Here are the news articles that have caught my eye during the week. Warning, there’s some ‘language’ in some of them. It’s not my fault, society’s to blame.
1) He Said What
If you’re a Wanderers fan, the big news from the week was poor behaviour by a supposed supporter, again, sigh, as reported here in the Herald.
I’m obviously missing something here. This is the key paragraph I am looking at from that story.
Microphones picked up Young saying, "Don't f***ing call me a monkey, you f***ing racist c***" after apparently being receiving abuse from the direction of the Wanderers supporters behind his goal. Brown identified the alleged perpetrator, who was immediately kicked out of the ground by security.
I seem to recall being instructed that two wrongs don’t make a right. Have a look at that paragraph again. The Herald was comfortable publishing the abuse from the spectator, but the abuse from the Brisbane goalkeeper in return was so bad it has to be hashed out. The spectator faces a life ban, the goalkeeper is being applauded. Hmmm!
Turns out, the ‘c’ bomb ain’t so bad after all. Unless another adjective is added to it, and the abuse can be associated with an ‘ism, and then it’s bad. The principle to be derived from this situation is – if you’re going to abuse someone, make it generic in nature.
Last year one of the cheer leaders for the Wanderers … the capo in the active supporter area, was banned for a year for dropping the ‘F’ bomb. In that case it was aimed at the FFA, in Jamie Young’s case it was aimed at a mere spectator. Let’s see what happens.
2) Sexist Language
I’m not even going to be slightly playful with this one. I’ve cracked. It had to happen eventually. I’ve had enough.
This is the story here, again in the Herald, that has raised my ire.
The immediate explicit assumption is that the only reason a grandfather would want to see their grandchild is because they think they OWN it. Really! For how much longer will we have to put up with such blatant sexist language. Where is the mention of grandmothers seeking access to their grandchildren? Do grandmothers who seek access to their grandchildren do so because they think they own them.
Yeah, I know, it’s just click bait, and I fell for it.
3) Indonesia warns of terror threat
Prime Minister Morrison’s proposal to shift the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during the Wentworth by-election as an appeal to the Jewish community within that electorate was political opportunism at it’s worst, insulted their intelligence and debased our already low political discourse.
Since that announcement there have been a few articles in the papers, like this one here, where countries in Asia with large muslim populations have raised concerns. To which, of course, Australians reply by puffing up our chests and saying ‘no-one is going to push us around’. Settle down, and think about this.
Why does Indonesia care where our embassy is in Israel? The answer is not obvious to me. If your answer is – Indonesia has a large muslim population, my next question will be – why does an Indonesian muslim care where our embassy in Israel is located. Has it got something to do with Israel being a Jewish nation? If a muslim nation were to claim Jerusalem as it’s capital – would that be acceptable?
4) Oxford word of the year
Oxford University Press have nominated ‘toxic’ as their word of the year, as reported here. Just thought you might want to know.
Now, remember, based on the principles laid down by the FFA (Football Federation Australia), it’s not OK to say to someone: ‘you’re f$%#ing toxic’, but it is OK to say, ‘you’re a toxic c#$%’.