Bulletpoints For 03 August 2010

From broadcaster to politician to brothel madam? Pam Corkery is being linked to plans for NZ's first brothel for women. She's looking for a property in Auckland where sex workers will be male, and clients female. It's believed the brothel plan will be shot as a reality TV series (focused on the hiring of male sex workers) and then continue to operate once complete. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight...
...and from NZ Prime Minister to turn-coat to UN investigator, Geoffrey Palmer will head a probe into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. All I can say is: Israel's just damn lucky that no whales were involved, or Palmer would've already sided with the Palestinians!
...a report says Auckland's Rugby World Cup venue Eden Park may not have a viable business plan, and poses a significant risk to Auckland ratepayers: they may have to pay a $40 million bill to complete the park's upgrade for next year's Cup! Is that the same multi-million "small beer" blow-out kicked around by Minister Murray McCully last August? Or extra?
...US President Obama has confirmed the August 31 deadline for withdrawal of all American combat troops from Iraq will be met. Plans are afoot to ship in thousands of vestal virgins for the Taliban celebrations! Meanwhile, Americans are searching for the definition of "victory"...
...and finding a different route home, kiwi Jeremy Burfoot has started his journey to set a world record travelling London-Auckland on a jet ski. The 5-month 32,000km journey, to raise cancer awareness, will take Burfoot and his team along the waterways of Europe, through the Suez Canal, around the Arabian Peninsula and down the coast of India to Australia, before finally berthing in Auckland. Yes, this country IS full of nutters!!!
PS: 19 June 2011 - Pam's brothel idea has been shot down.

"Generation Kill"...It's Dead.

It's finally over: GENERATION KILL's run has been excruciating!
I sat through it, hooked by the hype that likened it to the excellent BAND OF BROTHERS and the not-bad-but-not-great THE PACIFIC. After each episode, I convinced myself there HAD to be better to come...just wait for one more episode...etc etc.
And so, in the post-analysis, my stats will be added to the overall viewing total to trumpet another tv success story. Well, sorry - but contrary to many raves, I found GENERATION KILL's depiction of the Gulf War to be deathly dull.
Almost none of the central characters are likable, intelligent or even believable. They stroke their own egos about each being worth a million bucks of training (as if that matters to a 25c bullet!), yet their gung-ho military tactics and assessment of potentially hazardous situations are appalling. So too is their attitude to the Iraqi locals, and the other countries assisting them in their 'War On Terror', eg:
+"Is there anyone else in this war - or just us again?" (What, y'mean like WWII?)
+They drop an airstrike on an Iraqi village...just because they can.
+They want to "become MEN" by 'greasing' a raghead.
+A mentally unstable officer is allowed to remain in combat.
+Attacks are undertaken, not for the strategic good, but so their unit can beat another unit.
+There is slack discipline and little sense of purpose.
+There's no court-marshal when a soldier kills two Iraqi children.
+They abandon a broken-down fully-loaded munitions truck...then complain when the enemy destroys it.
+They stop their entire convoy, bunched together, on a bridge - a perfect target.
+They strafe civilians because...well, they're Iraqis, right?
+This war is portrayed as one big video game.

Now some may say: "It's only tv"...but this was supposedly closely based on reality, as seen by a journo with a front-line unit. And if that's so, then it highlights problems within the US military at that time - one only hopes they're fixed now!
I've never been in combat, though having served in the army I fully understand "hurry-up-and-wait", military boredom, inadequate and insufficient supplies...but there's a lot more to winning a war than rushing in like cowboys, "kicking ass". Public opinion (both at home and at the front) has been part of winning wars as long as people have been waging them. An unpopular war will almost always be lost, no matter what strategic or tactical measures are used.
GENERATION KILL not only highlighted for me that the US mind-set lost the Iraq war before it began but also showed that, as a supposed tv tour de force, GENERATION KILL also lost the battle.

They're Just Words...Aren't They?

Such care must we take, lest others we offend. Verily, it must be so or berated we would not be, for using what seem to be innocuous terms...
A seminar organiser was scolded recently for asking the attendees to do some brain-storming. The phrase conjures up images of the zip-zap of lively debate...but no. 'Brainstorming' is not PC, lest it be perceived as referring to the electrical disturbances that are part of epilepsy! I jest not! The Politically Correct phrase to use now to describe a hectic exchange of ideas is...thought shower. How wet that sounds. How limp. Wait...what's that...'tis the drip, drip, drip of opinions cascading from above..!
Of course, because news now comes in sound bites and headlines, clever word manipulation is mandatory in politics and business. And some people make a good living, telling people how to do it. Thus oil companies benignly explore for energy, not wantonly drill for oil. And some expressions have become infamous: enhanced interrogation techniques are no more appealing than torture ever was.
One of USA’s most influential word wranglers, Frank Luntz (author of Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear) says, if you’re a business / political leader, five words you should be using now are: consequences (because people think there should be consequences), impact (because we want to know what’s really happening), reliability (because we’re sick of things not working), mission (because we want to know our leaders really care), and commitment (because we care that leaders are personally committed to things, and not just making empty promises). He says 'being on a mission' is different from dreaming up some cold corporate "mission statement". Remember those? What a crock of s*** they all were!
There're a few words that should be on the Good Words For Leaders list: truth, authenticity, and honesty...though today if someone in charge says they’re giving us the honest truth, that just reeks of being inauthentic. Ha! It’s got to the point where we're doubting everything we hear on the news!

(...with thanx to Lindsey Dawson at Grownups New Zealand)