Her - Man falls in love with his Operating System

On Wednesday I went to see "her" on the cinema. I was eager to see this movie because I really enjoyed another movie of the same filmaker, Spike Jonze, "Being John Malkovich", which I found so weardly funny and thus very unique. Then I expected a lot from this new movie, "Her", and I was not disappointed!

"Her" is a very touching, surprising yet believable love story about a man with his computer program ("Samantha"), played by the sensual voice of Scarlett Johanson.

As the "relationship" between Theodore Twombly and Samantha is growing, I found myself forgetting that "Samantha'(Scarlett Johanson) is not human, that she is an operating system. I really had to remind me that, but the acting is so good that it really makes you believe in this odd love story.

But for me the main subject of the movie was not love or even a debate about artificial intelligence. It was about loneliness and melancholy. About the kind of craziness that can appear after a hard breakup. In this movie the main character -played by Joaquin Phoenix- loses touch with reality and you can see that it is sorrow and loneliness that makes him first fall for this operating system.

In addition to this interesting psychologic issue, there's a bit of nice fantasy that reminded me of the crazy "Being John Malkovitch" movie... Spike Jonze shows us there is a thin line between human emotions and an operating system made to evolve, learning from experience and adapting to our needs and personnality, and puts the doubt in our mind about the real nature of "Samantha". How far can we control this intelligent and continuously growing system?

I strongly recommend you this movie, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it ;) !

"Her" official Trailer

P.S: I realize this is a bit off topic for african news, but I'm sure you'll forgive me ;)

Semlex presentation : short version

Africa's Youth, new Target for Cigarettes Dealers

Times are tough for cigarettes dealers in Europe. Prevention and prohibitions make it harder and harder for them to attract new smokers. Awareness is growing, we are more aware than ever about the dangers of smoking. Nevertheless there are still a great deal of smokers left -it is still seen as cool when you begin to smoke young, to show everyone you are grown up and show off in front of your friends-, but it seems it is not enough for cigarettes dealers, who have already found a new market to conquer: Africa. More precisely, Africa's Youth.


Africa's teenagers and children, are indeed not very protected by law in most african countries. For example, in Kenya there are no prohibition against advertising for smoking and packs of cigarettes have not come to the crazy prices reached in Europe. 

Agressive marketing

In addition to the regular adverts found in the streets, cigarettes dealers use many strategies to promote tobacco in Africa.

Cigarettes dealers have come further by creating few years ago "kiddie packs", who contain less cigarettes and are thus cheaper and affordable for younger smokers: 

Kiddie packs 

It is in fact interesting to know that Marlboro and other tobacco brands tried to distribute these "kiddie packs" in Europe, but some countries like Poland have hopefully banned packs that contain less than 20 cigarettes.

In Guinea, you can find beautiful "cigarette girls" who work to appeal new customers in nightclubs and other public spaces.

Young people, a weak target

Medical researchs showed that young people are more enclined to become addicted, because their bodies need less cigarettes than adults to develop an addiction.
The other problem is that teenagers and children are easely influenced by adverts, and since they are not forbidden in many african countries (Kenya, Senegal), young people are surrouded by them.

More pictures of cigarettes'ads in Africa here

Also, in countries where children suffer from malnutrition, some use cigarettes to quiet hunger pain.

South Africa, an example

South Africa is an example of country where the governement has been more involved to protect people from cigarettes addiction. Indeed it is forbidden to smoke in public areas, and on packs are written the "Smoking Kills" warnings seen on every single pack in Europe. 

But still there is a lot to achieve in some countries like Kenya for organisations such as the "International Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids" to prevent children from smoking. 
You can check out their campaign, wich I find very well done, just here! 

Thanks for reading, don't hesitate to share this!



Main Source: Ravi JaiPaul, "Tabac: Les industriels à l'assaut de la jeunesse africaine", in Think Africa Press, 7th February 2014.
Other interesting articles: / in Scope, "Menthol sweetens the poison, attracks more young smokers". /In Mail Online: "Marlboro accused of encouraging teenagers to smoke (...)".
Additinal Web Sources: "Protection of Minors",  Trinket&Trash