. To find the right solution, one needs to understand the nature of the client’s dissatisfaction. It is important to remember that government is accountable for each service transaction, including the design of the processes, the physical environment and the manner in which the service itself is rendered,”it says.

The report says dissatisfied clients often speak poorly of an organization and that the reputation and credibility of the government may suffer. Research shows that disgruntled clients will tell up to 20 acquaintances about an unresolved problem. On the other hand, clients whose problems are resolved quickly tend to be more loyal to and supportive of the organization than those who do not experience any problems,” it says.

System

The report advises government entities to set up an efficient complaint management system.

It says heads of government agencies may well ask themselves these questions: Do we provide information about how to complain and to whom complaints should be directed, including a phone number and an address? Have we published our standards of service and made them available so that the public knows what standards it may expect? Do our employees know what to do when they receive a complaint? Does the system allow employees to retrieve quickly information about a complaint?

Complaint management systems, says the report, should allow employees to handle complaints quickly, and should include established time limits for action. “These should also allow employees to keep clients informed of the progress of their complaints,” it adds.

The report gives this vety sound and commonsensical advice: Organizations should train all employees (including all line managers and key executives) who deal with complaints regularly on how to handle complaints. This may include instruction in negotiation and alternative dispute resolution skills, as well as skills in dealing with difficult people. One piece of advice to our government frontliner: Don’t take complaints personally.

JAHIUYA, YEMEN

More than half of this country’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction.
Even as drought kills off Yemen’s crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: Qat is the only way to make a profit.

Meanwhile, the water wells are running dry and deep cracks have begun opening in the parched earth. “They tell us it’s because the water table is sinking so fast,” said. Muhammad Hamoud Amer, a farmer who has lost two-thirds of his peach trees to drought in the past two years. “Every year we have to drill deeper and deeper to get water.”

Across Yemen, the underground water sources that sustain 24 nil- no effect. The state has little author hon people are running out and ity outside the capital, San a some areas could be depleted in just The lack of water is fueling tribal a few years It is a crisis that threat conflicts and insurgencies Those ens the very survival of this arid, conflicts, including an armed rebèl overpopulated countr)c and one. lion in the north and a separatist that could prove deadlier than th movement in the south, make i resurgence of al Qaida here more difficult to address the water

Water scarcity afflicts much of the Middle East, but Yemen’s poverty and lawlessness make the problem more serious and harder to address, experts say. Unlike some other countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Yemen lacks the money to invest heavily in desali-
nation plaits.

Making matters worse is the proliferation of qat trees, which have replaced other crops across much of Yemen, taking a growing share of water, accordinrto the World Bank. The government has struggled to limit drilling by qat farmers, but to no effect. The state has little authority outside the capital, San ‘a.

The lack of water is fueling tribal conflicts and insurgencies Those conflicts, including an armed rebèl lion in the north and a separatist movement in the south, make it more difficult to address the water crisis. Many areas are too dangerous for government engineers hydrologists to visit.