May 16, 2005

• ha. we are so fucked.
• /cries
• i forwarded that to my sweetie, who replied: I think we should adopt her and give her a good home. heh.
• ouch.
• the recipients
• Oddly, this article made me think "I hate teenagers" more than "she's very very stupid." Both, of course, but the former more than the latter. (Not all teenagers, simmer down. But your peers are packs of ill-tempered jackals when shoved together in large numbers. Mine were, too.)
• I know it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but I think stuff like this is hilarious. Gracias for the link!
• What Wurwilf said. Why was the place packed with high schoolers anyway? Some massive field trip or something? It's lucky for her agent that she's so clueless. Poor Don.
• Perfect, Cameron. Encourage teenage boys to continue sexually harrassing women. Brill-iant. But perhaps it's all we should expect from someone whose sole career highlight was shaking her Underoo-clad ass in a Charlie's Angels remake.
• Anybody know if there's a video of this? That would be totally awesome!
• I want to do you, Capt. Renault!
• Cameron: You fuckers. I didn't say "You guys are really awesome". What i really said was "You teenagers really need to adjust your sad-sack mores and realize there is more to life than humping". But some fucking journalist misquoted me.
• Meh. A good effort from Ms. Diaz, but my top 5 Cameron Diaz quotes still remain intact: 1. "It's cute when you meet young boys and they're bright red and breathing like they've run up the stairs, but they're just sitting outside the door. I've had phone calls in the middle of the night when I stay at hotels." 2. "Acting allows me to tell a lot of stories, you know start at the beginning, finish at the end, and tell everything in between. Modelling is just an image." 3. "I can spend hours in a grocery store. I get so excited when I see food, I go crazy. I spend hours arranging my baskets so that everything fits in and nothing gets squashed. I'm really anal about it, actually." 4. "I'd kiss a frog even if there was no promise of a Prince Charming popping out of it. I love frogs." 5. "I'm a pretty girl who's a model who doesn't suck as an actress."
• She put her smartest organ forward when she did that bum dance in whichever film it was. I'd do her, if she promised not to tell Justin.
• “I would like to thank Reebok for their help” -- and some bratty girl behind me called out “Damn straight you thanking them!” That's why I want to home school my son when he is old enough.
• How was she supposed to react to that? I can't imagine a resonse that would fail to encourage you guys to ridicule her.
• Umm how about something along the lines of her being disappointed that they were failing to take seriously such important issues and were behaving immaturely?
• Or just ignore it.
• Lately I've been crankily longing for the days when the studios took nobodies, changed their names, manufactured a persona for them, and sent them out into the world disallowed from saying or doing anything that wasn't scripted. I just...think I liked that better.
• Amen, Little Durian. "Just say your lines and look pretty, " no reason to be the next socio-political voice of America. I'm troubled by how often the Hollywood types have a perceptable influence on politics.
• I'm troubled about the Yale types Those guys are assholes The yalies of my generation pop their collars Ladies and gentlemen your future leaders
• Dear Cameron: Please don't help. Thanks! The World
• Collars down god damnit!
• The Reebok Human Rights Awards are nothing compared to the Exxon Environment Medal or the Enron Corporate Governance Prize.
• So I'm not the only one who thought that was odd.
• It seems not - at least not in 2002! Makes a nice item for Reebok's website, however.
• I thought so ... because how could Reebok compete with Nike and Adidas if they didn't also exploit third world workers. I changed my mind, the children were right to mock this ceremony, though I doubt they were aware of it.
• Lately I've been crankily longing for the days when the studios took nobodies, changed their names, manufactured a persona for them, and sent them out into the world disallowed from saying or doing anything that wasn't scripted. I just...think I liked that better. How about... we don't pay to see crap movies, we don't buy celeb mags like People, and we don't pay any attention to celebs unless they actually say or do something worthwhile? Societies get the culture they deserve.
• Societies get the culture they deserve. Amen. Turn off the TV! (please don't kill me.)
• (kills smallish bear) Cameron Diaz has always, always annoyed me. There's something about her that makes me want to poke her in the eye. I never got why she was so popular.
• This just in: her PR people are instigating the Cameron Diaz Prize for Outstanding Intelligence. That should turn you people around!
• I'll put it next to my Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
• Orange Swan -- I agree to some point. What's with all this celebrity "news" replacing real news?
• ... and this isn't a snark about mofi. It's a snark about the news, and about how we know way more about what celebrities think about things than what human rights workers think.
• Hopefully the Fox News Award for Relevant, Hard-Hitting Reporting will inspire some changes.
• Not when folks get a load of the Darth Vader Award for Being Really Fucking Badass.
• I thought it was the Darth Vader Citation for Good Parenting - ?
• No, you're thinking of the Anakin Skywalker Ribbon for Whining About How Unfair the Force Is.
• Oh right - thanks. Congrats on winning the Yoda Memorial Grammar Bee, btw.
• I never got why she was so popular. Errr...you're joking, right? Occam's Razor. She's blond and perky and can stand in the right spot and recite lines. Do you think most people want to be, like, intellectually engaged and stuff, or something? Like, geez.
• I thought so ... because how could Reebok compete with Nike and Adidas if they didn't also exploit third world workers Why doesn't anyone say anything about Indonesian companies "exploiting" Indonesian workers?
• My thought came up after following up on that link about Dita Sari the Indonesian who declined the prize in 1992. She said the average salary is a $1 a day or <$400 a year. The prize money from Reebok is $50,000. That's the salary of one hundred Indonesians for a year. Why couldn't she just have taken the money and made a statement with the *use* of the money rather than turning down the prize altogether?
• Yeah...evil Reebok should shut down their operations in Indonesia. Those people would be much better off without that $1.50 a day.
• Maybe refusing the $50K brought her (& possibly her comments) more publicity than $50K could have bought, abroad and especially in her home country? Apart from maintaining the integrity of her personal belief system, whatever that might be.
• Yeah...evil Reebok should shut down their operations in Indonesia. Those people would be much better off without that $1.50 a day. The point is, multinationals like Reebok are making massive profits by contracting their manufacturing out to third world countries. They don't even pay the workers a living wage, and they're able to do this through the cooperation of the countries' governments. If they paid a living wage and gave the workers the same standards that are held in the US, it would be fine, but they don't, because to do so would hurt their massive profits.
• First...define 'living wage'. It's an ambiguous concept that can mean different amounts to different people. Second, if they paid provided wages and benefits commensurate with US standards, they wouldn't set up shop in Indonesia, and the Indonesians would have no jobs at all. What is the average wage of unskilled workers in the Indonesian labour market? Is Reebok paying an average wage? (If they're paying less then you have a point) Do the people working there want multinationals to leave their country? Lastly: The computer you're tying away on...how much did the people who assembled it and it's components make?
• Is Reebok paying an average wage? If they're paying less then you have a point I had thought the point was our suspicions that Reebok have set up a human rights award as a PR move to differentiate themselves from rival sportswear manufacturers who find themselves targeted by "anti-sweatshop" NGOs. While good money may come from dubious purpose, it raiseth the eyebrow and allows for any number of funny ha ha joke-abouts. However, a more thorough investigation of "fair trade" principles in relation to sportwear giants (and say, their industial relations practices) awaits.
• Oxfam and fair olympics seem interesting in this context.
• What quidnunc said. I'm not saying multinationals should stay out of third world nations, but they could certainly stand to do more good (at home and abroad), especially if they want to start handing out humanitarian awards. Also, arguing makes me sleepy.
• quid: Thanks. That Oxfam link was what I was looking for...actual solutions rather than just claims that all multinationals are evil and globalization == exploitation. I think globalization could be good for third world countries if it's implemented properly, and some of Oxfam's recommendations point in that direction (although there are some I disagree with). Maybe our western governments could tie their own contracts and tax incentives to companies that abide by these rules in all of their international facilities and subcontractors.
• I was just reading the Oxfam site last night after hearing that it's currently Fair Trade Fortnight here in NZ. Ah, irony.
• No worries. Personally, every 50-thou that goes towards human rights sounds good to me, but I suspect this prize was not created merely because the Reebok board has a deep and abiding love for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The UN Millennium Development Goals, relevant to our Human Rights conversation here, are also comething I would also like to know a lot more about.
• I want to do you, quidnunc kid!
• Of the 8 noteworthy UN Millennium goals, China appears to be well on the way to achieving 6. They're not doing so well on the HIV/AIDS and also not so good on the environment. Stop the exploitation before they achieve all 8!
• You guys are so awesome!
• No, you are!
• Hawthorne -- you are a two-timin' hussy. There. I said it.
• I think we all know what that feels like, right guys?