Americanisation

It has come to that time of year again where people get dressed up in 'scary' costumes and go "Trick or Treating" for Halloween. It is at times like this that you realise how much Americanisation has affected countries that we live in (that is not, obviously, America). Halloween is a typically American holiday which is celebrated more over there than it really is down under. However, in previous years Halloween has gone up in popularity around Australia and everyone is getting involved. It is a sure sign of Americanisation in our modern world. Such an occurrence would normally be termed Globalisation but due to the sheer amount of American influences we see every day I think it is a safe thing for me to further categorise it. Americanisation is definitely a growing problem.

Source: http://blog.antonemdin.com/2012/02/americanisation-of-australian-politics/

We can see Americanisation in Australia in more places than just Halloween. For instance, you have the American companies who have come into Australia and already seem to be part of the fixture. These are companies like McDonalds  and KFC. Even Hungry Jacks, known in America as Burger King, is an American company along with Subway and many other things. In recent years we have also seen the introduction of giant bulk-buying stores like Costco which is yet another American company settling in Australia. However, for some companies the settlement is not so easy. Starbucks for instance. Though they are insanely popular in America they have struggled in Australia with the competition from Gloria Jeans. You do not see many Starbucks stores outside of the Melbourne CBD. Another such instance is with the American doughnut company, Krispy Kreme. Though originally very popular they since went out of style. Now there are only a few stores where there used to be many and it is only in recent years that they have started crawling back into the Australian market through chains such as 7-Eleven. Americanisation, however, is not always such a bad thing. There are many great things we have in Australia that have been influenced or is directly from America. For instance we have all the great (and not so great) movies that come out of Hollywood. We have our very own little Broadway in Collins Street as well as numerous American fashion chains and companies with stores all across the country. Americanisation, like most things, comes with its benefits and its deficits. Sometimes, we just have to weigh the good up against the bad.

Americanisation, is it such a bad thing? See you tomorrow.

King Kong

He is a six metre tall, one tonne beast and he's ready to take the world by storm. King Kong himself will feature in a never-before-seen musical premiering right here in Melbourne. It is an ambitious project by Global Creatures, the company behind such successful stage spectaculars as 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and 'How to Train Your Dragon'. After more than five years of development, six months of rehearsal and amazing new technology, King Kong is set to live up to its massive reputation.

Image Source: http://www.theloop.com.au/sschulze/project/88858

The puppet himself requires thirteen men, known as the "King's Men", to control his movements while 'voodoo' puppeteers at the back of the theatre control his facial features. Due to King Kong's lasting impression on the world anything half-done is simply not good enough and so Global Creatures has pulled out all stops for this multi-million dollar production. An all-Australian cast is set to lead this spectacle with Esther Hannaford as Ann Darrow and Adam Lyons, in his first ever musical, as Carl Denham. The show is set to be so large that in the first fifteen minutes alone over 100 different costumes are used. Audiences are sure to be amazed when the show premieres tomorrow night at the Regent Theatre Melbourne.

Image Source: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/musicals/monkey-business-20121018-27s6i.html

The music itself is a haunting and eclectic mix of genres that are sure to amaze. The music ranges from the grandiose sounds of "The Greatest Show on Earth" to the more subtle and longing tones of "What's it gonna take?" Musical masterminds have come together under the leadership of Marius de Vries (whose credits include Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann)) to create a score that will shock you and make you cry. If the Melbourne Production is received well (which I'm sure it will) then King Kong will set its sights on places around the world. Last time Kong went to Broadway he certainly left an impression but let's hope he leaves a better impression this time around. I already have my tickets for June 30 and cannot wait to see this spectacular come to life on stage.

Image Source: 

http://www.factmag.com/2013/05/09/hear-new-material-from-the-avalanches-taken-from-the-king-kong-soundtrack/

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Internet Censorship is Wrong

Imagine a world where sites like YouTube and Facebook did not exist. A world where one could not share their thoughts through the click of a mouse, or the touch of a button. This is a world where everything online is censored and the only way to share what you’re really thinking is through word of mouth. We should not be controlling what is posted online. If we do what are we really losing? Culture? Social networks? Jobs?

We live in an age where the online world has become part of our global culture and ingrained into our everyday lives. We can see our culture everyday online; YouTube is a prime example. There are over half a billion channels on YouTube with over 70 hours of video uploaded every minute and it is available in over 60 languages. All the users and videos from all over the world create a vibrant global culture online. The censoring of this site and those like it would mean censoring of the global culture.

What democratic country censors a culture? Such an abhorrent act seems impossible of the western world yet if we were to regulate what people post online this would become a reality. We would lose our global culture due to the possibility of causing offence or alienation. Our Internet would be reduced to something devoid of entertainment. The internet would be the laughing stock of the modern world and our global culture would be lost forever. What do we really stand to lose when we control what is posted online?

The beginning of the control of what is posted online marks the end of Social Networks as we know them.  Sites like Facebook and Twitter would cease to exist. The sheer task of censoring the billion monthly active users on Facebook would mean it would take days for a post to actually go out to friends. People are not going to wait days to tell people what is happening right now. They will begin to stop using these sites and the companies like Facebook and Twitter will not be able to keep up with running costs and will have to shut down. Thousands of jobs would be lost for what?

What do we really stand to gain through controlling what is posted online? Is this insignificant gain important enough to cost thousands their jobs? Can we really bare the guilt associated with mass job loss just to protect our feelings? Thousands of people will have to go home one night and have to explain to their families why they will be no longer working. Thousands of families will struggle to make ends meet. Thousands of relationships will be put under stress, hundreds doomed to end. These jobs not only include the companies like Twitter and Facebook but also the local petrol station and café which rely on the workers coming in for breaks or to refill their cars on the way home from work. What about the local shopping centre that will lose customers? What about the children who will grow up in strained families where tension is always waiting around the corner? How will they cope when their families can no longer afford to pay for their school, hobbies or interests? How is a five or eight year old going to understand why they cannot have what their friends have and the concepts of unemployment? Controlling what is posted online will lead to pointless loss of jobs and will cause an emotional ripple effect.

The censoring of what is posted online will become one of the modern tragedies of our time. If we let this happen what do we stand to lose? Our global culture is surely doomed for extinction and the internet would be set to become the laughing stock of our generation. Then there are the social media networks that would no longer exist and the jobs they caused becoming redundant. Our entire economy would suffer just to protect our fragile feelings. Thousands of families will stand to lose so much more than their feelings if we begin to monitor what is posted online. We should not monitor what is posted online because we stand to lose so much more than hurt feelings if we do.

Image Source: http://www.israeltrade.org.au/israel-eyes-next-generation-internet/

The above was my speech for an oral presentation on the prompt "should we be allowed to post whatever we want online?" I presented this speech yesterday in English. 

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!