Welcome to my world blog 1
Welcome to my world
Well here goes. Hello world. It’s good to see 52 people worldwide have taken the time and trouble to look at my profile and I haven’t written anything yet. It bodes exceedingly well for my career as a world famous on-line, sometime grumpy, sometime exultant journalist. My twitter account is going well too - I’ve a following of two people and haven’t tweeted anything! My reputation obviously precedes me.
As a “Renowned South Pacific Journalist” I must confess that having established a blog several years ago I was immediately intimidated by the knowledge that the whole world has access to my thoughts, rather than a small group of loyal community newspaper readers in far flung Godzone, aka New Zealand. Paralysed by fear I procrastinated for months, nay years. Now, finally throwing caution to the wind I’m feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
My aim is to entertain, ask questions, seek solutions and work towards restoring some common sense to a world that, to me, seems to have lost the plot.
With the potential of millions of readers, and the likelihood of this blog going viral within an instant, it has to be good doesn’t it? Am I prepared for the fame? You bet, bring it on. I have to amass a small fortune quickly and then I can retire to finish my novel about my life in the Fiji Islands and reap the rewards by living the life I deserve in a cliff top mansion surrounded by brightly coloured parrots, aqua marine sea, musicians and authors,and possibly a lover.
I might not be whinging all the time because life is funny, it’s often tragic too. We all cope as best we can whatever life throws at us. It’s good to laugh, it’s good to cry, and it’s also good to appreciate the natural world and rejoice in simple things like the beauty of the changing seasons or discovering a new local haunt. Travel starts at home doesn’t it?
Today I’m a wee bit grumpy-you can call me the Whinging Pom, a grumpy old woman, a Luddite even. Feel free to give me a label of your own choice. I know I’m not the only one struggling with the rapid changes in society - technology, social attitudes, standards and so on.
So, my major concern right now is why our language is being debased, particularly on the TV and then the nasty, vile, offensive words are quickly assimilated into our day to day vocabulary.
Okay, I know language and society evolve. What was once considered offensive has now been assimilated into modern language, and also the annals of history. Take, for example, the iconic Toyota commercial aired in New Zealand in 1999. http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/bugger-toyota-hilux-commercial-1999
Was I offended by the bugger furore? No. I thought it was funny, very funny, but I’m not religious, and the series perhaps epitomised or parodied rural life down under. The commercial won a raft of awards and yet, there were 120 or so complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. It was banned for a short time but the authority ruled the use of the b word “... was unlikely to cause serious offence.”
So where do we draw the line and who draws it? Is the ‘F’ word so commonplace that it’s now part of everyday language with few batting an eyelid or flinching, except perhaps for me, when they hear the ‘F’ word day in day out? Cheers Gordon.
What about the ‘C’ word? Is it about to be, or has it already been, incorporated into everyday language too? Episodes, a TV programme recently aired in NZ, had a warning at the beginning about offensive language. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s just one example of the use of the ‘C’ word, there’s much more for those interested. Allegedly Matt Le Blanc won a Golden Globe for his work in this series. Yeah, right. Here’s one example....
We have choices that include not watching TV and reading a book instead, but where will it end, and are there any more offensive words yet to be exploited?
I can only be me, the quintessential Chrys Ayley, warts and all. So welcome to my world. I look forward to chatting with you all in two weeks’ time and to receiving your feedback on this first blog.
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