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April 2008
Miley Cyrus vs. Vanity Fair: The British Edition.
When Annie Leibovitz’s picture of child star Miley Cyrus — aka Hannah Montana — appeared in Vanity Fair her tween fans - and their parents - went ballistic. The naked back, the satin sheet, the damp hair … how dare the innocent heroine of the hit series look so provocative?
Just like American girls, British girls also love all things Hannah Montana. In today’s London Guardian newspaper, Britain-based writer and feminist Germaine Greer took a look at the teenage star and the hoopla surrounding the photo.
She said the society has forever been training young girls to be manipulative and to exploit their sex. “From the time she is tiny, a girl in our society is taught to flirt. She is usually dressed like a mini-whore in pink and tinsel, short skirt, matching knickers, baby-doll pajamas, long hair falling over her face,” she said.
“She learns to court attention and, when successful, to hide her face.” She said that British model Kate Moss has been able to earn millions only as long as she could continue to project the body image of a 13-year-old.
Greer also said that sexually knowing 15-year-olds are normal. “No matter how much energy Disney - which makes the TV show Hannah Montana, in which Cyrus stars - might put into denying the obvious, 15-year-olds are sexually aware,” she said. “Any schoolteacher coping with a heaving mass of 15-year-old women knows that whatever their tribal culture or their religious affiliation, they are fascinated by sex. Girls’ magazines pay lip service to health and friendship issues: their real subject is boys.”
One mother quoted in the article claims that British children are less consumerist than American kids. But that the pressure is on for parents of children all around the world to keep them from commercial TV and from becoming obsessed with clothes and cosmetics.
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Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology
A group of Chinese lawyers has gone to China’s courts to force CNN to apologize for remarks by commentator Jack Cafferty and to pay a symbolic compensation, China’s state media reported.
Fourteen lawyers filed suit in Beijing to seek compensation of 100 yuan, an amount equivalent to $14, the China Daily said on Thursday.
Chinese have been angered by Cafferty’s comments earlier this month on the political news program “The Situation Room”. Cafferty - a well-known curmudgeon who has lambasted numerous politicians and governments - called China’s leaders a “bunch of goons and thugs” and its exports to the United States “junk with the lead paint on them”.
After a Chinese government spokesperson called on CNN to “apologize to the whole Chinese people,” numerous Chinese Web sites have targeted the broadcaster.
In the United States, between 2,000 and 5,000 Chinese-Americans rallied outside CNN’s Hollywood office last Saturday to demand that the company fire Cafferty, the Associated Press reported.
CNN responded to the Chinese government by saying that “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offense to the Chinese people” and that CNN “would apologize to anyone who interpreted the comments in this way.”
The Beijing district court where the lawyers filed the law suit declined to say if it had accepted the case, the China Daily reported.
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The United States of Hysteria?
Brits seem to derive some kind of perverse pleasure in moving to America for a few years and then returning to Britain to tell everyone how horrible it was.
The latest example of this comes from Anne Dixey, who moved to Washington, D.C., in August 2001 with her two children and partner, Roland Watson, the London Times Washington correspondent.
In today’s Times, she writes how she had expected to find a buzzing social scene when she moved to Washington but instead she found a closed society torn apart by violence and fear.
She said that, after 9/11, Americans around her were hysterical and that “there was none of that calm British getting on with it.”
Dixey, who has just written a book “The United States of Hysteria, said that she was shocked by the American people’s conservatism with a small “c.”
“There was so much emphasis by parents on re-creating the ‘perfect’ childhood they’d had,” she said. “I’d expected it to be more civilized and cultured, but there was limited conversation, politics, and the War on Terror.”
Dixey said she was stuck at home, faced with the “supermoms” of Chevy Chase, Maryland.
“Flexible or part-time working just didn’t seem possible. It was all or nothing, there was no slack so these very intelligent, highly educated women approached motherhood as though it was a career,” she said. “In Washington you are what you do. When you stop doing something, you become your partner’s accessory.”
Dixey said she was amazed by this in the country that first embraced feminism. All in all, Dixey is happy to be back in West London.
I’m sure the people of Maryland don’t mind either.
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Has HBO lost its mojo?
The British may lament America’s foreign policy but they still love American TV — and perhaps none more than the shows that have appeared on HBO. For years, they’ve been avid watchers of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Deadwood.
But now a TV critic for London’s Guardian newspaper, Ravi Somaiya, says that HBO’s new shows are missing the mark to the point that one wonders whether the network can revive its fortunes before the competition catches up.
Somaiya agrees that the network has certainly being working hard to find a new hit “but despite enormous publicity, In Treatment, a five-nights-a-week drama about a psychotherapist (played by Gabriel Byrne) and his patients, only attracted around half a million viewers for its February premiere. The Sopranos at its peak was pulling in 18 million.”
Also garnering small audiences is the new mini-series John Adams as well as the supernatural drama John From Cincinnati.
So has HBO raised the bar too high - even for itself? The network was unwilling to comment. But some think the troubles are not as deep-rooted as they may appear.
“According to one industry source, while mistakes were made in shows such as John From Cincinnati, HBO hasn’t suffered any financial difficulty as its subscriber base is still growing,” Somaiya said. “However, the network, like many others, has suffered because of the writers’ strike - big new shows such as True Blood, a vampire series from Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under, and returning favorites such as Entourage would have been on the air in summer but will now be pushed back to the autumn.”
But certainly the competition is heating up with Showtime rolling out hits such as Californication, Weeds, and Dexter. Another popular show in London is Mad Men from AMC.
Maybe the HBO network just needs to decide what it wants to do — costume dramas like Rome or contemporary programs such as Sex and the City.
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China raises pressure on CNN over “vicious remarks”
Comments by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty that China’s leaders were a “bunch of goons and thugs” and its exports to the United States were “junk with the lead paint on them” has touched off angry rebuttals from Chinese officials and citizens.
On Tuesday, Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called Cafferty’s statements - made last week on the political news program “The Situation Room” - “vicious remarks” and called on Cafferty and CNN to “apologize to the whole Chinese people.”
The China Daily, a mouthpiece newspaper of China’s government, ran a front-page story on Wednesday that among other things called Cafferty’s statements “racist and vitriolic”.
CNN issued a statement in response to Jiang Yu saying that the Cafferty’s comments represented his “strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people” and that he had clarified that point on Monday.
The network added that “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offense to the Chinese people” and CNN “would apologize to anyone who interpreted the comments in this way.”
Beijing’s denunciation of Cafferty’s statements echoed earlier criticisms of CNN and other western media organizations for what Chinese officials have called biased reporting of violent protests in Tibet last month.
A story in the China Daily last month said that “pictures from some media websites, including CNN and BBC, with untrue reports about the riots (in Tibet) have been posted to chatrooms, drawing criticism.”
Beijing has maintained that protests and violent riots in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, was carried out by a small group of people supported by the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile. The Dalai Lama has denied any connection to the protests and has called for China to increase freedoms for Tibetans, who have lived under direct Chinese rule since the 1950s.
Beijing has banned foreign journalists from reporting freely in Tibetan areas, making it difficult for journalists to determine what happened during the recent riots and subsequent crackdown.
Some experts argue that Beijing is intentionally stoking nationalistic feelings among Chinese citizens ahead of the Olympics - when activists are likely to protest China’s human rights record, media restrictions and activities in Tibet, among other issues - to deflect domestic criticism of the government.
It was unclear on Wednesday whether Beijing would accept CNN’s statement and, if they did not, what actions they might take against the station. Officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to questions faxed to them.
But Chinese citizens posting on the Internet called on Beijing to push the issue.
“We cannot accept CNN’s apology because it is insincere,” one post on a popular Web site read on Wednesday afternoon.
It is not clear how many Chinese were upset by Cafferty’s remarks. But many Chinese were angered by images of people in Paris, London and San Francisco protesting the Olympic torch relay.
Some experts believe that some Chinese will react negatively toward any group or company considered critical of China’s government ahead of the Games.
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Biggest threat … China or America?
Good news Americans. Europeans no longer view you as the biggest threat to global security. According to a new poll, China has now supplanted the United States in the top spot.
China may have been hoping to garner a positive image in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, but the issue of Tibet has destroyed that effort.
An opinion poll commissioned by the Financial Times has found that 35 percent of respondents in the five largest European Union countries see China as a bigger threat to world stability than any other country. Last year that figure was 19 percent and in 2006 it was only 12 percent. In contrast, the United States has slipped into second place with 29 percent of respondents viewing it as the biggest threat, down from 32 percent in 2007. The poll was carried out in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Britain.
A report on the poll appeared in today’s Der Spiegel newspaper.
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Sending a message to America
For Americans, the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York is sacred ground. But for a theater in Germany, it is the perfect setting for a provocative production of Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” — one that features naked retirees wearing Mickey Mouse masks and burning Uncle Sam hats.
The Austrian director Johann Kresnik, a Marxist, has never been a fan of American-style capitalism. But now with his new production, which opened on Saturday, he’s showing his disdain like never before.
According to Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper, the production at the Erfurt Theater includes 35 naked people aged 50 to 69 wearing Mickey Mouse masks against a Ground Zero backdrop who are supposed to be sending a message about the excesses of American society.
“The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, people who don’t have anything any more,” Kresnik said.
He said that for many German politicians America still represents “the great dream.” But he charges that America’s global position of leadership should be called into question.
Kresnik’s message may be ringing true. Performances this week are sold out.
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Coke pulls ad after Chinese bloggers call for boycott
First criticized by activists angry that the Coca-Cola Co. is sponsoring the Olympic torch relay, Coke executives now face another problem: Chinese nationalists calling for a boycott of the brand.
Last week, a Chinese blogger posted a photograph of a Coke advertisement taken in a German railway station. The ad showed three Buddhist monks riding a roller coaster and carried the slogan “Make it real.”
On the popular Chinese Tianya Internet forum, the blogger — using the screen name “Super Laboratory” — argued that the monks were Tibetan lamas, the roller coaster represented freedom and the slogan meant they should “realize (freedom) now.”
“Coke! Okay. I’ll remember this and won’t drink your crappy product,” the blogger wrote.
By Monday, photographs of the advertisement had been posted on other Chinese Web sites including Sina.com, one of China’s most influential portals for news and discussion.
Hundreds of people had written posts. Some called allegations that the poster suggested Coke supported Tibetan independence outlandish.
But most chastised the company or called for a boycott. A posting by someone using the screen name “Knife” wrote that while “using sensitive issues in ads can attract attention… if it has anything to do with Tibetan independence, I won’t try the product.”
Coke responded by pulling the ad, which it said was only used in parts of Germany and was five years old.
The ad “was designed to encourage people to try something new and this image was only one of several that made up the “Make It Real” campaign,” the company said in a statement.
“We regret if the use of an image featuring monks from an old print advertising campaign from 2003 has caused any offense,” it said.
Chinese nationalism — stoked by an education system that stresses colonial incursions in Chinese history and by recent propaganda claiming that exiled Tibetans want to stoke unrest in Tibet — has sparked popular anger at other foreign companies.
In 2004, Nike withdrew a television advertisement showing NBA star LeBron James defeating a dragon, a traditional symbol of the Chinese state, after it sparked popular anger and a reprimand by the Beijing government.
In 2003, Toyota was forced to pull a print ad showing two stone lions, emblems of Chinese culture, saluting a Prado SUV after Chinese posted hundreds of angry notes on Internet bulletin boards.
A Coke spokesman said on Monday that the company had received “a very limited number of consumer calls regarding this issue.”
In its statement, Coke argued the angry bloggers had read too much into the poster.
To “take a five year old local campaign and try to draw some sinister connection to current events shows a lack of concern for the truth that should be alarming to all members of society,” it said.
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Beijing slams Olympic torch protests as “sabotage”
Beijing officials reacted defensively to widespread protests in London on Monday over China’s recent crackdown in Tibet and other human rights concerns, including its support for the government of Sudan on Monday.
State-run newspapers in Beijing downplayed the size and intensity of Sunday’s protests in London - where one demonstrator grabbed the Olympic torch and another attempted to douse it with a fire extinguisher.
The Xinhua news agency, a government mouth-piece responsible for determining most news coverage in China, quoted a government official as saying that “a few ‘pro-Tibetan independence’ activists attempted to sabotage the torch relay in London today, which is a serious violation of the Olympic spirit, as the Olympic flame belongs to the world”.
The China Daily, Beijing’s main English-language paper, reported that 25 people “tried to disrupt the torch relay and were detained for public order offenses”.
Western journalists in London, however, reported that hundreds of protesters turned out to highlight concerns about China’s troubled human rights record, its clampdown on Tibet following widespread protests and riots last month and its support for the government of Sudan, which activists blame for fueling a war that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.
Shortly after the torch relay began on Sunday at Wembley Stadium, a protester slipped through a police cordon and grabbed the torch before being wrestled to the ground by security forces.
Later a protester was able to run to within feet of the torch and emit a spray of white powder from a fire extinguisher, though it did not put out the flame.
Similarly intense protests are expected to track the Olympic torch on what China and the International Olympic Committee have dubbed a “Journey of Harmony”. The torch will pass through Paris today and San Francisco - its only stop in the United States - on Wednesday before moving to South American, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
In China, scenes of the London protests were blacked out on Western television stations permitted in the country. Stories in China’s press were decidedly upbeat: “Warm reception in cold London,” a headline in the China Daily read on Monday.
Chinese officials have repeatedly called for a separation of politics and sports during the Olympics. Last month, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang said that “to politicize the Games and link it with other issues… is against the common aspiration of people around the globe”.
But the London protests showed that many activists see highlighting China’s human rights record as a major part of the Games.
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“The United States of America 2008. The Great Depression.”
Already riling Americans around the world is the front page of London’s Independent newspaper today. The headline? “The United States of America 2008. The Great Depression.” The page features a large photo of seemingly poor U.S. citizens lined up to get food aid alongside the message that: “Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the United States. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive.”
Reading the article, one would be forgiven for thinking the United States is about to fall into an economic abyss. It says Americans are finding it tough to get food on the table. Prices of staples such as bread are going up resulting in at least 40 states reporting increases in applications for food stamps. Unemployment, it says, is nearing 5 percent.
Already the newspaper’s leading story has prompted a flood of comments from Americans. A typical one reads as follows:
“The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 4.8%. The U.K. unemployment rate stands at 5.2%. If the U.S. is headed for a Depression, then the U.K. must be ready to sink into the ocean. The Independent has been preaching America’s economic death in earnest for the last several months. Are they jealous, is it just wishful thinking, or do they lack the appropriate level of education about economics?”
