These past few days there were a couple of interesting debates on the BBC about people who are offended by things they had seen or heard in comedy programs on British radio and TV, and in performances by stand up comedians. It all went back to the infamous Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross phone pranks affair, that led to Mr. Brand giving up his job at the BBC, and Mr. Ross being suspended for three months.
If you're unfamiliar with the case... Around this time last year on a radio show they phoned up Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers. They left several messages on his answering machine stating that they had had sex with his daughter. This of course did offend Mr. Sachs, but it wasn't until a week or so later when people who had heard or read about the prank, and not even heard it first-hand on the radio, started complaining, that the BBC saw themselves forced to take action. I don't remember exactly what Mr. Sachs said about the whole affair, but I do remember his words weren't quite as harsh as the words of those who complained.
This in turn reminded me of my entry about a Heineken commercial featuring a blind man and a drunk guide dog. Two of the comments were posted by people who weren't blind, but offended on behalf of blind people. Now, this commercial disappeared in less than a month, but that had nothing to do with offended blind people, but more with a referral to the Heineken website.
One of the most interesting views expressed these past few days, I think, was that it is OK to be offended by comedy if the jokes really affect you, but by Jove, don't be offended on anyone else's behalf. You don't know if the people affected really are offended, and your complaints are only annoying.
Now, I'm still thinking about it, but unless you're really being racist, or denying the Holocaust, I think there is very little a comedian shouldn't be able to say. I think it's wrong to use the N-word for instance, but if you use the stereotype about the size of a black man's babymaker you shouldn't let anyone who isn't black stop you.
The same with jokes about Jewish people, something that a lot of comedians won't even get into... I'm yet to meet the first Jew who doesn't laugh about funny jokes about the apparently humungus size of their noses. Just stay away from the realm of Holocaust jokes, and Holocaust denial, because there is nothing funny about that.
Now, if anyone at all is offended by anything I blog, please post a comment, and if it's at all reasonable, I'll post an apology. I'm not likely to change that particular entry but apologize I will. If however I have a feeling you're offended on someone else's behalf, someone I don't know is offended him- or herself, just piss off.
Last week I posted an entry about a suspected terrorist attack against our royal family. Right now, I must say I don't believe the Queen was a target at all. It was just someone who lost his job and his house, and felt the need to take a few people with him while committing suicide.
This has led to vivid discussions at home. My mom does believe it was a plot against the Queen, and thoroughly agrees with the man that he had a right to kill someone who lives in total comfort while he lost everything. What's more she completely agrees that if you don't feel like living anymore that you kill your partner and your kids before committing suicide, because if you don't see a future for yourself, what future does your family have?
I couldn't disagree more. I'm not against suicide. If you think you're no good to this world, then chances are that with that attitude you are doing the world no good, but do it alone and in your own time, will ya? To me these people are the worst terrorists around. Al Qaeda, no matter how depraved, think they are doing the world some good, while people like Karst Tates kill because they feel a need to drag others along on their path to self destruction.
As with people who slay their families, I am always reminded of that hideous Magda Goebbels, who thought that with the fall of Nazism the world would end. Lots of kids are raised by one parent or other relatives and turn out alright. It's a way of playing God that just disgusts me.
I never thought it would come this far, but here's an entry about the Fritzl case. The trial starts next week, and these past few days, I have been unpleasantly surprised by three TV programs about the case, in full detail, and in the coming days and weeks even more of these shows are to be expected. Now, I am someone who immediately changes channels in such cases, and I did so on these three occasions, but I was left thinking about the very nature of these shows.
Isn't it weird that if anything this bad happens, that the public gets to know all those details? It isn't necessary for the success of the trial, and nobody can really imagine what it was like for the victims anyway. The only real use I can think of for people even wanting to know all that stuff, is that they want to use it as a story to use in playing with themselves.
The only important information that the public needs to learn about, is that a woman has been held by her own father for 24 years, and that it could happen in Western Europe, which we Europeans do consider the most civilised part of the world. This should be enough to get people to think about how we can prevent this happening in the future. Everything else, even the fact that she had three children living with her in the cellar is of no consequence to our lives, and we don't need to know. Does anyone agree, that the authorities should withold such information in the future?
There is just no way around it, even in the Dutch sports media, David Beckham is in LA. It makes me sick. Not necessarily the man himself, after all, he is a gifted player, but the stupid short term marketing trick that got him playing in the US in the first place. Soccer is slowly but steadily growing in the US, and this could potentially be the worst possible news for Major League Soccer.
Sure, he drew 66,000 people to Giants Stadium in New Jersey, and fans all over America go to see games just because he is there, which generates money for a league that has never in its history been profitable. But will it last? I'm not so sure. Remember the last time a foreign star came salvaging the game of soccer in North America? In 1975 the Warner Bros. owned New York Cosmos, then a struggling team playing on a field that was painted green to give the illusion that grass was growing there, signed Brazilian legend Pele to a salary that even the best in Major League Baseball didn't make. Just the value of his contract was enough of a reason for Americans to go see him play.
In fact, until 1980, even after Pele's retirement, games attracted crowds that would have made European clubs jealous. But there was never a new player worthy of being called 'the next Pele'. Many of the stars of the European game have come to the NASL in those days, but they just saw it as a chance to earn some extra cash in the European close season. American fans may not have understood the game, but they couldn't be fooled by half-hearted efforts by players who were supposed to be world stars.
Who is to say, that a similar thing won't happen to Major League Soccer? Beckham is such a hype already, that when he retires, Major League Soccer will find it extremely difficult to find someone to replace him. Good quality Americans are usually perfectly capable of knowing MLS for what it is, and will prefer to try and make a name for themselves in Europe or Latin America, and foreign stars aren't necessarily attracted by the idea of playing in a country where their sport is merely a footnote on the sports page. If the disappointed fans decide to stay away, the league may very well fold in just a few years.
I do care about the fate of soccer in America. In fact I'm a dedicated follower of the MLS, as well as the USL. If it all works out, Major League Soccer may one day become the greatest thing soccer has ever seen, but it doesn't help if the powers that be try to help it along by blindly signing a big name player, not knowing what comes next.
Beckham isn't the only problem, by the way. Next season the league will for the first time ever consist of 14 teams, with the return of the San Jose Earthquakes, and even that is a stupid move in my view. With all the good players moving to Europe anyway (Adu, Altidore, Szetela, they're all on their way), this will only dilute the quality of the teams, which may very well alienate real fans.
The way I see it, MLS should downsize to a number of teams that warrants the best possible quality of soccer, they shouldn't try to sign players just to generate a hype, and for the time being they shouldn't try to attract fans who normally wouldn't even come to soccer. Just make sure that those who do love soccer keep coming to the games, or watch it on TV. More kids play soccer in the US, than in any other country, and one day there will be world class players, who will bring the international successes that the US Soccer Federation are so desperate for, and then enough fans will embrace the game to take MLS to the next level. But please, MLS, be patient.
With nothing on TV on Sunday night, I suddenly awoke in my chair looking at a documentary on the death penalty in Texas, and hey, I've just written an entry on my humble opinion about illegal immigrants in the US, so why not share my opinion on the death penalty as well. I am of course against it. No Bible can ever convince me of the fact that there are crimes that require such punishments as stoning or other forms of bloodshed. Don't ever think by the way that the Holy Book of Islam is such a violent natured book, the Holy Bible is exactly the same.
Yet, there was an interesting remark by someone high up the hierarchy of the Texas Dept. of Corrections, who is also against the death penalty. He said he had resigned to the fact that Texas executes prisoners, but that the people as well as the politicians are growing complacent because of the sterile nature of executions. You know, lethal injections which are considered humane, simply because no one ever lived to tell what it was like. He suggested that we should go back to public hangings. That should get judges and juries thinking, whether a crime someone committed was really grave enough to put him/her to death in such a cruel manner, without any dignity.
If there is really no way to end this situation, that several American states execute death sentences, I do feel this could indeed be a way to get people thinking, and judges to be at least more generous when it comes to live, or as Dante put it in Purgatory: "From Peter these I hold, of him instructed that I err rather in opening, than in keeping fast". By that meaning that it's better to be too lenient than too strict, when it comes to life and death decisions.
One little detail struck me as funny, by the way. Did you know that if you are put to death by the State of Texas, that in your death certificate, the cause of death is stated as "homocide"? At least in words, they seem to know what they're doing to people.
On another blog I read an entry on illegal immigrants busting up the environment on the US-Mexican border, on CNN the subject of illegal immigrants comes up all the time, Jon Stewart's Daily Show has tackled the issue on several occasion, and now I'm going to do what most Dutch people really hate: as a foreigner I'm going to add my opinion to the discussion.
In my opinion, the anti immigration lobby is taking on the wrong immigrants. I think America, and of course also Europe by the way, should count itself blessed that there are people from poor countries who want to work hard in jobs we sometimes look down upon, or that are just downright back breaking. What America should do, is just draft some very clear rules, that state exactly what is expected of these immigrants, and anyone who can live up to these rules should be allowed to come to America, without any bureaucracy, to work hard, and reap benefits from their work, and be given a chance to get their children a good education, so they can climb the social ladder in America, or use their knowledge to help develop the economies of their countries of origin. People who can't conform simply know that they are going to be sent back.
The immigrants the US should really be fighting off, are us Europeans, Australians, etc., who come to the States with six years of college behind us, and are taking up the higher positions, that could have been filled with Americans. If America got its act together when it comes to the quality of schooling, etc., there would be more than enough Americans to fill all the executive positions, as well as all the office cubicles that American corporations have. If any position that would otherwise be filled by trailer trash or disadvantaged urbanites comes available, because Uncle Sam suddenly schooled those children properly, those places could be filled by an immigrant who is more than happy to start at the bottom.
No, I haven't returned to MySpace. This acquaintance goes back eleven years.
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Famous Sandusky, Ohio, residents: probably a few hockey players, but no one worth a second glance
* Soraya
