housewives, movies, speech..oh my
oh so much to say right now about a couple things that I have read about in the paper. The first I know I can talk about cause it happened in North America so it is permissable for a white guy to have an opinion on it. The Desperate Housewives 'racial slur' that happened on the air. If you haven't heard about it, or really dont care what the stupidity that happens on stupid TV shows is about, it happenede cause one of the characters wanted to check the doctors credentials so that she knows they 'arent from a school in the Phillipines" which caused the American-Filipino community to get insulted. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hh-xT6-nJRyGbmWsLVU-57s57dkA It got so far that the Filipino community has demanded that this one particular line be deleted from future broadcasts of the show, which is now going to happen (http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=92739). Following this, I think that Canadians should now launch a campaign to have their stereotypical image of beer drinking, hockey playing, french speaking, polite individuals to be erased from all shows/movies/songs and media types around the world. I mean, we get looked down upon for these stereotypes. I can't believe the countless times that I have been asked here in Singapore where I am from and as soon as they hear I am Canadian the individual asks how many beers I am drinking a night here and if I am going to miss playing hockey all year round. Also that show Due South that aired many years ago definitely has to be taken off the air, video tapes/DVDs of it rounded up and burned and erased from societies memory forever. Talk about your horrible stereotypes of Canadians.
The other article that I am not too sure if I can mention or not, but I was reading in the Straits Times today how a lot of movies that are coming into Singapore are censored. I know, nothing new there considering that the papers and media are all owned and censored by the main political party. However, the paper is letting the people of Singapore know that it is the film distribution people abroad that are cutting the film trying to get a lower film rating to show the film at for more money. The article basically makes it sound like the film distributors are cheating the public from seeing the complete deal to make more money. To the articles credit, it does mention the things that were cut from the movies. The majority of the cuts came from excessive sex scenes, nudity, gore (Pan's Labyrinth had a mans face being beaten in edited) and mature subject matter (Simpsons movie had two cartoon police officers edited cause they were kissing). Shows that the Singaporean rating system is partly to blame, though wonder if the common Singaporean reader will pick that up. What I dont understand is that if the gov't movie rating board makes the rules as to how relaxed or strict their rating system is, and the movie industry then cuts and edits the movies to fit that rating system to get the rating that the movie people want, how is it the movie distribution agencies fault for cheating the public? If ever I have seen fantastic political 'spinning' of news articles, I have seen the kings here in Singapore in the Strait Times. I swear, those writers/editors could take a story of how a woman who was totally obeying the law got run over by a drunken minister and make it sound like it was the woman's fault but the minister will show pity to this poor misguided woman and only sue her for half the damages to his vehicle.
The other thing I am sure I cant mention but will have to say it just cause I saw this ad on the way up the escalator and I laughed out loud that I got two old aunties stepping away from me. It was an ad for Singtel, all red with a black outline of a persons head that looked like they were screaming. In white the caption read "exercise your right to freedom of Speech". I had to think to myself and laugh "what freedom of speech?" you need a licence to speak in public, if you say the wrong thing about the wrong individual (even if it is your own opinion) you could find youself being sued for thousands and forced into bankruptcy and if I even start a sentence that hints towards politics or Singapore culture people around me start to clench up and ready themselves to bite my head off. Had to think to myself, which caused another bout of laughter, the caption should read "exercise your right to freedom of speech...but first get gov't approval and permission".
The other article that I am not too sure if I can mention or not, but I was reading in the Straits Times today how a lot of movies that are coming into Singapore are censored. I know, nothing new there considering that the papers and media are all owned and censored by the main political party. However, the paper is letting the people of Singapore know that it is the film distribution people abroad that are cutting the film trying to get a lower film rating to show the film at for more money. The article basically makes it sound like the film distributors are cheating the public from seeing the complete deal to make more money. To the articles credit, it does mention the things that were cut from the movies. The majority of the cuts came from excessive sex scenes, nudity, gore (Pan's Labyrinth had a mans face being beaten in edited) and mature subject matter (Simpsons movie had two cartoon police officers edited cause they were kissing). Shows that the Singaporean rating system is partly to blame, though wonder if the common Singaporean reader will pick that up. What I dont understand is that if the gov't movie rating board makes the rules as to how relaxed or strict their rating system is, and the movie industry then cuts and edits the movies to fit that rating system to get the rating that the movie people want, how is it the movie distribution agencies fault for cheating the public? If ever I have seen fantastic political 'spinning' of news articles, I have seen the kings here in Singapore in the Strait Times. I swear, those writers/editors could take a story of how a woman who was totally obeying the law got run over by a drunken minister and make it sound like it was the woman's fault but the minister will show pity to this poor misguided woman and only sue her for half the damages to his vehicle.
The other thing I am sure I cant mention but will have to say it just cause I saw this ad on the way up the escalator and I laughed out loud that I got two old aunties stepping away from me. It was an ad for Singtel, all red with a black outline of a persons head that looked like they were screaming. In white the caption read "exercise your right to freedom of Speech". I had to think to myself and laugh "what freedom of speech?" you need a licence to speak in public, if you say the wrong thing about the wrong individual (even if it is your own opinion) you could find youself being sued for thousands and forced into bankruptcy and if I even start a sentence that hints towards politics or Singapore culture people around me start to clench up and ready themselves to bite my head off. Had to think to myself, which caused another bout of laughter, the caption should read "exercise your right to freedom of speech...but first get gov't approval and permission".
posted by Capt_Canuck at 7:27 AM
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