:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Sunday, 29 June 2003 ::

Dov'è la data di scadenza ?

Another sensational Italian blog post....and blog. Gotta have pallone of steel to call your blog 'I Love America' while you are living in the Bel Paese.



:: WB 5:41 am [link+] ::

Good Point

I’m sure it would save the NHS a fortune if we let retired postmen perform delicate operations.

But do you want to let someone from the Royal Mail loose on your daughter’s eyes?




:: WB 5:26 am [link+] ::

Go get 'em Tony

Anyone who will take on the Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation - for being just that: the BBC - is doing good work in my opinion.

The BBC is not flawless. Same goes for the ABC. It follows, then, that some parts of their work may ne flawless, but not all. What we are seeing in the UK is Tony Blair and Alaistair Campbell trying like heck to get the BBC to admit it is not flawless.

Goddam, but it is hard work.


:: WB 5:25 am [link+] ::

My new favorite blog

Perfect Italian insight. But not the craazy red kind.

...a few hundreds people - still as clueless as Repubblica about the WMD issue and motives for the war, still as indifferent to the plight of Iraqis under Saddam, still as devious in blaming those who finally toppled a fascist regime for the remainders of said fascist regime, still as blasé about the discovery of mass graves (many of which Repubblica did not even report about), still as stupid to think WMD had to be found before starting the war or they wouldn't be a serious threat enough to motivate it, still as careless about the fact they'd been used before, still as hypocrite in their readiness to accept UN inspections could go on for decades while now suddenly demanding WMD be found instantly, still as ignorant on the role played by Syria and Iran in aiding Saddam and fuelling the terrorist attacks in Iraq today, still as careful not to mention all the discoveries of WMD equipment in Iraqi scientists' backyards or mobile units - this bunch of irredeemable morons are suddenly deserving of more relevance than the Iraqis themselves, many of whom are begging the US to stay or else, they'll be screwed by the Iran-backed fundamentalists and Ba'athist loyalists.

Could not have put it better myself.

Could not.



:: WB 5:14 am [link+] ::

What the...?

The artificial lung lady should sue.

:: WB 5:09 am [link+] ::

Hysteria

Ken Parish posts 6 paragraphs on the topic of proposed changes to media ownership laws in Oz and they go like this:

1. The laws might change.

2. If they do it will be a devastating blow to the future of democracy in Oz.

3. If Packer K and Murdoch R die, who knows what will happen.

4. No one else has laws like this.

5. It is crazy and frightening because it is inevitable the media will be owned by one person or maybe two.

6. When you put it all together the ongoing campaign to 'gut' the ABC is important because if it succeeds at the same time as this media laws are changed, there will be no democracy in Oz.

He actually types these words:

"Does anyone seriously think that an Australia where citizens' ability to exercise democratic freedom of speech is totally controlled by 2 billionaires (or even worse by 2 foreign mega-corporations) is in the public interest? Australia would have ceased to be a liberal democracy in any meaningful sense."

What a patronising and loaded question.

Oz Citizens' ability to speak - and be spoken to - the democratic freedom of speech referred to - has never been and is not controlled by media or media owners. Media is a mere part of that speech. Oz citizens consume that media and engage in a discourse about it. And who owns the media is a freakin' irrelevance to me and my thoughts and just about everybody else. Some Canadian guy? Do not care. Some former Oz guy now American citizen? Could not give a stuff. Some Brit tabloider? Not interested. My eyes and ears are firmly on the content. End of story. If one bloke on the whole planet was the employer of every single journalist on the planet, there would still be a variety of views getting published. Know why? Cos there's a variety of consumers and they are not sheep and they wanna consume different stuff. And the guy is in the game to make money and that means selling the variety to the consumers who want it.

Ken must think Italy is not a functioning democracy, after all Berlusconi owns an awful of media. (You knew I was gonna here.)

Get. Far. Away.

It functions beautifully, and there is robust discourse going on which is more often contrary to Berlusconi's own views and that of his party, meaning it is contrary to its owners' (one of 'em, anyway - it's not like he's resonsible for signing cheques) views at the same time. Incredibile, eh? Who knew Italians could walk and talk and think for themselves at the same time when nearly all the media is wrapped up for them in one man's hands?

I did. Ken does not, though. On his reasoning he's gotta think: Poor little Italians. Got no democracy no more. Aw.

Democracy does not end if media ownership is concentrated in commercial hands (and before you start whining about Berlusconi's role in government, the media interests are owned by companies - so we are not in danger any time soon of finding a friggin' Saddam-like Rome, where govt is media is govt, so don't argue) and to imagine it does is absurd, I reckon.

Jeez. The hysteria, the false reasoning.

The main game is to make sure governments do not get there hands on majority media ownership. Cos they make the laws too. And that's a lousy mix. Cos they can legislate that government is the only media that is allowed to be consumed.

Commercial interests are not the problem. And opening up the media to competitive commercial interests is a great way to keep government permanently uncompetitive and therefore unlikely to get control of media.

And as for 'no one else has these laws' - the last refuge of the scoundrel without an argument. Change is not per se bad. Difference is not per se bad.

:: WB 7:56 pm [link+] ::

I am making a 90 minute mistake

I am watching the ABC version of "What the World Thinks of America".

O. Mo. Go.

It is like a visual version of Shirley Bassey singing "I love you hate you love hate you ..."

And on the Oz show there were two wogs.

One was Lebanese. Leader of some Islamic community shite who made a name for himself standing by a bunch of Lebbo rapists.

And the other Vietnamese. Former Young Australian of the Year who thinks nothing good can come of liberating Iraq.

It is a wonder the ABC did not find Australia's tiny Chilean community and wheel all three of them into the studio for an Allende-screed.

Could they have picked any two more likely antagonists for anything US-related?

Urgh.

And the results of this stupidity are predictably stupid. Brazilians apparently believe they are poor because America is rich. Typical Latin American Idiots.

Indonesians are appalled at the prospect of Americans being physically anywhere near them, but unable to run their archipelago without international loans, mostly from Americans.

Jordanians are appalled by Americans but not afraid of them. Well, they are Arabs. They do like to go on about their lack of fear. While getting plenty of loans to prop up their economy.

South Koreans are disgusted at their dependence on America for their very freedom. But happy to take the freedom. Hypocrites.

Canadians are delighted at the economic benefits of their big neighbour. But happier at home. G'uh. It is home.

Oz likes Americans but some percentage of the population bitches and moans about the lousy teevee. Ask us about that second-rate English programming clogging up the ABC lately and we will bitch about that too. G'uh. Plus we like ourselves and like our country so we do not want to be all American. Double g'uh.

Russians are not boosters for the States. Do I need to elaborate. It is Russia. Not the USSR. End of story.

The UK likes itself and believes itself to be more cultured than the French. Oh, and the Americans too. I love the English. Nothing rallys that people more than French. Yes, just French.

And the French think they are better all over. Than everyone. And they are not.

Americans and Israelis round out the countries inaccurately polled. Jeebus. What, no Poles? No Estonians? No Italians? No Spaniards? That is right. None of them. To be fair, the BBC stated their poll was a useless crock of inaccuracy. 90 freakin' minutes of it here in Oz.

I cannot use any of this information. It gets me precisely nowhere. It reinforces the objective truth that reaction to the US in a series of wierdo questions - one of them actually based around a from Saddam Hussein "American is reaping the bed of thorns it has made for itself with the reaping. Do you agree or Disagree?" or something. 98% of Frenchmen and Indonesians say "Hmmm. Yes. Yes I do think there is reaping of thorns by the Bush Jewish cabal."

There are idiots the world over.

I have seen too many this evening.

And no. I am not back blogging regularly.

But there is love.

:: WB 5:41 am [link+] ::

Silvio Berlusconi is soooo right about this

Fuck de Villepin. Fuck France and the French.

:: WB 4:52 am [link+] ::