Digital Nomad
My new better half thinks I’m racist and bigotted. No surprise there.
But I just explain that it must be my English public school upbringing. We weren’t taught to be condescending to one demographic. It’s just that we were taught to be condescending to everyone else no matter their creed, colour or nationality.
I await the inevitable criticism.
En nu, voor mijn Nederlandse lesers, een post in het Nederlandse. Ik had een gesprek met iemand die ander daag in het Engels, en het ging over een Peking Duck (eind?) restaurant. Ik wilde de sfeer van het restaurant an hun beschrijven maar ik kon het worde niet in het Engels vinden. De beste worde voor het was dat het was “gewoon” en niks bezonders. De vertaling in het Engels is ongeveer “normal” of “boring” maar het voorstellt niet de precies gevoel van de plaats. Er was iets met hoe je de wordt uitsprekt… “gewoon” is een vele beter worde dan “normal”.
Ik vindt het zonder dat mijn Nederlandse is slecht geworden. Toen ik in Engeland was, ik zaag dat mijn zus probeert Nederlandse aan haar dochter te leren. Ik denkt dat mijn Nederlanse is een stukje beter daan haars, maar ik zal waarschrijnelijk in de zelvde situatie zitten als haar - Engels als eerste taal, een buitenlander trouwen een ook een het buitenland wonen. Hoe kan ik Nederlandse aan mijn kinderen leren als mijn Nederlandse zo slecht is?
Since it is Friday, take a look at this old post at Waah!…
Very clever indeed.
Funny thing about media. One of the lessons I learned from my boss was that all media teaches. His theory was that Friends, innocuous as it was, taught people that it was cool to sit around, having coffee and throw shit at each other. Laugh as you may, but why then is Starbuck’s so damned popular?
So it was interesting to watch three films in the past few weeks that might have some hidden meanings to them.
First up, The Incredibles. I wasn’t really impressed with this film since I thought the timings were slightly off, leaving some parts of it dangling away without much point or humour. The really funny parts were hilarious but again, pacing was off. What was interesting about this Disney offering (and follow the paper trail back to the political affiliations in your own time), was the portrayal of Bomb Voyage, a rather pointless French villain who blew things up and was rather stereotypically French. I don’t quite think the Americans have forgiven the French for their “betrayal” during the UN shenanigans before the Iraq War.
Have they replaced the Germans as the bad boys of Hollywood?
Apparently not. Catching that cinematic masterpiece, Dodgeball, the goose-stepping militaristic Germans are portrayed as an alternative team to face our less than average heroes, the Average Joes. We can always rely on those damned krauts to provide us, the Allies, with so much amusement. Oh, how we laughed after 1918 when we humiliated the pants off them, stripped them of their national pride and then did it all again 28 years later. Perhaps it’s time to move on from rubbing it in? While we take great joy hearing the Germans apologise for that terrible war, it can only be pushed so far. Trust me, both the Germans and the Japanese do have strong sense of national dignity, and our zeal to “put them in their place” may be a contributory factor to having it happen all again.
The last film which I thought somewhat amusing was Rocky IV, whose franchise is enjoying a run on Star Movies. Rocky IV, for those who missed out on it, pitted Rocky Balboa (Stallone) against the might of the Soviet institution, distilled into Drago (Ludgren). While it isn’t brain candy, I suspect the film makers were trying to make a political statement about the world should just hug each other and sing cum bae ya. I was more interested in the social statement they made with the film being set in the 80’s. Rocky, the all-American hero, goes to train in the countryside of Russia armed with only peasant tools, rocks and what is available to him. Drago, on the other hand, is scientifically engineered and trained to be in the best physical condition with top of the line technology and performance enhancing drugs.
It’s curious to watch the good guys (i.e. the Americans, if y’all missed that) using pure heart to win through and the ever moralistic film makers suggest that the human spirit wins through over tech. What’s interesting is that in two previous wars the Americans fought, Vietnam and Iraq, that they consistently believe in technology winning through over a more simplistic people. In the former, they lost that completely and utterly, while in the latter, they seem to be having no luck at all subduing the Iraqi insurgents.
From the forerunner in the fight against a possible Soviet tyranny, which incidentally was no laughing matter as Stalin happily slaughtered his own people, the US has gone from guiding the way to losing their way. For a country that once abhorred the idea that communism presented only one idea, one perception and one right way to think, the US needs to look at its own media sometimes with a critical eye lest they themselves become the totalitarians they worked so hard to defeat.
I hate Jay Chou.
What’s sickening about him is that he seems to have captured the hearts and minds of most Chinese women with his crack cocaine looks and his whiney melodies.
Alas, he has cast his spell on the lovely and fair, Patty Ho (侯佩岑).
Jealous? Yes, I probably am. But I’d rather be jealous than a little bitch faggot who thinks he’s hard.
