Archive for the 'Nationalism' Category

Republicans have hijacked 9/11 remembrance and re-branded it as 9/11TM

Published
by
tigtog
3 weeks, 4 days ago
in Ethics, Foreign Elections, Language, Media, Nationalism, Terrorism, USA and War
. 18 Comments

An American tragedy made into a political commodity: top political commentator Keith Olbermann is distinctly unimpressed at the cynicism of the invocation of 9/11 at the Republican National Convention.

9/11 (TM) has made possible the greatest sleight-of-hand in our nation’s history.

The political party in office at the time of the attacks, at the local, state and national levels, the party which uniformly ignored the warnings and the presidential administration already through twenty percent of its first term and no longer wet behind the ears, have not only thus far escaped any blame for the malfeasance and criminal neglect that allowed the attacks to occur, but that presidency and that party, have managed to make it seem as if the other political party would be solely and irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in the future.

The misrepresentations and manipulations of the terror of seven years ago are laid out clearly in Olberman’s analysis, starting with his contempt for the choice of Giuliani, who has no other bandwagon to ride other than 9/11, as a keynote speaker at the convention.

his childish, squealing, braying, Tourette’s-like repetition of 9/11 (TM), was greeted not as conclusive evidence that he is consumed by massive guilt - hard-earned guilt, in fact but rather as some kind of political tour-de-force, an endorsement of your Vice Presidential nominee, a rookie governor , a facile and slick con artist.

The blind endorsing the bland, to a chorus of 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM.)

Your ringing mindless cheer of “We’ve Kept You Safe Since Then.” While nobody asks “doesn’t then count?”

All of this, sadistically disrespecting the dead of New York, and Washington, and Shanksville. Endorsed, Sen. McCain. Exploited, Sen. McCain. Trademarked, Sen. McCain by you.

Continue reading ‘Republicans have hijacked 9/11 remembrance and re-branded it as 9/11TM‘

Beijing Paralympics 2008

Published
by
Kim
1 month ago
in Australiana, China, Disability, Film, TV, Video etc, International, Media, Nationalism and Sport
. 12 Comments

I stayed up late to watch the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on the telly last night. A tad schmaltzy (to put it mildly), but it certainly pushed the spectacular spectacle buttons. To my mind, at least, the Paralympics represent something a lot closer to the “spirit of sport” than the Olympics, and I’ll be following the Games as much as I can. Not having digital tv, I’ll be a tad disadvantaged as I’ll miss the live coverage on ABC2, but ABC1 will be showing a highlights package at 6pm and 11pm every night which can also be streamed on demand from Iview. I’m happy to do a bit of Paralympics blogging from time to time if folks are interested.

One thing that disappointed me about the coverage of the Sydney Paralympics was the way camera angles were used to implicitly normalise the athletes’ bodies (people in chairs were shot in interviews from above the waist, and arm amputees often from above the shoulder!) and the endless repetition of certain super-crip “overcoming adversity!” narratives in commentary. Although that does have the unintended advantage of crowding out some of the hyper-nationalism stuff that disfigures the Olympics! I’m hoping there’s been some progress in both the willingness to represent difference openly and in appreciating elite athletes as elite athletes in the intervening eight years. Incidentally, many are that in a different sense from Olympic athletes - it’s not uncommon for Paralympians to switch from say, swimming to athletics, and you’ll find that there are a lot of athletes who’ve participated in multiple sports, and even some who compete in both Winter and Summer Paralympics.

I’m also not sure what the funding differential (if any) is in Australia, but there’s some coverage in the New York Times which suggests it’s a big problem in the States. It would be nice if some of the “OMG! Britain beat us! Let’s spend more dosh!” dosh goes the way of the Australian Paralympic Committee. Finally, I’d like to point to the fact that the Australian Paralympians have their own YouTube channel, and over the fold, I’ve embedded a promo package and an interview with Australian leg amputee sprinter and long jumper Christine Wolf.

Continue reading ‘Beijing Paralympics 2008′

Advance Australia Fair?

Published
by
Mark
1 month, 1 week ago
in Anzac Day, Australiana, Books, Writers & Writing, Culture, Ethics, History, Indigenous, Markets, Media, Nationalism, Philosophy and Politics
. 23 Comments

At one stage, having read a lecture by Mark Davis in Overland, I thought his new book was going to be an update of Gangland. I’ve just started reading The Land of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s (expect a full review in due course), but it appears very much as if at some point in the course of writing, it turned into an update of the late Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country. Certainly the idea that we’re coasting on our luck, riding on the back of another resources boom, is both enough to set in train a comparison between the Australia of 1964 and the nation of 2008 and to recognise a powerful structure of feeling which Kevin07 articulated all the way to the Lodge.

One of the more interesting arguments Davis makes in the opening chapter is that “being Australian is an ethical project”. He quotes Nettie Palmer, writing in Meanjin in 1944:

A new country that is merely an imitation of its predecessors, that discovers no new thoughts or forms, that contributes nothing to the meaning of the world - would it deserve to exist?

In a way, the dislocations and the sense of insecurity Davis seeks to trace over the past three decades reflect a disjunction between the nation and the state - a disjunction embodied in the casual bipartisanship of the major parties, even if some of the wellsprings of everyday doubt and pain were harnessed by Kevin Rudd and Labor in 2007. If one were to compare political ideologies, both conservatism and social democracy - in quite different ways - want to see the state as a vehicle for creating meanings and symbols, for fostering a shared and collective culture. One looks back, the other forward, but it’s characteristic of both to regard governance as something like steering a ship - while one may tack often, there’s an intention of heading in a determined direction.

Liberalisms of almost all stripes are quite hostile to the idea of a collective vision realised through the state. Continue reading ‘Advance Australia Fair?’

7’s lies, damned lies and medal counts

Published
by
Phil
1 month, 2 weeks ago
in Nationalism and Sport
. 59 Comments

One of the things that has given me the $hit$ watching Channel 7s coverage of the Olympics is the adjusted medal count; this thrown up when the “real” medal count doesn’t appear to meet early morning breakfast expectations. In Mel and Kochy’s world we’re always number one if you massage the figures the right way.

Truth be told I don’t like any medal count by nation; aren’t the Olympics supposed to be about singular human athletic achievement? By that measurement Michael Phelps is absolute number one and at this point he matches Australia in gold medal achievement. Maybe that should make 7’s adjusted list, an asterix or footnote would help their simplistic exercise.

Just to prick the early morning in studio Green and Gold flag waving jingoistic bubble for a moment, are we ever number one on any adjusted list?

In a recent post More Intelligent Life asked the medal count question and showed us at number two in Athens, second to the Bahamas. And then there is this site whose approach to the tally currently throws up Jamaica as the top dog. Pass the dutchy!

What about medals based on the money spent on sport science, or GDP, or the number of beaches added to grains of sand multiplied by days of sunlight? Or the number of former gold medal winners who failed to take gold this time around? On the latter metric I think we really are number one.