Saturday news
Today is the 2nd of April, 2022. Looking back at the news of the week, and yesterday’s visuals.
It’s snowing in Moscow. White softness of the weather is so unusual for April but celebrated in December for its purifying associations and renovating resolutions for the new coming year. I can't stop thinking that maybe it’s time to stop and start over, even Nature tries to show us that there’s still time to reconsider the decisions and correct the mistakes before it’s too late.
Everything seems off this week. The promising negotiations ended with nothing, because all the sides wanted to finish with a win. Unfortunately what it means isn’t clear. Something unacceptable yesterday seems like a good option today, maybe tomorrow it will look even perfect, but it won’t be an option any more. When the first negotiation round started, there were only a few thousands refugees and a few dozen dead civilians, only military facilities under attack, now one fifth of the Ukrainian population fled, thousands dead, 80% of industry destroyed, the major cities either in sage, under shelling or in ruins. I don’t start with military losses on both sides, the rising levels of hate, looters, and criminal crimes from both sides, that were in focus of the press this week.
“Oil and gas for rubles” turned out to be nothing more than extra euros for banks' commission on the exchange rate differences. And that was what it meant to be from the beginning, so all the hype and the panic and the poses of European leaders were for nothing. They continue to buy Russian oil and gas. Yes, right now, maybe not in the future. But what can we know about the future for sure? Nothing. In this particular world, the answer is “nothing”.
As the Russian ruble solidifies again, the war continues, the world feels that commodities and energy resources are falling into deficit, the West works on the new packs of sanctions against Russia. Someone doesn’t learn from their own mistakes or wants to earn more from other people's decisions. Meanwhile Russia lives almost as before. I can’t compare rising prices for goods and products with Italian, for example. I think in Russian the rate will be higher, but prices for gas and fuel are definitely higher in Europe. The most interesting part of it is that those started growing even before the conflict. For the last month they have doubled. So tell me, please, again about the sanctions and who will be hit the most.
Fashion markets enter into the stage of the early profit reports, as far as not every one announces those widely, the attention is attracted to a few - H&M and Inditex (Zara and Massimo Dutti). Both left the Russian market (5-6% of their sales) and announced first numbers after the decision was made.
H&M lost half of the predicted profit rates that caused immediate reaction on the fond market:
“H&M said closing its 185 stores—and halting online sales—in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, resulted in sales growth slowing to 6% in March from 18% in the first quarter ended Feb. 28. Stripping out the impact of those three countries, sales growth in March was 11%, which analysts said was disappointing.” (The Wall Street Journal)
But Zara - its main competitor - reported that nothing changed for them after they closed 509 shops. They are stick to the same numbers for the expected profit at the end of the year.
“Shares, which have lagged behind the wider European apparel retailing by nearly a third over the past year, are trading near the trough of March 2020. Missing analysts’ expectations on results this week — ebitda rose 60 per cent on the back of a 36 per increase in sales in the year to January — only added to the gloom” (Financial Times)
Though it’s still unclear how their business model that was reoriented on ecommerce just before the COVID will fight the growing costs for logistics and energy. Even with the optimised single global inventory that uses tracking technology within security tags to fulfil online orders from more than 6000 stores that remains tricky. The brand invested a lot into the American market and profited from it largely lately, so the loss of the Ukrainian and Russian markets according to the Inditex’s chief executive Óscar García Maceiras will be compensated by reorientation of the sales to other regions.
The major subject was union formations in the USA. First came the news about the Condé Nast workers form the union, because “prestige doesn’t pay the bills” and people are there overloaded with work or burned out.
On Tuesday, “in a letter to Condé managers signed by more than 350 employees requesting the company voluntarily recognize their union, which would organize under the NewsGuild of New York. The union would cover more than 500 editorial, production and video workers across 11 publications, including Bon Appétit, Architectural Digest and Allure. Those leading the effort say nearly 80 percent of eligible workers have indicated support”. (The Washington Post).
I still need to digest the information, because journalism isn’t the same work as in Amazon warehouses where the union is about to be organised if the vote is confirmed as legit for the formation after April 8 (another major news - that will be the first union in the area). When you go to the media you know the salary and you usually trade something for the privileges to work with particular brands or to have access to events and stuff, or to think about the perspective of the job. Yes, different people receive different salaries on the same positions at different titles, but that is usually connected to the personal approach to the staff member. And the quality of the work you can’t unify by counting working hours, because what one can do for a day another may finish in a couple of hours. So even if the salary rates are generally unfair on their base levels, the final results for equal pay might be unreachable by the nature of the work. The question about the numbers stays. Media houses of such scale can’t underpay people on the basic positions where they can’t trade their talents for more. There should be a line.
The last but not least news was the Oscars and Will Smith’s slap. The discussion lasted the whole week, which is nonsense, because no one discussed the Oscars films or anything else. No other news on cultural subjects could beat it. There were opinion exchanges where he was wrong or right, was it manifest on male violence, what the Academy should do, what people should think about it and so on. I want to share Russell Brand's point of view that is really really close to mine and wish you better news next week.
A digest from my Instagram for April 1st, 2022
6.00am zakharova_kaetano Good morning 🌞 How are you today? #haveagoodday here’s a #meditationmood #morninginspiration#morningmood video by @mermaid_danii #natureasinspiration#goodmorningpost
6.00pm zakharova_kaetano #finding a Mass Mysterieuse watches by @cartier on @timetidewatches amazing #artofwatches#beautyofwatches #contemporarywatches #artofwatchmaking#loveit
8.00pm zakharova_kaetano #nightmood #fashioneditorial#fashionportrait @dior psychedelic pop images by @ElizavetaPorodina 60s in #DiorMagazine 37. Inspired by Marc Bohan's 1961 'Slim Look', Styling: @VanessaReidOfficial Model: @HannahMotler #artofphotography #beautyoffashion #fashionasinspiration #colour #fridaymood
11.00pm zakharova_kaetano #goodnightandsweetdreams #nightmood i have no idea #EwaJuszkiewicz, Untitled (after Joseph Karl Stieler) , 2021 May. #artasinspiration #contemporaryart
#flowerodsession #surrealmood
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