OK firstly this post is a little more serious than my usual fayre, however it is probably just as rambling as the regular stuff! So feel free to stop reading now if you wish
Many of you regular readers will know that I am very difficult to offend, in fact I don’t recall ever being offended by anything. I can see why some people do take offence at things though. Earlier this week YouTube banned MIA’s video for her new single “Born Free” Click here to see the story on the BBC. It is quite graphic on both the sex front and the violence front. However is the real issue that it deals with race issues in a rather novel and hard-hitting way? The army/ police in the video are rounding up red-haired people and killing them in the same way that many other ethnic minorities have been rounded up and killed in the past. Are people offended because they accept people with a different hair colour and not people with different skin colour?
Stills from the Born free video
I wonder what the scummy British National Party think of this? In BNP speak I would be an indigenous British person because my skin is white, whether I have red hair is irrelevant to them (incidentally I have no hair, but my son is a red head) I find this video quite thought-provoking, in particular how it focusses the mind on our attitude to race issues. I personally don’t take offence at the film, but I do take offence at scummy political parties like the BNP
People of the UK in next weeks election use your vote and use it wisely. A no-show from you could enable the BNP to gain ground, that is surely unacceptable. I respect MIA’s right to freedom of speech and expression as I respect my own. Indeed I also respect the right of all political parties to make their point. But to invoke my own freedom I believe that the BNP are inherently evil and should not benefit in the polls by people who can’t be bothered to cast their vote. If you choose to actually vote BNP then I totally believe you are wrong, but I know that it is your right. But I implore the rest of you to make sure you cast your vote; Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Green, Monster Raving Looney or anyone else but please let’s ensure that the BNP lose their deposits
OK rant over, and I look forward to your comments, although clearly I recognise that I may have opened the floodgates to the crazies!
Click here to see MIA’s video, but trust me it does contain sexual scenes and scenes of violence
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 
Thanks for posting about this – I’d missed it. So it’s a reinterpretation of Martin Niemöller’s
“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
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Ben,
thanks for your comments. I was a litttle worried that this post might attract a bunch of narrow minded bigots, but I am pleased that it hasn’t (at least not so far anyway!)
Those words sum it all up so perfectly. Apathy cannot be an option!
Thanks
Bill
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Thanks! Well, I’m working on not being a narrow-minded bigot. It’s a daily struggle – but we all got to try!
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I managed to supress my bigot tendencies a while back, but I can feel them bubbling under the surface when it comes to politics and football!
Talking of bigots, have you seen the news about Gordon Brown’s faux pas earlier today, I thought it was hilarious
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8649853.stm
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But I noticed it has gained him some sympathy, since he has said what some people were thinking anyway; which makes me slightly suspicious whether it was actually a gaffe, or a desperate play for the liberal vote. These things are so stage-managed (I still find it hard to believe Prescott’s punch was spontaneous). But I guess there’s a limit even to a press officer’s power to control.
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Oh – and Palestinian rights, I now see from the video.
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There is one thing worse than voting for the BNP, and that is not voting at all.
The BNP leaflet came through my letterbox the other day, and I have to say I studied it with slack-jawed disbelief before tearing it into hundreds of tiny pieces and scattering them into the cats’ litter tray.
What is the idea with the big picture of Winston Churchill?
This is the modern world.
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Actually – I disagree that not voting is worst – though hopefully for reasons that you’d approve of.
I think it depends on the voting system. Under First Part the Post it’s not such a great sin not to vote, since, unless you support one of the big three parties, there is basically no chance (in England) of getting your candidate in – so why not stay at home? The appearance of apathy (though actually for some nonvoters it’s despair) might lead to voting reform. Under Proportional Representation, nothing I just said applies. But there are different systems of Proportional Representation too, and some would reward minority parties like the BNP, some would not. My favourite system is what they call “Approval Voting”, which is better for Greens and social-minded centrists; worse for extreme right. It’s what the Spartans used.
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