From Medal of Honor Pacific Assault
Read Parts 1 &2 here.
Part 2
The latest on the Inquirer website.
http://services.inquirer.net/mobile/08/10/10/html_output/xmlhtml/20081009-165551-xml.html
Highlights:
a) Copies of the complaint were also sent to UK media regulators and the mayor of London.- both ABS CBN and GMA are in Quezon City. Now imagine The British Embassy sending a complaint to the KBP and to the mayor of Quezon City. But it's somehow garners little attention because he is too busy collecting bribes from various establishments that populate Quezon Avenue. Establishments that shall we say run contrary to the intent of this protest.If you think I am speaking science fiction then that is certainly within your rights.
b) “Not only did the show give a bad impression of Filipino women. It also portrayed British employees as perpetrators of exploitation of young women, vulgarity and immoral activities, using their employees, in this case, the domestic worker, as a sex toy.”- Like I said in Part 2, the guys are buffoons. It's not the most tasteful show. But who are we to dictate taste? We do not have a leg to stand on. Reread Part 1 . This show gives a bad impression of a lot of things including themselves. Believe me, there are many British shows like this. Just because this particular one features a Filipina maid in a minute long skit then the whole world should care??
c) . "Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the skit—which portrayed a British man urging a compatriot to “mate” with a Filipino maid—clearly offended Filipino women in general."- how many Pinoys were really watching this show or even know it existed? It's you guys who drew their attention in the first place? Are there any bleeding hearts of other races joining you in your just cause? There are other things to worry about in the world that what is on a minute long skit of what seems like a "babaw" British comedy.
d) “We should continue protesting. We should continue raising our howls,” - Press Secretary Dureza. Please save your howls for our airwaves and our streets. Put some skit in Eat Bulaga about a British maid who finds Tito , Vic and Joey funny. That would be so offensive to most people's sensitivities except it's not plausible. Why not raise your howls in the Japanese bars of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Amorsolo and Pasay Road? Unless there really are no souls to save there and the BBC is the last mountain of exploitation to conquer.
e) the controversial sketch was “so far beyond the realms of reality as to be absurd - alibi? Like I said last night in Part II , the show is stupid , the skit was stupid. If stupidity was a crime I myself would be given 99 to life. The show is what it is. A comedy that addresses it audience with a certain level of stupidity. It has existed just fine before but now the Philippine Government begs to differ? Take a deep breath and ask yourself what you are truly asking. If you could wave a magic wand and make the Harry and Paul show vanish, I doubt it would help the real Filipinas being hurt here and abroad one iota. That is where the focus should be and not censoring British comedies.
OK, so part of the problem of the mess we are in was that maid in question was specifically mentioned as a Filipina. If it was just a non de script woman then it would not draw the ire that it did. It's the symbolism of what the OFW woman has really been through and the skit made light of it. Fine, let's look at other races identified and semi identified in film and TV.
a) Jews.
Something happened 2000 years ago once. It did not matter that according to Scripture it was supposed to happen anyway. As a Catholic culture, we take the story of Christ for granted but on the surface the "bad guys" are always the same. Never mind that the real message of the story is all of humanity are the real bad guys " He died on the cross for our sins". Anyway the big picture is somehow lost on these people :
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/28/passion.protest/index.html
http://www.paktribune.com/pforums/posts.php?t=1476&start=1
Both articles feared that the movie will encourage other people to lash out against contemporary Jews. I doubt this happened. Most people already knew the ending to the story. It won't change. If some idiots used it as an excuse to pick on Jews, then they were ignorant enough to have done it without the movie.
b) Arab type people.
I put it in those words because the film True Lies never really identified what country the Crimson Jihad was representing. Though physically they looked like Arabs. Somehow I bet in the production meeting the person who suggested the terrorists look like Norwegians was laughed out of the brain storming. They should have taken a cue from a previous Schwarzenegger movie Commando. Take an actor from Cheers (Dan Hedeya) and make him a South American type rebel leader of a fictional country " Valle Verde " . There , the only people protesting will be Pasig residents.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE5D91E3FF935A25754C0A962958260
c) Germans
Does a month go by when there is no movie released where Germans are the bad guys? One of my favorite villains is Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) of Die Hard fame. He was suave, quotable, charming, educated, and yes evil. How come Germans never protested 20th Century Fox?? Unless it does not show up in Google. Not sure about you but a German trying to get away with 600,000,000 worth of bearer bonds and willing to blow up an employee Christmas Party and some FBI agents just so he can sit on a beach and earn 20% is a far bigger threat to the world than a gyrating Pinay maid.
Still I can not find any protest for Die Hard. Maybe the Germans were all at protests for Battle of the Bulge, Patton , Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan and Hogan's Heroes.
d) Turkish Jailers-
The movie Midnight Express (true story)
http://www.imdb.com/find?q=Midnight+express&sourceid=mozilla-search
enuff said.
http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/MidnightExpress.htm
Actually, I saw this issue in a different light when I saw a Muslim leader on TV claim that his people were not given a fair shake. He insisted that bank robbers who were not Muslim be identified as Christian Bank Robbers. It might seem like a pipe dream but he got his point across to me. Although it's still an apple to oranges comparison.
Here is one last example where people under reacted.
http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action/medalofhonorrisingsun/news_6084198.html
I remember reading a similar article almost five years ago. Imagine if you will , a World War II Shooter game set in the Pacific. You are an American Soldier doing what they did at that time and place, then go market this game in Japan. For me this is way more insensitive than an absurd segment about a Filipina maid.
Ed
http://www.paktribune.com/pforums/posts.php?t=1476&start=1 (Passion by Mel Gibson)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE5D91E3FF935A25754C0A962958260
Arab-Americans Protest 'True Lies'
*
Published: July 16, 1994
An ad-hoc network of Arab-American advocacy groups protested today against the new film "True Lies" in over a dozen cities. Spokesmen for the organizations said the protesters were offended by the movie because they believed it depicted Arabs as violent, anti-American zealots.
The film, released by 20th Century Fox, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a spy for a secret Government agency who pretends to be a dull computer salesman to conceal his real job from his wife, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. His real-life opponents are members of an Arab terrorist group, the Crimson Jihad, who threaten the United States with nuclear missiles.
About 60 protesters walked outside the Uptown Theater here, carrying signs that read "Hasta la Vista Tolerance" and "Stop Depicting Arab-Americans as Terrorists" and handing out leaflets. San Francisco to Secaucus
There were similar protests at theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Secaucus, N.J.; Centerville, Ohio, and San Jose, Calif., among other cities. The demonstrations were intended not for confrontation, but for education, "so that people can be inoculated against this kind of xenophobia before going into the movie," said Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations here.
A spokeswoman for 20th Century Fox said, "The film is a work of fiction and does not represent the actions or beliefs of a particular culture or religion." A similarly worded disclaimer appears at the end of the film's credits, the spokeswoman said. Protesters said they had requested that the statement appear at the beginning of the film.
Ihsan Bigby, an organizer of the protest in Los Angeles, said small groups of people handed out leaflets at the movie's opening at Grauman's Chinese Theater. He said that on Thursday, protesters had displayed signs while Mr. Schwarzenegger was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Several spokesmen said their groups were angry at what they saw as a lack of depth in the film's Arab characters. "There is no clear motivation for their planting nuclear weapons," said Mr. Hooper. "They are irrational, have an intense hatred for everything American, and that's the stereotype you have for Muslims."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETc0M2TLeyA
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/28/passion.protest/index.html
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