Flipside

This may not redeem the world we live in, and for that matter it may only make things seem worse, but if you can, take 76 minutes of your life to watch this. It made me cry (watch til the end, you will too), which for the record is quite the achievement.

This, or an hour of Crazy In Love: Kerry Katona’s public breakdown. Your call.

What a wonderful world

Update from the lads at MissBimbo.Com:

Dear Players,

Due to unforseen worldwide interest in Miss Bimbo we have had difficulty in maintaining our game in the manner players have become accustomed. We are sorry for this inconvenience and can assure you that our game will be up and running as soon as possible.

“We set our site up on the cheap to make quick cash by preying on the insecurity of young girls. As such, we didn’t invest in sufficient server space to run our little game of fun. So it’s been broken for a week. Big oops. But the good news is, you can get back to aspiring to be a waif-thin, lingerie clad girl with an IQ of 70 and a boyfriend of 80 in a matter of days”

As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologise to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.

“We can’t believe anyone minded that we were exploiting young girls. Sure isn’t everyone at that game these days? We got a lot of stick for that diet pills thing, so even though it was great fun, because we have been wronged by the mean little media outlets who are far too concerned with the views of parents and doctors, we’re being forced to spoil your fun. Don’t worry, by taking this one tiny step in the right direction, your ability to continue starving your virtual bimbo into oblivion will remain intact – at least until someone ends up sick, or worse, and their parents sue us. But we’re fine for now. And that’s the main thing, right?”

We would also like to sincerely apologise to our players for the media comparison of Miss Bimbo and Paris Hilton. We feel that this does a dis-service to the players whom send their bimbos to university, tea parties or chess tournaments.

“We openly admit to having an inflated sense of our own wit and wisdom. BUT your virtual bimbos are in no way based on the exploitation of real young women with their own issues by the media in order to sell papers and make money. You are not a cash cow. We are your friends. We also have no idea how to structure sentences. And we’re a little vague on libel laws. But we’re witty. And wise.”

At this time we would also like to remind players that the Miss Bimbo team assume no responsibility or liability for any fashion faux pas, hair style disasters or boob jobs incurred in real life as as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game.

“To all ye nine year olds out there listening, remind your daddy the barrister that we said this isn’t our fault, and you can’t go blaming us if this ‘fun fashion game’ is in any way habit forming. That wasn’t the intention, we only wanted to make money so we could have our own fun. No lawsuits. We’re going to cling to this paragraph in court some day. But at least we said it. No lawsuits, right?”

The Miss Bimbo Team “are going straight to hell.”

Harmless??

The Times (London) reported this morning on a fun new trend in social networking sites.

Miss Bimbo is aimed at 9 to 16 year old girls. As with most social networking sites, you register an identity, but in this case you then take on a persona – as a bimbo. Your aim? To have plastic surgery, buy lingerie, go to night clubs, pick up (rich, older) men, and guzzle diet pills (and nothing else unless strictly necessary).

A quote, direct from the ‘rules‘ page of the site gives the following advice – to NINE YEAR OLD GIRLS:

Whats hunger?:

Duuuuuh? Are you serious? You must know how it feels to be hungry? We know you want to keep your bimbo waif thin but every girl needs to eat, every now and again. When she’s hungry feed that rumbling tummy or she could die of starvation !

I’m gobsmacked.

What’s worse, the developers defend this as being a harmless ironic poking of fun at paris hilton types, and claim that young girls couldn’t possibly be influenced by it. I can only assume they have no daughters of their own to worry about.

Please, somebody, arrest these irresponsible b*stards (and yes, they’re men).

The neverending (fairy)tale…

The Ó Searcaigh story keeps on running, and seems likely to until the man himself genuinely confronts the media, and for that matter the people of Ireland, directly.

The Irish Times letters page has once again raised a new angle – Ó Searcaigh travelled to a country where the legal age of consent was a year lower, and apparently sought out boys of that younger age. Does that make it more pre-meditated? It may be technically legal, but surely it can’t be considered morally okay?

Having finally seen the film last week, I have to admit that it was much more subtle than I expected given the director-bashing that has been going on since the story broke. It seems to me that if Neasa Ní Chianáin had set out to expose what she ultimately did, there was potential there for much more investigation and frankly for a much more aggressive approach to her subject.

But all that is besides the point. Now that the film has been aired, and the story is out there, and we know that Interpol have been investigating Ó Searcaigh for two years, the remaining issue is his position in Irish society – his membership of Aosdána, his poetry’s position on the leaving cert syllabus, etc.

There are a few obvious questions to be asked.

If CÓS was having sex with seventeen year old boys in Ireland, would the uproar be the same? If he was paying them, would it be the same? If he was waiting at school gates for 16 year old girls, how would his artist friends react? And how would the police? Again, the money has to come into it. If he handed over a month’s salary to a 16 year old girl from Blackrock/Foxrock/wherever, and then invited her to his hotel room for the night, would Máire Mhac an tSaoi still be defending him? Would Mary Hanafin think twice about leaving his poetry on the syllabus? If he was a priest instead of a poet, would Pauline Bewick be preaching that his sermons were so beautiful and full of love that he couldn’t possibly be traumatising very young men even if he was paying them for sex?

I’m sure most of these questions will never get answered. But more important ones have been answered already, and those answers can’t be ignored. CÓS admits having had sex with many of the boys. He admits that he prefers to give money directly to individual boys rather than donating to, say, a reputable charity. He admits that he then leaves his bedroom door open for them.

Cathal Ó Searcaigh writes beautiful poetry. Which has nothing to do with it.

Cathal Ó Searcaigh speaks beautiful Irish. Which has nothing to do with it.

Cathal Ó Searcaigh has had a difficult life, growing up as a gay man in a small town in rural Ireland when that was (somehow) even less acceptable than it is now. Which has nothing to do with it.

Cathal Ó Searcaigh is 52 years old, and makes annual trips to one of the poorest countries in the world, where he hands huge sums of money to 16 year olds, and subsequently has sex with them. Which is better known as ‘Exploitation and Sex Tourism 1.01‘.

Anyone choosing to ignore those facts is at best on very shaky moral ground, and at worst is bathing – and may soon be drowning – in a sea of their own hypocrisy.

Nice song. Nice speech. Nice spot.

Kudos to Sarah Carey for finding this – youtube of Marketa Irglova’s Oscar acceptance speech which was killed a couple of times but apparently now back online with a lot more OSCAR branding all over the place.