Child models

Good to see the government and opposition both focusing on the big issues at the moment. The big one attracting their attention over the last few days was caused by a 12 year old girl named Maddison Gabriel, who was chosen as the face of Gold Coast Fashion Week. Maddison beat older girls for the modelling contract, but event organisers said she would not be parading swimwear or lingerie.

Said John Howard about this:

“I think that is way too young and I don’t think it should happen.”

“There should be age limits … We do have to preserve some notion of innocence in our society, surely. Catapulting girls as young as 12 into something like that is quite outrageous and I am totally opposed to it.”

while Kevin Rudd had this to say:

“I have real concerns about littlies that young going out there doing that sort of thing.”

Maddison herself had this to say:

“Modelling is all I’ve wanted to do since I was six - I don’t think I’m too young.

“The people there [at Fashion Week] thought I was a bit older, like their age. I’d really like to be an international model.”

and her mother this:

“Some 12-year-olds are very young, but I think Maddison is a woman in her own right,”

Hmmmm! 12 year old = woman? I don’t think so. She’s still a child. I don’t really have a problem with a child doing modelling, provided it is appropriate. What I think is inappropriate is children being made up and dressed up to look older, and turned into a sex object. I’d also have concerns about the amount of work they might be required to do, and the venues and situations. Would I have wanted my daughter doing this? No way.

To some extent, this story brings to mind those beauty pageants with little girls all tarted up …like JonBenet Ramsay for example. Those things are truly bizarre.

Shut up or we’ll sue you

This is a bit of a worry.   Software firm 2Clix is suing the owner of the Whirlpool internet forum over comments posted on the forum which were highly derogatory about the company’s product.  2Clix is asking for $150,000 in damages and an injunction requiring Whirlpool to remove forum threads highly critical of 2Clix’s accounting software.

In a statement of claim filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland, 2Clix said the comments, published in two threads between between late last year and July this year, led it to sustain “a severe downturn in monthly sales”. 2Clix claimed the statements were both false and malicious, and said it contacted Whirlpool about the matter this year but Whirlpool refused to take the forum threads down.

Amanda Stickley, a senior law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, said if 2Clix won there would be severe consequences for website operators as they would have to be “very vigilant in checking material on the website and remove anything that could cause injury to someone’s business reputation”.  She also said it would be very difficult for 2Clix to successfully sue the owner of the forum (Simon Wright) for injurious falsehood over comments made by Whirlpool users. It would have to prove the statements were false, that they were made in malice, that 2Clix actually suffered damage in the form of monetary loss and, critically, that Wright had intended to cause 2Clix monetary loss by allowing the material to remain on the website.

“I don’t think you could actually prove that for a web operator, that they personally intended the damage because of their malicious intention, especially when it’s posted by a third party that they’ve got no relationship to,” Stickley said.

I believe she’s probably right and that the case is unlikely to succeed (admittedly based on my very limited knowledge of the law).  However its a concern that legal action is used to gag free speech and (presumably) legitimate comment on a product or service.  No doubt the company is hoping that Wright will be threatened by its deeper pockets and presumably greater capacity to fund legal action, and pull his head in and take the comments off the forum.

I have to wonder why companies, or individuals, take this sort of legal action.  I’d have thought that leaving it on the forum probably exposes it to a few dozen, or hundred, potential customers.  The publicity associated with the legal action gets it all out into the wider public domain, and sees all the dirty linen aired for all to see.  I have a professional interest in the type of software that 2Clix makes, so found all the comments in the Whirlpool forums extremely interesting - never would have heard it without it attracting my attention via the news reports of the court action.

Naked celebrities

I know, I know, this is just a shameless attempt to attract visitors via search engines, but previous reviews of my site statistics show that sex, nudity and celebrities are key drawcards, so I thought I’d cover them all in a single post.

3 stories about celebrities involved in varying degrees of nakedness caught my attention lately.

First, Jenna Jameson, probably the most famous porn movie actress in the world, is set to visit Australia.

The reason for her visit is nothing to do with her “acting”, but the fact that she has fallen for the fashions of Perth designer, Aurelio Costarella. Jameson said she fell for the designs six months ago while doing a magazine shoot in an Aurelio Costarella gown. I’m assuming she needs the clothes for her social, rather than professional, life, given the latter generally involves little in the way of clothes at all …unless you count high heels and stockings (do they still always wear shoes in porn movies by the way - its been ages since I’ve seen one?)

Second, Vanessa Hudgens, star of the High School Musical movies, has had some nude photos of herself find their way onto the internet. She obviously did not take heed of the motto that you don’t take photos or videos of yourself in action unless you’re willing to share them on the web.

Hudgens, 18, has been the subject of speculation about whether the appearance of the photos would affect her future employment with Disney, makers of the High School Musical movies …which I’m sure anyone with children will have seen several times - I know, my kids must have seen it a dozen times at least. Anyway, she has been forced to apologise for her indiscretion in having the nude photos taken (or more accurately, was the indiscretion actually in having them leaked?) Her statement said:

“I want to apologise to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me,”

“I am embarrassed and regret having ever taken these photos.”

“It is a personal matter and it is unfortunate that this has become public,”

Disney has stuck by her so far, but said in a statement it hoped she had learned a lesson.

Personally, I can’t see what she’s got to apologise for. She took some nude photos for her boyfriend. The photos are nothing scandalous, rather very harmless. Apart from revealing that an 18 year old girl has boobs and pubes (shocking isn’t it?), she is doing nothing but standing there, wearing nothing but a smile. As with the Melissa Scannell case, the real villain is the person who got hold of the photos and leaked them.

And in later news, there are now supposedly photos of her engaged in “lesbian kissing”. Judge for yourself - more like fart-arsing around with her friends if you ask me. Desperate attempt to keep the issue going, maybe?

Finally, and most pathetically, Britney Spears.who has been absolutely savaged about her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Kicking off the show with her new single, Gimme More, Spears looked bleary and unprepared. She walked through her dance moves with little enthusiasm. It appeared she had forgotten the entire art of lip-synching. She’ s also been bagged out for being fat and out of shape - thats a bit unfair I think.

The rubbishing for lip-synching badly (lipsynching at all deserves rubbishing, let alone doing it badly) is deserved. Not to mention, criticism of a shit song and performance … but I’d hardly say Britney’s looking porky. Skanky trailer trash with extremely limited talent, yes …fat, no, thats just being cruel! In other Britney news, she’s been photographed out in public having forgotten to wear knickers … again.

Its time to go …. John Howard

The announcement yesterday that Queensland premier Peter Beattie will retire from politics this week throws into stark contrast the dogged refusal of PM John Howard to retire, but rather hang onto office right till the bitter end.

Actually, it would seem rather an empty gesture if Howard were to retire now, and hand over the reigns of the Liberal party, and the prime ministership, to Peter Costello.  The die is cast electorally, and the government is heading for a big loss at the election later this year, regardless of who is in charge.  The time for change is not in desperate times at the 11th hour, but should have happened a couple of years ago, to give his successor time to put his stamp on things, and the party to reinvigorate itself.  This did not happen, and it is now way too late for the government.  Anyway, even if Howard did hand over to Costello, or anyone else, its not going to make a difference …so tarnished electorally are the lot of them.

Howard has signalled again his determination to hang on. He has warned his Liberal colleagues to expect a battle if they try to remove him before the election. Mr Howard ruled out stepping down, saying he had never run away from a fight and did not intend to do so now.  I suspect he is right in saying he represents the government’s best chance of winning the election …I can’t see it has any viable alternative leaders.  Thats not a great position to be in, and reflects selfishness and lack of forethought on Howard’s and the party’s part over the last few years.

The likes of Peter Beattie, Steve Bracks, Bob Carr and Geoff Gallop all left politics at the time of their own choosing, from positions of strength and left their parties in good shape (and in the last 2 cases, able to win the next state election).  John Howard is heading towards a big loss, and leaving his party in a rabble … not the sort of legacy he would have wished, at least I would have thought.   The Liberal party will be in pretty desperate straits then, its already a rabble in just about every state, and chances are the Federal party is about to join them.

Break out the Drizabone and Akubra, saddle my horse

Australia’s national costume, at least according to the organisers of the APEC conference, is a Drizabone raincoat and an Akubra hat. That’s what was given to the leaders attending the conference in Sydney for the fancy dress photo.

Very predictable. And reflective of folklore about Australia, the bush, mateship and a whole lot of things that are somewhat dated, and from a romantic view of our history. Very little to do with modern Australia.

In the spirit of conforming to the image of Australia the government wants to portray to the world, I suppose I’d better break out the Drizabone, put on the Akubra, saddle my horse and go to work out on the farm.

OK, so what exactly is this?

Seen at Batu Caves, near Kuala Lumpur.

Hanging out in airports

I started to write this post waiting for my flight from Kuala Lumpur, but time ran out before my boarding call.

No matter how good an airport is, and KLIA is very good as far as airports go, hanging around in them is not fun. In fact, I struggle to think of more boring ways to spend time. At least at KLIA they have free wireless internet so I could sit in Starbucks with an iced coffee, surf the web and clear a few emails. Beats sitting around reading the paper or staring into space I suppose.

I’m now in the lounge at Sydney waiting for my connecting flight to Canberra. I sure picked a great time to fly via Sydney …didn’t think 0f APEC when I booked my tickets. More security and waiting around than usual.

Since finishing work yesterday, I’ve spent 30 minutes in a taxi to KL Sentral, 30 minutes on the KLIA Expres train (great service by the way - from the middle of KL to the airport in 28 minutes, as their advertising says), 4 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the plane, and now a couple of hours in Sydney. All the fun of travel!!!

(Update) And of course any flight to Canberra would not be complete without the interminable wait first for your luggage to get to the carousel (must be vying for Australia’s slowest service) and then for a taxi to show up at the rank. And what is it with the advertising in the arrivals area for warships and fighter aircraft …. am I supposed to get inspired to think “ah, I’ve got a lazy billion sitting around, just what I need, an amphibious warfare ship and a few fighter jets to go with it”.

Time’s flying here in KL

I’ve now been in KL for a week and a day and time sure has flown by. Work, work, work …

But I’ve fitted in a couple of good nights out …satays, chilli crab, pepper crab, chilli prawns, and of course, large amounts of Tiger beer (and later Jack Daniels). Even tried eating some durian one night …the consensus in our group was it tastes as bad (or worse) as it smells.

Friday was a public holiday here (gee, we plan well, couldn’t go to the office so had to work at the hotel - and did this in style, wireless network by the poolside). Not only was it a public holiday, it was a big one, 50th anniversary of Merdeka (Malaysia’s independence).

Didn’t have to work on the weekend, so spent most of it sightseeing and shopping.

Back to work today, and will be busy again till I fly home on Friday night.

Something funny I saw on the weekend - in Sydney, you can see “Keating - the Musical”; here there’s “Tunku - the Musical” (Tunku Abdul Rahman being Malaysia’s first prime minister).