Philippines tourism campaign takes an unfortunate porny twist

The Philippines says it pulled its latest online tourism campaign after critics panned the rebrand and warned that unwary surfers could easily end up at a porn site instead.


The site, www.beautifulpilipinas.com, was taken down on Tuesday, just a day after it was launched by the tourism department to much fanfare, said Evelyn Macayayong, interim head of the ministry's tourist information office.
The campaign featured a candy-coloured logo including the slogan, a coconut tree, an endangered primate called a tarsier, the sun and waves.
Critics panned the decision to use the local spelling of the country's name, warning that a similar site, with a spelling only two letters different, was pornographic.
Some called for the country's eight-year-old tourism slogan, "Wow Philippines", to be brought back.
Posts on networking sites about the "Pilipinas Kay Ganda" (Philippines What a Beauty) website described it as "bland," and "lacking punch".
In response, Macayayong referred AFP to Tourism Minister Alberto Lim's speech at Monday's launch.
"It is a radical departure from what our neighbours are doing, and to the faint of heart, a bit risky," Lim had said, defending the rebranding as a result of market research conducted by an unnamed major advertising firm.
 (Source)

Now I'm not in the marketing industry, but I would assume that one of the most important tenets in marketing is to know your audience. So I get that in Tagalog, the name for the Philippines is "Pilipinas"; however, to the non-Filipino, it recalls the word "Filipinas", meaning Filipino women. So I think it's understandable that the vast majority of people who see a website called www.beautifulpilipinas.com, are going to suspect that it is, if not a porn site, at least one devoted to the Philippines' many beautiful women, rather than the beauty of the country itself.
Now I'm a curious fellow, so in the interests of research, I searched on www.beautifulpilipinas.com (the website no longer exists) and then changed the p to an f and awaited the result.
Good heavens. Now I'm a red-blooded male and I don't consider myself a prude but the site I ended up on  was a little too much for my senses. And it didn't even seem to feature any Filipinas! It would certainly have painted the Philippines as an interesting place for all those potential visitors who inadvertently spelled the original website's address wrong. But I'm guessing the Tourism Department don't want the world thinking the Philippines is the place you go to see Latin chicks getting gangbanged.

So I'm glad they pulled it, and I'm sure they'll learn for next time. These are the things you need to consider when operating in the internet age. So if you are setting up a website for your business that sells big black clocks, I hope you learn from this too.

Goooooooooooooolllllll!!!!!

If you've ever had the pleasure of listening to football highlights from the non-English-speaking world, you'll be familiar with the extremely entertaining ways the commentators have of proclaiming the scoring of a goal.

This one's from Italy, a remarkable goal from Roma's Stefano Okaka leading to a frenzied outpouring from the announcer which sounds like an excited puppy.


This one from Spain demonstrates the correct pronunciation of "goal" as practiced by announcers all over the Spanish speaking world - aiming to stretch the one word out for as many syllables as possible. There are a lot of goals in this game, so you'll see it's not just a once off.


And finally, an Arabic commentator who sounds like he's weeping with joy at the quality of this goal.

Someone gave this kid too much red cordial

I'm lamenting my wasted youth right about now. This kid, Angelo Baligad, who goes by the name "Lil Demon" is 8 years old. Make sure you watch til the end. My brain exploded.

The little fella is from Hawaii, of Filipino background. What is it with Pinoys and breakdancing? Add it to the list of things they are awesome at (which already includes karaoke, cooking pork, and being nurses).

Obama in Indonesia

Barack Obama visited Indonesia this week, returning for the first time to the country where he spent several years of his early childhood. He spent only 23 hours on the ground, but clearly made a positive impression in a nation in which he is very popular.

He gave an address at the University of Indonesia, in which he talked of his childhood in Jakarta, praised Indonesia's burgeoning democracy and affirmed the commonalities between the two countries. You can watch some of it below; the full 30 minute speech is easy enough to find if you want it.

He got a reception worthy of a rockstar, with rapturous applause particularly with his reminiscences of a young life in the Jakarta suburb of Menteng, buying satay and bakso (meatball soup) from street vendors. And his few phrases in Bahasa Indonesia went down a treat as well. His pronunciation is not perfect but it's pretty good. Check out the 2:35 mark - while speaking of his stepfather Lolo Soetoro, he actually rolls the R perfectly as an Indonesian would (a lot of non-Indonesians struggle with this).


It is this ability to connect with non-Western cultures that makes him extremely popular around the world, yet conversely it inspires only suspicion for a significant portion of American voters back home. That an American President can pronounce foreign names properly and attempt reach out to Muslim countries which could potentially be US enemies should be a great asset; yet it only provides further ammunition for those who insist on believing Obama to be a Muslim socialist Manchurian candidate.

Of course the President's trip was not all smiles and pats on the back.

Approximately 20,000 people, primarily from fundamentalist groups such as Hizbut Tahrir, gathered to protest Obama's presence in Indonesia, decrying the USA's unquestioning support of Israel and accusing him of oppressing Muslims.
For those Americans who think that Obama is hell-bent on introducing sharia law into the US, take note. Indonesia's Islamists obviously didn't get the "he's a Muslim" memo.

There was some other controversy as well, this time related to a handshake. Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring is known for his stringent Muslim beliefs, and has previously expressed his belief that men and women should not have any physical contact unless they are married or related. Tifatul was seen enthusiastically shaking the hand of Michelle Obama, but then later tweeted that he didn't want to; her hand was extended towards him and he reluctantly shook it to be polite. What a sacrifice for him to make!

You'd think Tifatul would have learned to stay off Twitter after the controversy that followed his extremely poor joke about gays and AIDS. But no. His tweet was picked up by international media and caused a minor stir. This is a little embarassing for Indonesia; most Indonesians have no problem at all with handshaking between the sexes, and thus would not wish to see themselves associated with narrow minds such as the Information Minister. But it also was no doubt met with glee from the anti-Obama brigade in the US who are keen to point out a diplomatic faux pas from a member of the first family. Of course, no blame can objectively be levelled at either of the Obamas. Sembiring was one of a number of people standing in line, and all the others happily shook hands with Michelle Obama. How was she to know that one among that group is an ultra-conservative who thinks a handshake is somehow sinful?

Sembiring, I think, does actually know that whatever one's beliefs, sometimes you have to compromise on them for the sake of politeness. This is something that most people understand instinctively, whatever their religion. But rather than admit this, he attempted to portray himself as remaining spiritually pure and thus implied that Michelle Obama virtually forced her sinful handshake upon him.

Malaysian-Indonesian blogger Unspun, who has a pretty good handle on these things, puts it rather nicely.

Well, what do you expect? As that sage of the human condition, Forrest Gump, would have put it: “Stupid is as stupid does.” When you put a Fool in the greeting lineup for a state guest the Fool will always act the Fool. The question that needs to be asked is what tomfoolery has prevented the President from firing Tif the Fool long ago, so that he would not grow up to be a national embarrassment as he has today.

In one fell stroke, he’s stolen the thunder from Obama and SBY, at least for the Twitterati of Indonesia.

The Colbert Report had an amusing take on it as well.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Michelle Obama's Embarrassing Handshake
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

The US public pays almost no attention to Indonesia as it is, and when they do it's for this? Some people like Tifatul Sembiring need to realise that they represent more than just their own petty little agendas.

Japanese TV weirdness of the week

This is some kind of test involving former boxer Yoko Gushiken to see if his uber-friendly dog will recognise him while he wears a disguise. For some reason, the disguise is as a Lil Jon-esque rapper.  Why? You tell me.

yo yo facepalm yo
Uploaded by marlowalls. - More video blogs and vloggers.

(Hat tip: Japan Probe)

Aasif Mandvi in "Todays Special"

Dunno 'bout you, but I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming release of Today's Special, a romantic comedy written by and starring Aasif Mandvi. You might recognise the likeable Mandvi from his spots on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as well as his recent turn in The Last Airbender. He plays Samir, a sous chef at an upscale restaurant who finds himself taking over his parents' ailing Indian eatery.
The voiceover in this trailer is so cheesy that it almost turned me off the film, but all the reviews I have read so far have been extremely positive.



I like the look of the cast; apart from Mandvi, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah is a legend of Indian cinema (you may recall him from the excellent Monsoon Wedding). Samir's mother is played by Madhur Jaffrey, who is surely perfect for the role; as well as being an award-winning actress, she is a cookbook author of great renown. The star seems to be the food though, and I love a good food movie.

And in the current political climate, rife with generalisations about Islam (all Muslims = terrorists), it's nice to see a film about Americans Muslims in which they seem to be portrayed as people who just happen to be Muslim.

This time, it's a Islamist WOMAN who condones marital rape

In the UK, TV broadcaster Islam Channel has caught some heat this week for various comments that justified domestic violence. Most notably, one by a female host that seemed to think it's ok for a husband to force himself on his wife.
From The Guardian:

In a programme first broadcast in April last year, Ofcom ruled that the Islam Channel host Nazreen Nawaz condoned marital rape when she said: "And really the idea that a woman cannot refuse her husband's relations this is not strange to a Muslim because it is part of maintaining that strong marriage. But it shouldn't be such a big problem where the man feels he has to force himself upon the woman."

The channel also broke the broadcasting code by encouraging violence against women, in a Q&A session on marital violence, and for labelling women who wore perfume "prostitutes".
The broadcaster, which was fined £30,000 by Ofcom in 2007 for a series of breaches, also broke impartiality regulations for broadcasting one-sided coverage of international affairs and the Middle East conflict.

Now, I'm not against Muslims, but I am strongly anti-extremist and anti-f*cking-idiot. And Nazreen Nawaz falls firmly into both categories. Despite being a clearly intelligent person - she's very articulate and is a qualified dentist - she constantly supports a outdated and misogynist view of the role of women. She's also previously suggested that women should not be in charge of Islamic countries. Nawaz is the UK's female representative of Hizb Ut-Tahrir, a group that has previously been banned in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey, because they consider it too extremist.
Now I'm down with multiculturalism, but as far as I'm concerned women's rights are more important than anyone's right to perpetuate or promote practices that oppress women.

And this brings me back to the issue of the burqa, which some countries are trying to ban. While I appreciate that this is a very complicated issue, I have previously expressed my sympathy for the moves to ban it. Because while banning a woman's right to wear a burqa is an oppressive act, the burqa itself is oppressive. Much is said about the burqa being a woman's choice, yet Nawaz is an example of how indoctrination to extremist versions of any religion can make women incapable of making sane choices in their own best interest. When a woman can proudly say on television that wives must not refuse their husband's advances, and that marital rape does not really exist, this is evidence that she lacks the real-life perspective to make a rational decision on this matter. A choice to accept oppression - be it a burqa or a husband's unwanted sexual advances - is not really a choice at all.