[Laura]

Sorry, JYAMG. When I read your original statement (the "which female forum member is going to kill barend for that!" one), I assumed it was mocking, and read into it the implication that said women would be wrong or overly uppity to get angry for that joke. Since you have now said that they would be "rightly" offended, I guess you didn't mean that. So, sorry.

However, if you thought what he said was offensive (I didn't; I thought it was more of a "women's bodies CAN BE sex objects" joke, not an "ALL WOMEN are sex objects" joke), why didn't you just chew him out yourself?

[Chyld]

I think the pantie-vending machines have been banned now, or so I've heard...

[Ninja Duck]

[barend]

^^

--------------

anyone who writes a whole book on a nations culture after spending only two weeks there is a bit of an ass...
especially if they're making social comintaries...

but when you live in a country directly below them (shut up, i know about PNG), and are one of the worlds biggest tourist spots for them, and everyone you know has been there, and you were obseessed with the country as a child, i think you're entitled to get away with a barley serious remark once in a while...

besides which, i think my last post pretty much covered this well enough...

there's and underlying unchecked sorce of agression there that i think has little if anything to do with me...

well... i know what would be fun...
lets all refrain from being witty and spontaneous, and just post what we really think in all honesty as diplomatically as possible, have it checked by the UN, and submit posts like...

wow, a lap cusion... i would have never thought of that... how less than common of an item to be invented. It came from Japan... other similar products may or may not have come from that country, not that that is an issue, *remark suggesting japan has a reputation for such products removed by UN inspection* that is all
*UN inspection for Omission of Words Of Mass Generalization complete*

This post has been edited by barend: 20 December 2004 - 08:19 PM

[J m HofMarN]

Isn't going to Tokyo and judging Japan kind of like going to New York and judgin America? I mean, really, you can make horrible generalizations in a city because there are what, maybe a few million people in Tokyo or New York? And at any given time some of them are going to be doing something wrong.

And Barend,

"I am told by my lawyers and UN non-offensive monitors that it is well within my rights to tell you that your post was humorous, but not in such a way that I mean that you yourself are humorous. And I don't mean to deny your ability to make people laugh. However I'm also not implying that you force people to laugh...

On second thought maybe I should just delete this whole post before I offend you...

[jariten]

alright I know I sucked all the humour out of this thread but some of the original comments posted by others had no hint of humour at all and felt like out and out attacks. Honestly though Barend, if people were making the same sweeping comments about Austrailia, you'd do the same. The difference being that the Japanese not only have no representation here, they have no representation in the western media as a whole.

We (and I mean the western 'we') are only interested in visiting Japan to either mock them (and thus make them seem harmless, which is probably what is really behind all this) or steal from them. Although the lukewarm reception that the remake of Ju-on got will hopefully put paid to that.

That was true about that Dave Barry book too, I read nearly three quarters of it before I couldn't go on.

Ninja Duck- thanks, i'm printing that off now

[SimeSublime]

Just had a thought of being compared to Steve Urwin.







I feel unclean.

This post has been edited by SimeSublime: 21 December 2004 - 09:20 AM

[barend]

Australia cops it more than anywhere...

i would love it if everyone judged Australia based on a visit to Sydney (as long as they checked out the blue mountains quickly).

I mean most peoples idea of australia is the back water obscure desert out back town the like of which i have never really visited...
it's the equivilent of judging america on the basis of a film like deliverence (but just so you know... I do!!!).

I think the SImpsons ocassional visits to different countires have best represented the worlds opinion of those places...

Japan... (and lets face it the Tokyo Shock Boys haven't helped much either)...
England... (bumping into JK Rawling and Ian McKellan on the same stretch, with the big candy store and... you get the idea)
Australia... (how many people do my fellow australians know called Tobias? -okay, i'll admit one of my friends middle name is tobias but, you know)

what's worse was some tubby 'bloke' sitting in a tyre in the middle of a billabong with a fosters called Julian, was ment to be our Prime Minister... christ... they didn't even try with that one... although the emporer of Japan thing was a little wierd, but that was totally random!!!

ask the average person at any given point over the last 15 years who the prime minister of australia was, nothing...

the only reason anyone knows the current one is cause bush keeps thanking him for being his piss bucket boy in the war on terrorthingys...

i mean no one has any idea... we are the most ill represented nation/continent in the world...

but wew are the first to take the piss out of ourselves... it's the australian way... we have genralizations and stereotypes, but it's usually the groups who spearhead those stereotypes in comedy...
and the same groups who find it the funniest... infact i'd like to take this opportunity to take on a rare moment of patriotic pride and say as a rather succesfull multi cultural society i think we pull it off well... not perfectly... but at least in the cirles i travell in, (which is represented by many types), we have the best attitude...

It's hard for non aussies to understand, but most of our 'mockery' or whatever is done out of affection not ignorant fear... and most people who stay for a while catch on to that pretty quickly... but you do have to be here to understand...

so i do understand why some people get a bit iffy when i make the odd remark but it's really just lost in translation that's all...

if you see the way we interact with each other... i becomes a lot clearer we don't hate anyone... nor look down on anyone...

sure we have assholes in our country, but who doesn't? we've add 'international inccidents' that have been poorly represented by international press... and yes we have compound of refugees that virtually the whole nation complains about the state of, and level of care and so on....

but anyway... that should shed a little light on the light of any remark to be concearned about... and i think Sime, Supes, Movie Goer, and maybe little princess will back me up on...

also as a matter of interest... there are more people in tokyo then there are in all of australia (at least last time i checked - which admittedly was 1986) so to australia Tokyo virtually is a country... although... there are more people in Sydney than there are in all of New Zealand...
so i guess they can assume anything they want...

i just thought that was wierd...

[SimeSublime]

Wow, I didn't realise that NZ was that sparse. But everything else you said I would happily support. Though I think everybody here is used to our sense of humour, and to be honest, I see the foreign members of the forum making similar jokes fairly often.

[Jen]

Tobias? I thought everyone in Australia was named Bruce! And wore attractive cork hats. Colour me disappointed!

[SimeSublime]

I have never met anybody called Bruce. Sorry.

[Jen]

It's like my whole Monty Python-based view of the world has been called into question!

[kdogg]

Before I came to the U.S., my entire view of the country was based on The Dukes of Hazard . I was very disappointed when I arrived in Boston and didn't see any cowboys. In fact, I'm still upset about it.

[barend]

i know a bruce or two...

i have worn a cork hat...

kdogg, you wanna see a cowboy? visit the whitehouse!

[SimeSublime]

I've only worn a cork hat on silly hat day at primary school. The corks were annoying, so I pulled them off.