MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Exceptional films compete CAMPUS • Birla Public School for Oscars teachers attend two-day workshop P | 4 P | 8-9 MARKETPLACE • McDonald’s offers chance to watch World Cup match in Brazil The US First Lady celebrates her P | 5 50th birthday FASHION on January 17. • H&M lines up to Here are a few compete in booming facts in the face sportswear market of persistent P | 7 fictions. HEALTH • Fad diets can work, but experts find no magic slimming bullet P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • Smartphones replace keys in smart door locks P | 12 Learn Arabic FIVE MYTHS ABOUT • Learn commonly used Arabic words and their meanings MICHELLE OBAMA P | 13 2 PLUS | MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2014 COVER STORY By Robin Givhan company’s stock 16 percent by wearing its clothes. Yet other first ladies have had more personal ichelle Obama entered the White relationships with designers — and opened the House as a chimera. To some, she White House doors to them in a way Obama has was emblematic of fully realised not. Jacqueline Kennedy designated Oleg Cassini African-American womanhood her official dressmaker, and the style they created and an incomparable fashion icon. inspired generations of women and designers. Lady MTo others, she was the voice of racial grievance, Bird Johnson in 1968 hosted a formal fashion show the nanny state and Seventh Avenue vanity. She that involved models parading through the State has proved herself to be neither vengeful nor the Dining Room as the wives of visiting governors patron saint of activist feminism. Yet mispercep- looked on. Nancy Reagan had let’s-meet-for-lunch tions linger. So as she celebrates her 50th birthday friendships with several designers, and she received on January 17, here are a few facts in the face of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s life- persistent fictions. time achievement award — which she accepted in person. In 2005, Laura Bush’s presence at New 1. Michelle Obama is the most fashion- York’s Fashion Week rippled through the industry friendly First Lady. like the Second Coming. Obama has been a pronounced and polished Obama has celebrated creativity through the advocate for American style, seamlessly moving Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Awards, but from custom-made evening gowns to mass-market she has maintained distance from the industry. fare. She has made the fashion industry swoon with Jason Wu, designer of her two inaugural gowns, her willingness to embrace the work of some of didn’t meet her until the first was installed in the its most eccentric players, such as Thom Browne, Smithsonian a year after she wore it. She doesn’t and its lesser-known talents, such as Isabel Toledo attend fashion industry events. When Seventh and Duro Olowu. One 2010 study in the Harvard Avenue honoured her in 2009, she sent her thanks Business Review estimated she could boost a via video message. WHO REALLY IS MICHELLE OBAMA? PLUS | MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2014 3 2. She is a food tyrant of Bloombergian intolerance. The first lady is renowned for her Let’s Move campaign to fight childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise. One of her first projects upon settling into the East Wing was sowing the White House Kitchen Garden. She even gave out dried fruit on Halloween — President Barack Obama joked that it would get the White House egged. Her focus on the nation’s eating hab- its has led to complaints that she wants to deprive Americans of dessert. But Obama repeatedly expresses her belief in moderation, talks about her affection for French fries and unapologetically went in for a 1,700-calorie splurge at Shake Shack in 2011. As for sweets, the first family’s Thanksgiving last year featured nine types of pie: as righteous a display of dessert democracy as one can get. far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than Departmentt estimates that by aagege 46, ever before,” she wrote in 1985. “I have almost 70 percentpercent of black men and 3. Her legacy will be Let’s Move or found that at Princeton no matter how women have,e, at some point, been mar-mar- Joining Forces. liberal and open-minded some of my ried. Accordingding to the last census, 45 Fighting childhood obesity and sup- White professors and classmates try percent of blackblack children are raised in porting military families have been to be toward me, I sometimes feel like two-parent households.households. More thanthan oneone-- the first lady’s most formal and most a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t third of employedployed black women work in publicised campaigns. But the guid- belong. Regardless of the circumstances professionall fields.fields. ing principle of her tenure has been a under which I interact with Whites at But popularlar culture hasn’t normal-normal- belief in youth mentoring and “paying Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, ized women like Obama. ColumbiaColumbia law it forward.” I will always be Black first and a stu- professor PatriciaPatricia Williams laments: She introduced mentoring as dent second.” “The jurisprudenceprudence of the entire an institutional commitment at a After she declined invitations to 20th centuryry was about black 2009 lunchtime meeting, pairing 13 return for special events and skipped people tryingng to getget into Washington area high school girls with her 25-year reunion with a reference to school.” Popularular culture, top female White House staff members. a scheduling conflict, speculation about she said, rendersrenders thethe A similar programme for boys came her animosity intensified. Princeton results of thathat strivingstriving later. In addition to getting personal alumni — I’m one — celebrate reun- “invisible.” time with the first lady, the students ions with ferocity. Skipping one’s 25th? Women likelike ObamaObama sat down with Supreme Court justices, That’s heresy. were thrivingving longlong met with a curator from the African- Still, there’s no active vitriol. The before the 20082008 elelec-ec- American history museum and sam- conclusions of her thesis are nuanced tion, but a lotot of peoplepeople pled a state dinner menu while learning and measured. More than a reprimand hadn’t noticed.ced. about diplomacy. of a school struggling with diversity, Givhan coveredcovered The same ethos has guided how they explain her determination to stay Michelle Obamaama for The Obama has positioned herself abroad. connected to the black community. Washington PostPost in 20092009 At a London school, she described see- Obama also has not been wholly dis- and 2010. ing herself in the faces of the students, engaged from Princeton. She accepted WP-BloombergP-Bloomberg who were overwhelmingly from disad- a position on the sociology department’s vantaged backgrounds. The centerpiece advisory board in 2005, though the of a Mexico City trip was a speech at a presidential campaign soon kept her Jesuit university, where she said: “We from going to meetings. In 2012, she did have seen time and again that poten- a fundraiser in the town of Princeton tial can be found in some of the most that included university students, unlikely places. My husband and I are alumni and faculty. living proof of that.” Obama has reserved most of her White House arts workshops, visits campus speaking for historically black to underserved schools and the inclu- colleges and universities, and schools sion of young people at state events are serving disadvantaged students or mili- Fighting childhood now standard practice and may be her tary families. She hasn’t delivered an obesity and supporting most lasting legacy. address at her alma mater, but she has upheld its informal motto: “Princeton military families have 4. She hates Princeton. in the nation’s service and in the service During the 2008 presidential of all nations.” been the first lady’s campaign, Obama’s senior thesis, most formal and most “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the 5. She represents an unusual suc- Black Community,” was exhumed from cess story. publicised campaigns. the archives of the university and fueled Her story — as a successful wife, the perception that she detested it. “My mother and professional who happens experiences at Princeton have made me to be black — is not unique. The Labor 4 PLUS | MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2014 CAMPUS ACS Doha marks International Day CS Doha International School celebrated International Day, Aan opportunity to showcase the cultural diversity among its students and wider school community. The International Day Fair took place on Thursday at the school’s premises, with 33 countries repre- sented. Students visited different tables and ‘travelled’ with their ‘passports’; as they toured through each country, learning about special traditions and sampling traditional food. “I would like to thank our PSO Country Representative Group (CRG) and all volunteer parents for their support; the day was a great success thanks to their efforts and devo- tion” commented Diane Hren, Head of School. “More than 100 parents One of the school’s core values is to championing the understanding of all to bridge the gap between cultures and contributed their time and expertise enrich the international experience by cultures. Every year, the school cel- languages and to develop hearts and to create an engaging experience for engaging the community, bringing a ebrates a culture awareness week with minds that respect cultural differences. students.” sense of commonality to diversity and special events scheduled over five days The Peninsula Birla Public School teachers attend two-day workshop he primary responsibil- There is a need for them to under- ity of a teacher is towards stand the world to help them avoid “Tthe student. It is not that past mistakes and move in productive the teachers teach the students in directions.