Sunday, April 18, 2004
What colour is the ribbon for hypocrisy?
The sheltered workshop that is Australia's "artz" community is not happy about the free trade agreement with the United States, and they are not afraid to show it at tonight Logie Awards:
"Australian actors will pin green and gold ribbons to their designer outfits at tonight's TV Week Logie Awards to protest against the 'pawning' of Australian culture in free trade negotiations with the US.
" 'Our culture is not a commodity,' said Alan Fletcher, who plays Dr Karl Kennedy on Neighbours and is the Victorian president of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)."
Our culture is not a commodity? I presume then, Alan, that you work for free.
Meanwhile, Queensland's Labor Education and Arts Minister and the premier in waiting, Anna Bligh, is heading to California to ensure that the Hollywood money keeps flowing to finance American productions made Down Under. Guvernator Schwarzenegger has promised during the election campaign to try to stem the flow of estimated $A5.4 billion that the American movie industry is spending offshore in countries with cheaper production costs such as Australia and New Zealand. And so our newest defender of free trade is flying off shortly to fight Conan the Protectionist.
Common guys, you can't have it both ways - reaping the financial rewards whenever an American studio or a TV channel choose to film over here, creating jobs for Australian film industry professionals, but then throwing a tantrum to prevent American productions from "swamping" Australia.
And God forbid that viewers should actually be allowed to watch what they want - what would those peasants know about culture, anyway?
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"Australian actors will pin green and gold ribbons to their designer outfits at tonight's TV Week Logie Awards to protest against the 'pawning' of Australian culture in free trade negotiations with the US.
" 'Our culture is not a commodity,' said Alan Fletcher, who plays Dr Karl Kennedy on Neighbours and is the Victorian president of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)."
Our culture is not a commodity? I presume then, Alan, that you work for free.
Meanwhile, Queensland's Labor Education and Arts Minister and the premier in waiting, Anna Bligh, is heading to California to ensure that the Hollywood money keeps flowing to finance American productions made Down Under. Guvernator Schwarzenegger has promised during the election campaign to try to stem the flow of estimated $A5.4 billion that the American movie industry is spending offshore in countries with cheaper production costs such as Australia and New Zealand. And so our newest defender of free trade is flying off shortly to fight Conan the Protectionist.
Common guys, you can't have it both ways - reaping the financial rewards whenever an American studio or a TV channel choose to film over here, creating jobs for Australian film industry professionals, but then throwing a tantrum to prevent American productions from "swamping" Australia.
And God forbid that viewers should actually be allowed to watch what they want - what would those peasants know about culture, anyway?
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