Things that annoy me

Political rant. Nothing spectacular or life-changing, just a few things that have bugged me today.

First up, the NBL's promotional game in Singapore (and I'm not mad because my team got beaten) when the Singapore government is about to hang an Australian citizen. Yes, the kid got busted bringing drugs into the country, yes he should have known the repercussions. As Australians we live in a country that believes that Capital Punishment is wrong, legally and morally. Why, then, would the NBL send two of their teams to this country for promotional purposes?

I know that a lot of people believe that Sports and Politics don't mix. That one should not be used to gain ground on the other. I don't agree, mainly because this goes beyond being a political issue. As an ethical issue I believe that it's well within the player's right to say that they will not play there, whether it's basketball in Singapore or Cricket in Zimbabwe.

I'm just disappointed that there hasn't been more made of this is all. Perhaps it's because hoops in this country has such a pathetic marketing department they figured they'd do whatever it took to get some eyes on them.

Second, a few comments from NewsCorp bigwig Rupert Murdoch when questioned on their new internet acquisitions.

Having just mentioned the companies that NewCorp have bought recently, such as MySpace.com, and the kind of demographic using these resources, he had this to say;

via PaidContent.org

"These are the very people traditional advertisers find difficult to reach in traditional media.
… With them, we now have the opportunity to reach and target mass audiences both on and offline."

Why does it always have to be about exploitation? I'm not naive, I understand the way business works. It's just that I hear terms like "folksonomy" and "Web 2.0" and how the hacker/post-modernist mentality of deconstruction is allowing citizen authorship and a cultural shift, but all I see is the same thing; "Show me the money!"

Sorry. In a bit of a down-mood today.