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Christoph Zed

Venezuela bans Family Guy cartoon - 2 views

  • Authorities in Venezuela say they will punish TV stations if they continue to broadcast episodes of cult US animation Family Guy.
    • xinning ji
       
      what I think is that authorities are those who work for the government or politics. so the issue is based on the decision of the government rather than general publics. therefore, the interactive communication between different cultures are limited by the politics.
  • the show should be banned because it promotes the use of marijuana
    • Andrew Ooi
       
      If anyone wants to ban anything cigarrettes should be first on the list. This demonization of cannabis has gone on for far too long. Cannabis/Hemp species have been used for thousands of years for medicine, fabric, paper, biodiesel (recently, but you can use almost anything to make it anyways). If anyone disagrees I challenge you to a duel.
    • Nora Ibrahim
       
      True that Andrew! :-)
  • messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents
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  • Televen avoided the fine by pulling the show and replacing it with Baywatch.
  • Venezuelan TV is known for filling its schedules with re-runs of old US series and Latin American soap operas
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    Interesting move, I guess the "localization" process overlooked a few issues. Personally I think "the family guy" does quite often cross lines that should not be crossed, (eg: when making fun of pedophilia) The show highlights a trend in western society to ridicule any value and/or anything "sacred".
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    I am a HUGE fan on Family Guy since they started airing in States and recently have been watching the episodes from Season Seven (compliments of RMIT Library) back to back. I must say there are loads of 'jokes' used in the episodes which I found was bordering on 'so wrong'. The writers do make fun of every single thing and no one is spared, not even physically challenged people.
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    I've watched it once and I didn't like it.Everything about it is so wrong but I guess it's now a trend to use cartoons as medium for silly jokes.
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    Some people might capture the meaning wrongly. Perhaps Venezuelans view Family Guy as those who criticize the western value. Since Venezuelan TV is know to re-runs of old US series and Latin American soap operas, they tend to manage the conventional value instead of looking at the west in a modern society who gets ridicule by the writers.
xinning ji

War and Family Left Behind, Lone Afghan Youths Seek a Life in Europe - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • “I want to go to school,” he said in English. “I would like it if I could be — it sounds like a lot to ask — an engineer of computing.”
  • Although some are as young as 12, most are teenagers seeking an education and a future that is not possible in their own country, which is still struggling with poverty and violence eight years after the end of Taliban rule.
  • Once in France, the boys face more hardship. The Paris police have started conducting nightly searches to prevent Afghan migrants from sleeping in Villemin Square. The 15-year-old was placed in a cheap hotel, while others were put in temporary shelter in an unused subway station. Others find their own shelter under bridges and beside a canal
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  • “How should I make a future?” he asked. “I’m 15 already. I’m on my own. What can I do?”
Rika Ninomiya

Have a chuckle, but cut the English hybrids some slack | The Courier-Mail - 0 views

  • Each of these flavours of English has its own local properties. If you know something about the pronunciation of the languages of these countries, you can often identify the speakers' nationality by their English.
  • These Englishes can show a variety of errors of grammar and vocabulary. Sometimes this is caused by interference from the homeland language. Sometimes it is just a feature of the local English that has become established
  • does it really matter? After all, the Australians, the British and the Americans routinely announce "all trains cancelled".
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  • English is growing rapidly as a vehicle for communication in many parts of the world. In return for having signs that we can read, we might cut the sign writers a little grammatical slack.
  • Anglos too easily ridicule such lapses, and make feeble jokes about signs like "rock the door of the lavatory securely".
  • Just think – with a little honest humility – of the devastation we would wreak if we tried to translate these notices into Malay for a supermarket or a hotel in Oz.
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    Funny article with regards to English in different Asian countries. This article focuses on Malaysian sign boards in English.
Lucy Rechnitzer

'Nigel the Crazy Noonga' Website Shut Down | Racism Outrage - 0 views

  • Crazy Noonga' website sparks racism outrage FRAN RIMROD September 24, 2009 A website set up by a Perth student about a fictional Aboriginal character has been shut down and is being investigated by police amid racism claims. The website, which Radio 6PR reports was created by a 19-year-old Curtin University student, features audio excerpts  of a character called "Nigel the crazy Noonga", who prank calls businesses and fast-food outlets with a fake Aboriginal accent. The portrayal of negative Aboriginal stereotypes has sparked outrage from the Aboriginal community. Craig Somerville, lecturer at the Curtin University Centre for Aboriginal Studies, told 6PR he believed the material on the website had crossed the line between humour and racism.
  • The Facebook "Just for fun" group set up for "Nigel the crazy Noonga" has 317 members and describes "Nigel" as "your friendly neighbourhood Noonga". It also pokes fun at the character's fictional solvent abuse, describing it as his own personal "dreamtime". Sergeant Greg Lambert said police were aware of the website and were investigating.
Shalini Raj

China's Communists Mark 60 Years in Power With Beijing Parade - Bloomberg.com - 0 views

shared by Shalini Raj on 01 Oct 09 - Cached
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    The parade, in best old school communist tradition, is quite an interesting national display of power at this time. While it is predominantly aimed at the Chinese public (though not all, as access to the event was strictly controlled and limited) broadcast by national TV throughout the "Reich der Mitte" it is reinforcing the identity of a military super power, solid leadership and military state institutions, it also serves in a sense as a means of justification and proof for successful ideology to the ruling elite. And of course the display is aimed at the rest of the world, showing that China is a power to be reckoned with, not just economically but also in regards to it's military - just in case anyone has had any doubt. But is that a message the west needs to be reminded of? With the cold war over, and globalization making a path for cooperation and convergence of east and west in both in the economic and political arena, maybe the display is aimed at old friends eg. Russia and possible future "problems" (from a chinese point of view) such as Iran or N.Korea, who are working towards a stronger military recognition and/or are in strong competition with the market powers China has been able to built up eg: India, Japan.
shi chen

Epic film The Founding of a Republic marks 60 years of Chinese Communism - Telegraph - 1 views

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    Is it a propaganda or PR tool?
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    I think it can be said as a propaganda film because it draws a lot of Chinese to revisit the historical moment, then of cause, the stars in the film are doing a good job in drawing the audience in the first place lol~
xinning ji

Globalization - 0 views

  • Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around the world. Money, technology and raw materials move ever more swiftly across national borders.
  • The term globalization encompasses a range of social, political, and economic changes. Within the section Defining Globalization, we provide an introduction to the key debates on this issue. The materials look at the main features of globalization, asking what is new, what drives the process, how it changes politics, and how it affects global institutions like the UN.
  • Cases of Globalization explore the various manifestations of interconnectedness in the world, noting how globalization affects real people and places.
    • xinning ji
       
      the influence of globalization could be either beneficial or harmful. on the one hand, through the Internet, we view the world, travel to the world, and experice the world. on the other hand, however, like the image on the left hand side, the improvement of technology made a gap between rich and poor bigger and bigger. even though developed countries try to help developing countries, such as Africa, the unequal distince between each other is obvious and hard to reach in a fair position because the poor nations are far more behind the rich.
Christoph Zed

China's Broken Olympic Promises: Detained Activist's Kafkaesque Nightmare - SPIEGEL ONL... - 0 views

  • Charter 08
  • He feels a deep bond with people who are treated unjustly, he says, and he advocates on their behalf on the Internet, in police stations and in courtrooms, for which he has earned a reputation with the powers that be.
  • It revolves around his fifth, and most prominent, client in Fujian, the man who disappeared during the Olympic Games in Beijing almost a year ago, all because he had applied for a permit to protest in one of the "protest parks" the government had designated for that purpose.
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  • What has Ji been charged with? For wanting to protest? For being a regime critic? For seeking to harm China's national image at a time -- the Beijing Olympics -- when preserving its image was paramount?
  • It also exposes how naïve and deceitful it was for the IOC to have claimed that China would open itself up for the Olympic Games, and that the games would open up China.
  • In fact, it is so laughable that one could almost presume that the IOC was in league with the government and party leadership in Beijing from the start and consistently kept both eyes tightly shut
  • They had no case. No crime had been committed, not even a minor offence
Rika Ninomiya

Taking a closer look at Indonesia | The Australian - 0 views

    • Rika Ninomiya
       
      Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne starts on 11 August and will ends on 20 August 2009. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=97320061286&ref=search Some of the films are really interesting and worth watching :)
  • WHAT do most Australians know about Indonesian art? What role do the arts play in the picture they present of contemporary Indonesia? Not much, perhaps.
  • We heard from a young Indonesian filmmaker about thriving, youthful film communities across Indonesia and among Indonesian students in Melbourne; we shared some of the songs, stories and images collected by an Australian artist from northern Australian and eastern Indonesian communities once linked by ocean trade; we saw gigantic puppets created by young earthquake survivors near Yogyakarta, performing a zany new version of the Ramayana legend under the inspired leadership of Ian Pidd and the Snuff Puppet group.
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  • So why don’t Australians know more about Indonesian arts? Why don’t our arts and film festivals abound with Indonesian entries, and our television screens with Indonesian street murals and touring rock groups?
  • So what can be done? First, we need a big new initiative from the Australian Government that would attract attention in both countries. And perhaps we should establish one or more Australian-Indonesian cultural centres and arts spaces in Indonesian cities, to showcase existing arts exchanges and encourage others. Several European countries already maintain such centres: we’d need to do something distinctive and new.
  • Back in Australia, Indonesian arts aficionados could form a strategic network, sharing information about what’s on, lobbying festivals, arts promoters, the media and government bodies.
  • We can try to make sure that next time the rock band Dewa 19 visits, its songs about Islamic love and inclusiveness reach not only rapt Indonesian students and residents, but the thousands of Australians who need to hear the message.
  • Pressure should be put on SBS to show the film Opera Jawa, whose director, Garin Nugroho, has been described by Peter Sellars as a new Ingmar Bergman or Michelangelo Antonioni. We should also urge the big festivals to stage Je.jal.an (The Street ) by theatre group Garasi, in which violent, hilarious and moving interactions on a teeming city street graphically symbolise the confusion and creativity of contemporary Indonesia.
  • We need to keep spreading the word, while hopefully sustaining our spirits with more celebratory get-togethers in the same vein as Asialink’s Indonesia Calling.
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    Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne starts on 11 August and will ends on 20 August 2009. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=97320061286&ref=search Some of the films are really interesting and worth watching :)
glen donnar

Withdrawals lead to program rethink - Film - Entertainment - theage.com.au - 0 views

  • The screening of the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, has been the cause of controversy ever since the Chinese Government demanded that the film be withdrawn.
  • MIFF refused to withdraw The 10 Conditions of Love. In response, films from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were pulled from the festival, and the MIFF website was hacked.
  • including a short from leading director Jia Zhangke and a film produced by Wong Kar-wai’s Jet Tone company.
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  • The controversy brought a wave of local and international publicity. MIFF has been a fixture in the news pages and on the radio. The overseas coverage included mentions in The New Yorker, a live interview with CNN and coverage on the BBC. The attention, Mr Moore hopes, might have a flow-on effect, a reminder to people that this is an important festival. The festival had already become the subject of news stories when director Ken Loach withdrew his feature film, Looking for Eric, because of MIFF sponsorship by the Israeli Government.
Lucy Rechnitzer

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tech giants unite against Google - 0 views

  • Tech giants unite against Google By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley Not everyone in the coalition wants the deal blocked, some want revisions Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library.Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works. "Google is trying to monopolise the library system," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle told BBC News.
  • Critics have claimed the settlement will transform the future of the book industry and of public access to the cultural heritage of mankind embodied in books. The Internet Archive scans around 1000 books a day at 10 cents a page "The techniques we have built up since the enlightenment of having open access, public support for libraries, lots of different organisational structures, lots of distributed ownership of books that can be exchanged, resold and repackaged in different ways - all of that is being thrown out in this particular approach," warned Mr Kahle. The non-profit Internet Archive has long been a vocal opponent of this agreement. It is also in the business of scanning books and has digitised over half a million of them to date. All are available free. As the 4 September deadline approaches, the number of groups and organisations voicing their opposition is growing. But with three of the world's best-known technology companies joining the chorus, the Open Book Alliance can expect to make headlines the world over.
  • In its defence, Google has argued that the deal brings great benefits to authors and will make millions of out-of-print books widely available online and in libraries. In a statement, the company said: "The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition."
Lucy Rechnitzer

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Senegal's youths dream of Europe - 0 views

  • We sat on the ground and the message from all these fishermen was along the lines of: "They may be talking about an economic crisis in Europe but if you want a real crisis it's right here in Senegal."
  • A very animated and infuriated Abdoulaye told me that his son left for Spain in a fishing boat five years ago, and was now living a far better life than he was. "I am 45-years-old and I don't have half of what he has now, like a nice house and a car," he said, adding that he would do all he could to send more of his relatives to Europe. None of these young men referred at any stage to the risks of getting to Europe even though hundreds - probably thousands - have died at sea in recent years. Senegal looks to Europe more than most countries I have visited. Not so much to Spain, but to the old colonial power, France, which has maintained strong links.
  • If it were not for the West African street traders, the whole of Europe would be squinting and struggling to keep their trousers up, judging by the number of people I have met who said they made their living selling these goods on the streets.
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  • I used to be able to work in Italy for just one month and earn enough money to spend the rest of the year living it up in Senegal," Vieux told me. He said 10 years ago in Italy people would come knocking on the door offering work but not any more
  • But much of the development is through money sent home from abroad, and economic crisis or not, Europe will still be the target for many young Senegalese looking to swap the horse and cart life for a Renault in the fast lane.
Nadeem Uddin

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Slumdog child actors in new movie - 0 views

  • The child stars of the hit film Slumdog Millionaire are set to star in another film, possibly sharing a screen with British actor Anthony Hopkins.
  • "Lord Owen's Lady".
  • We have been given a new house and our condition is improving but Azhar's father did not live to see the good days,"
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  • The children and their families recently moved to new housing. The accommodation was arranged by the government and a trust formed by Slumdog's British director Danny Boyle.
  • I will do it if my parents ask me to do it. I had a good time acting in the previous film. I would like to act in this new film also
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    Bollywood meets Hollywood
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    he is a lucky slumdog child. I like that movie after I watched it. I found it is not easy to a person from a poor man to be rich. Also he has to make an hard effort to fulfil the dream. so best wishes to Azhar.
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | Europe | Bhajis and cricket balls in Brescia - 0 views

  • This is the San Polo municipal football ground on the outskirts of Brescia - a big industrial city in the north of Italy home to one of the biggest south Asian communities in the country.
  • The attraction is cricket - the final rounds of a limited overs competition.
  • "It's not a good place to live", he says. "Most Italians only speak their own language and so - unlike Indians and Pakistanis - they don't mix well with people from other cultures."
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  • the place could benefit from a "multicultural mix-up"
  • The League is almost invariably described as xenophobic
  • there have been complaints about cricket in the parks; and, yes, it has been banned, with local police ordered to halt games
  • "I want to see more Italian kids take it up," he adds. "Cricket can help build links between the Italian and immigrant communities - and help us avoid some of the problems we've seen in the past."
  • He is a politician - a pragmatist who simply can no longer afford to ignore the demands of his hometown's large south Asian community. And in this case pragmatism - it would seem - might just be the best way to start building a better life for everyone.
Blaze Yau

One task at a time the only way to get things done - 0 views

  • One task at a time the only way to get things done San Francisco August 27, 2009 MULTITASKING is a bane not a blessing
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    Multitasking is not a good way to do your things.
Blaze Yau

Stirring tale of dancer who emerged from Mao's shadow - Film - Entertainment - 1 views

  • This image was imprinted in our minds
  • This was my bible
  • this was the book that my life should have been following. This man was our god who had saved us from hell! But when I went to America everything contained in this thing - the beliefs, the ideologies - all crumbled right in front of me. I realised I was really the victim of an incredible cultural brainwashing
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    A very good Australian film 'Mao's Last Dancer'. The main character(real one) is now living in Melbourne as a stockbroker. I think the film successfully highlights the contradiction between Communist China and America. Should go and see it.
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    have you seen it Blaze? Anna said it was brilliant.
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    Personally, i appreciate this movie so much. Mao's Last Dancer was opened on the same day in Melbourne as another movie called The Founding of A Republic. That was an obvious ideological confrontation. Though the two movies are telling story in the same country. Compared with the Singapore Girl TV Commercial, which was made by Asian for showing oriental spirit to the western in a western way, Mao's Last Dancer was made by Australia for showing their understanding of the age of ideological confrontation. I think for many western audience, there are a lot of languages and ideology during that special years could not be understood forever. But i appreciate the director and adaptor so much. Because sometimes we need others to help us grow.
jung moon

Korean families reunite for a few days - 3 views

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    Even though South and North Koreans are 'Koreans', we cannot communicate each other because of many reasons.
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    It is amazing isn't it.. so similar yet very different in many ways. Cultural differences due to the distance?
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    When I was in Liaoning University of China (it is located in the capital city named Shenyang in Liaoning Province, which adjoins North Koreans), I had a very good friend as my roommate who came from Pyongyang. She was quiet and polite all the time. Meanwhile she even did not like to see those called Roman porn films made by South Korean. She was really different from those many South Korean oversea students in China. Once a time, I asked her to tell me about the confliction between north and south in nowadays. She would say nothing but insisted that "finally, they(the south) will come to us(the north)". Unfortunitlly, she got disappeared at the beginning of the second half semester. Is she a spy?
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    From Seoul to Pyongyang (capital city in North Korea) takes only 30 mins I heard. But these families (in the article) couldn't see each other over 50 years....
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    I knew that South Koreans and North Koreans can't cross the border to visit each other, but i really don't know that they can't even send e-mails. It's such a pity that they don't know when they will see their relatives next time.
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    It is reminiscent of families being split in East and West Germany. People would plan trips to Lake Balaton in Hungary to catch up. But that said they could send (censored) letters and make phone calls. If the North Korean Government are so kean to keep these families split up why are they allowing these meetings to take place? The cruelty of it all is hard to comprehend, seeing a loved one never to know if you will see them again.
Andrew Ooi

Thousands Defend Role of Press in Italy - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • ens of thousands of protesters thronged to a historic square in one of Europe’s largest capitals on Saturday to defend press freedom amid concerns of growing government interference in how the news is reported in Italy.
  • Free information, not on a leash
  • Mr. Berlusconi dismissed the protest as “a real farce.” Speaking at a political convention in northern Italy, he said, “Freedom is far greater in Italy than any other Western country,”
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  • For years accusations of conflict of interest have dogged Mr. Berlusconi, who owns the country’s leading private television networks and a publishing empire. His government also oversees the state broadcaster RAI.
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    The elites and their control again...
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | When can you speak ill of the dead? - 0 views

  • Has enough time passed for a more impartial assessment of the man
  • Our traditional response to a person's death can be summed up by the Latin "de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est" - roughly translated "don't speak ill of the dead". But in the information age, where the news keeps on rolling and the notion of deference has long since been replaced by a fascination with fame, how does the old maxim hold up?
  • Leith believes politicians like Vaz make a "category error" when they posture in this way. "They appropriate cultural events. You wouldn't really expect Michael Jackson to ratify the Countryside Act 2000 so why should parliament say what a jolly good dancer he was?"
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  • "The media portrayal of a life has almost become like an autopsy."
glen donnar

Princeton University - Cultural explorations aid learning process for aspiring policyma... - 0 views

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    "The most important rules of the card game: No words, no sign language, no talking; the only communication allowed was through drawing pictures. With these rules, 35 rising college seniors from the United States and several other countries participating in a workshop titled "Intercultural Dimensions of Policymaking" were to learn how playing a card game in complete silence would teach them a lesson about cultural differences."
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