Almost a fifth of South African men have raped a woman at least once in their lives, the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) has disclosed in releasing its annual report.
The MRC's Gender and Health Research Unit interviewed 1 370 men between the ages of 15 and 26 about sexual violence towards women.
About eight percent of respondents reported having been sexually violent towards their intimate partner, while 16.3 percent reported raping a non-partner or participating in some form of gang-rape.
'We have to teach boys and men to respect women'
Also noted was an overlap of 44 percent of men raping non-partners and intimate partners. The mean age at which respondents first raped a woman was 17.
The MRC considers this research paper of "substantial international importance" as it is the first of its kind outside North America. It is also the first to have a single set of data on the rape of intimate and non-intimate partners. The findings contribute significantly to an understanding of why rape is so common in South Africa.
The researchers looked at reasons why men raped and common factors in their backgrounds. Adversity in childhood, alcohol abuse and, surprisingly, a more educated mother were associated with partner and non-partner rapes. Non-partner rapes were also associated with greater susceptibility to peer pressure to have sex, membership of a gang or using drugs.
The destructive impact of apartheid on the family made many children vulnerable to sexual and emotional abuse, the study found.
"The other noticeable set of factors are those related to particular ideas of masculinity, where women are seen as objects to be conquered and controlled, sex is often seen as an impersonal act of physical gratification, with masculinity often defined in terms of sexual conquest, and where male peer group bonding is emphasised," the MRC report read.
"Contrary to popular belief that men who rape are poor and unable to win women for consensual sex, we found men of relatively higher social status were more likely to rape."
A survey of 1 295 sexually active women from the rural Eastern Cape explored the link between HIV and gender-based violence. HIV infection was associated with having three or more partners in the preceding year and having a partner who was three or more years older and more educated than the woman.
The Health Promotion Research and Development Group found sexual assault, violence and depression common among HIV-positive women. A sub-division of the unit is looking into male attitudes and is working with traditional leaders to include health messages during initiation.
"Especially in terms of HIV, men are part of the problem. We have to teach boys and men to respect their sexual health and women," Mbewu said.
#2
HIV/AIDS will eventually put an end to this sort of behavior, especially the gang rapes. Sadly, it will take heavy toll on the women, but the sooner a huge majority of African males die off, the better things will be.
I believe that it is critical to issue the vast majority of pubescent African females Norplant subdermal long term time-release contraception. If the usual cycle of constant pregnancy could be broken for just a few years, African women might be able to achieve a larger degree of self-determination and higher education which could change the course of their lives. That, and some training courses led by Loreena Bobbit.
Zimbabwe's loss-making state airline has announced a 500% increase in fares, making air travel impossible for all but the country's most wealthy. Air Zimbabwe said spiralling costs had forced it to increase ticket prices on all domestic and international routes. A return trip between London and Harare now costs 1,865,000 Zimbabwean dollars, or $7,460 (£3,982). Even using black market currency exchange the trip would work out at $1,245 (£665).
The country's central bank said last week that it would not continue to support Air Zimbabwe and other money-losing state companies. A spokesman for the airline, David Mwenga, told AFP news agency that it had little choice but to increase fares. "The goods and services we use everyday have been going up by at least 150% every month so we had no option but to review our fares upwards," Mr Mwenga said. "Prices are literally going up every time you wake up."
He said the airline was only generating 30% of its revenue in hard currency.
Although the official inflation rate stands at 1,000%, independent finance experts have estimated that the actual rate stands closer to 4,000%.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Almost time for another 'zero removal.' The last one worked so well, didn't it?
That would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Of course, I draw the line between feeling for those who don't have because of NATURAL disasters, vs. those that don't have because of MANMADE disasters. Much like the starvation going on in N. Korea, I do feel badly for those suffering, but we can NOT continue to prop up 2-bit dictators like KJI or Bob.
Reminds me of the old joke: What's the difference between Robert Mugabe and a jock strap? One's a dictator, the other, a dic-toter. Ba-da-boom, I'll be here all week!
Posted by: BA ||
10/25/2006 15:14 Comments ||
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A new army of council tax 'inspectors' is to be given the right to enter people's homes and issue fines to anyone who refuses to cooperate. Camera-wielding officials will be able to take photographs inside properties, including bedrooms, and rule they should pay more if they have home improvements such as patios and conservatories. Residents could be fined £1,000 (US ~$1785), and then £200 (US ~$357) every day after that, if they do not let the inspectors in or fail to properly 'assist' them.
Homeowners are expected to face higher council tax bills if they enjoy good views or have improved their property by building an extension or putting in double glazing. These would be deemed 'site positive' features that enhanced the value of a property under a planned revaluation of all 21 million homes in England. The new tax system will require detailed information about every home. Under a new house price tax, 'site positive' features would include gardens, patios, conservatories, double glazing, scenic views, number of bedrooms and number of parking spaces.
In an alarming addition, residents who 'fail to give reasonable assistance' or do not cooperate with the inspectors will be fined £1,000 and be recorded on local police and court records. If the householder continues to obstruct, hinder or fail to provide assistance, they can be fined £200 per day on top, she said.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/25/2006 19:10 ||
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A vaccumable ugly dust that smells like wet cat and can be applied through fire sprinkler nozzles might be a big selling item before assement visits.
Doorbell rings. Video cam shows inspectors. Push remote button. House looks and smells bad within seconds. Let inspectors in.
Holidaymakers could be hit with a "global warming" tax of up to £50 under plans aimed at forcing airlines to reduce gas emissions.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the new charges should be imposed by as early as 2008 or Britain will be thrown into "climate chaos". In a keynote speech, Mrs Beckett urged Brussels to speed up plans to enforce the levy on airlines to encourage them to fly more fuel-effecient planes and deter people from travelling by air.
The cost is almost certain to be passed on to holidaymakers as budget airlines would be worst affected by what the aviation industry describes as a "tax on holidays". Experts say the scheme could put £50 on the cost of flying from London to California, £35 on tickets to New York and between £5 and £10 on flights within Europe. Mrs Beckett used her speech in Berlin to up the pressure on Germany - which is taking over the presidency of the EU - to speed up progress on combating global warming.
But her comments risked being undermined by a Government report which yesterday suggested that airline routes could be used to replace rural train lines in Britain. The Department for Transport document - its response to an earlier consultation on the future of Britain's railways - said: "In some circumstances, air transport may be a viable alternative and cannot be ruled out from the onset."
Air travel is the fastest growing source of greenhouse emissions. The average jet pumps close to a tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for each passenger it carries from London to New York.
#1
Definitely a liberal. To liberals, the only answer to any problem is more taxes.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/25/2006 18:47 Comments ||
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Keep your eye on where that fee goes and the "exceptions list" - y'know, the very special people who would be exempted because their business is so, uh, important, lol.
It's isn't just Free Speech that is for me and not for thee regards Liberals. Pots 'o money and special privileges, that's the gig.
A Navy spokesman said: "There was no live ammunition involved and there was absolutely no danger of a ferry being blown out of the water. But I think the skipper has his after-dinner story sorted for the rest of his life."
Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence". The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go!
"Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars".
The £49.97 kit comprises a chrome pole extendible to 8ft 6ins, a 'sexy dance garter' and a DVD demonstrating suggestive dance moves.
The kit, condemned as 'extremely dangerous' by family campaigners yesterday, was discovered by mother of two Karen Gallimore who was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11. Mrs Gallimore, 33, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said yesterday: "I'm no prude, but any children can go on there and see it. It's just not on."
#1
"Tesco... said it was clearly marked for 'adult use'... Tesco today agreed to remove the product from the Toy section"
And why, then, do they have "adult use" products in the Toy section?
Posted by: Santa ||
10/25/2006 13:29 Comments ||
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Anyone who has seen "Little Miss Sunshine" will appreciate the humor in this story.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
10/25/2006 14:10 Comments ||
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There is a real (growing) market for toys geared toward adult (cf. the McFarlane models, for example), especially the ones inspired from cinema and animation, a trend coming from Japan I think. Some are really beautiful (I think about the classical Universal monsters series), there is even a batch of mags dedicaced to that, even here, and this is yet an another symptom of the infantilization of western societies.
So, my guess would be this pole-dancing kit is to be seen in that confusion between adulthood themas and toys.
The Battle of Agincourt, when English longbowmen, though heavily outnumbered, stood their ground and defeated the French in the most lopsided victory of the Hundred Years' War.
1944
The Battle off Samar, climax of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, when a heavily outclassed force of USN escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts drove off a Japanese force of battleships and heavy cruisers and saved the US landing on Leyte. The gallant charge of the destroyers was the bravest act of the war in the Pacific.
1975
The greatest baseball game ever played. “Game Six, Game Six … what can we say of it without seeming to diminish it by recapitulation or dull it with detail? Those of us who were there will remember it, as long as we have any baseball memory, and those who wanted to be there and were not will be sorry always. Crispin Crispian: for Red Sox fans, this was Agincourt.”—Roger Angell, Agincourt and After.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/25/2006 01:26 ||
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Excellent post, Eric!
Posted by: Mike ||
10/25/2006 7:09 Comments ||
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Those of us who were there will remember it, as long as we have any baseball memory, and those who wanted to be there and were not will be sorry always.
We try to block Game 7 from our memory with lot's of beer.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/25/2006 8:43 Comments ||
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Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/25/2006 20:41 Comments ||
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By the way, this was the first article I've posted here. Was this category the right one? I used Britain as the major heading because Agincourt was first on the list. Perhaps Rantburg should have a History heading.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/25/2006 20:49 Comments ||
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Bolivia's president said Tuesday that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez would throw his support behind the Andean country if Venezuela were unable to win enough votes to defeat US-backed Guatemala for a seat on the UN Security Council.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close ally of Chavez, raised the possibility during a speech in El Alto, Bolivia, while in Caracas Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Venezuela would continue its drive for the rotating Security Council seat. Morales said he had spoken by phone with Chavez, who told him that if Venezuela does not get the two-thirds majority it needs to win, he will "propose Bolivia as a candidate."
"We're candidates for the Security Council," Morales said. "I hope we can achieve consensus."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Cue in JFM, this is a subject he has covered often. For french readers, the Metula News Agency did a long serie on french involvement beofre, during, and after the Rwanda genocide.
A former senior Rwandan diplomat has told a tribunal that France played an active role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Former Rwandan ambassador to Paris Jacques Bihozagara said French involvement stemmed from concerns about its diminishing influence in Africa.
France has denied playing any role in the 100-day frenzy of killing in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.
After the hearings, the Rwandan panel will rule on whether to file a suit at the International Court of Justice. The panel is headed by former Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo and its proceedings, which began in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Tuesday, are being broadcast live on local radio.
It is hearing from 25 survivors of the genocide, who claim to have witnessed French involvement. "This is an important inquiry that should be witnessed by everyone interested in this important episode of our history," Mr Mucyo was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
"France has not expressed regret," AFP quotes Mr Bihozagara as saying during his three-hour testimony. He added that even after the genocide the French government had not apprehended genocide suspects living in France.
The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in Kigali says that it is also alleged that French soldiers provided escape routes to militia escaping to the Democratic Republic of Congo after the massacres.
French soldiers were deployed in parts of Rwanda in the final weeks of the genocide under a United Nations mandate known as Operation Turquoise to set up a protected zone. But Rwanda says the soldiers allowed Hutu extremists to enter Tutsi camps. "Operation Turquoise was aimed only at protecting genocide perpetrators, because the genocide continued even within the Turquoise zone," Mr Bihozagara said.
The panel's findings are expected within six months.
Unless Carla del Ponte gets involved.
A French military court is conducting a separate investigation into claims that French soldiers played a part in the genocide.
Separately, some of Rwanda's most high-profile genocide cases have already been tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. Twenty-five ringleaders have been convicted since 1997, but the Rwandan government has expressed frustration at the slow legal process.
#1
Even though my article got there first, I graciously defer to the gentleman from France.
Thanks Bobby, I deleted your article. Thanks to A5089 and JFM; this is a story about which we need to know more.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/25/2006 7:11 Comments ||
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Via http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/: French Role in Slaughter under Investigation The New Times in Kigali says some 50,000 people are reported to have been killed after French forces brought Tutsi's out of hiding under the false pretext that they had secured the peace.
Posted by: ed ||
10/25/2006 7:36 Comments ||
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There were also reports that the French continued to ship arms to the Rwandan goverment,and provided security forces as well.
NPR reported on it - once. Afterwards it disappeared. Just like the Tutsis.
Airbus is expected to seek board approval from parent company EADS in early November to move forward with the launch of the revamped A350 XWB programme, but has meanwhile delayed a regular strategy briefing with suppliers about future products.
When it unveiled the A350 XWB at Farnborough in July, Airbus said that it intended to be ready to seek an industrial launch decision for the new programme "in three months". However, according to industry sources, Airbus has told senior planners at various suppliers that the tumult over the A380 delay, the restructuring and the changeover in leadership and other senior management have left its original plans in complete disarray.
Flight International understands that major systems and engine suppliers that were originally intending to travel to Toulouse for Airbus's regular six-monthly future products strategic planning meeting around mid-November have been told to cancel. "They have no strategic plan at the moment," says one key supplier, which does not want to be identified.
No strategic plan at the moment? Long moment.
Meanwhile, the A380's production crisis has forced Airbus to increase the break-even forecast for the programme to 420 aircraft, against the 270-unit prediction made last year. The revision was revealed by Airbus chief financial officer Andreas Sperl last week at a global investor forum held by EADS. Sperl maintains the company will sell the 751 A380s previously forecast.
Just as long as the customers don't mind not getting delivery til 2020 ...
In an interview last week with French daily newspaper La Dépêche du Midi, Gallois said that the Airbus Power 8 cost-cutting plan created by his predecessor Christian Streiff would be needed "even without the A380 problems...simply to tackle the weakness of the dollar". He added that the weak dollar has resulted in Airbus losing "20% of our competitiveness to Boeing since the launch of the A380 programme in 2000", and that the "very future of Airbus is in the balance" without the cost-cutting effort.
Gee, I thought the weak dollar was supposed to be a disaster for us, not them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/25/2006 00:00 ||
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In the business section of Seattle's papers last Friday (posted after the real business world went home) was a blurb about the German gov't looking into buying a piece of this corpse in an effort to prop up the part of the economy that would be really hit by Airbus moving out. This may be the second verse to that song; put all the 380 stuff in France and Germany bets all the narrow body work. and even tho' they are calling it an xwb, it is a 787 fighter, and that plane is surely no wide body.
Fergawdsakes
Another apparent breach of classified material is under federal investigation at the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratory: Los Alamos National Laboratory, sources tell CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
The breach apparently was discovered when Los Alamos police recently conducted a methamphetamine raid on an area home. Inside the house, along with drug paraphernalia, police allegedly found classified materials apparently from the grounds of the Los Alamos Laboratory. How somebody involved in illegal drugs would also have access to classified materials from the nation's nuclear weapons facility is unknown but under investigation. The home is believed to belong to a Los Alamos Laboratory contractor who does maintenance at the laboratory.
The FBI has been called in to lead the investigation into the security breach and executed a search warrant on Friday. The U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque, N.M., is reviewing the case.
The Los Alamos Laboratory has been hit by multiple security and management scandals in recent years. Problems were so widespread that Congress forced the contract for management of the lab to go up for bid for the first time ever. However, after bidding, the contract was re-awarded to the same contractor: the University of California.
Los Alamos public affairs officials will only confirm the matter is under investigation.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Probably got them off the internet when the US government didn't have as much respect for this kind of stuff. Kind of makes you wonder what's getting put on there today that we're going to regret tomorrow, doesn't it?
#4
In the movie Wall Street, Charlie Sheen gets insider info by buying into an office cleaning business which gives him access to offices after hours. Could it be a meth dealer is not be trusted?
#6
I'd imagine this is a LOT more serious in the gov't as a whole, than just Los Alamos. There are numerous contractors in the Fed building where I work doing cleaning, facility repairs, etc. after hours. No telling how many documents they could steal (very easily). All to the lowest bidder, too.
Posted by: BA ||
10/25/2006 9:16 Comments ||
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Los Alamos [LA] is welfare for the intellectually gifted. There are other national laboratories out there, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, et al. They were originally intended to support DoD but not tied to its ridged civil servant pay scales, so the operations were outsourced to universities. Since the 80s you saw your military as with the Army downsized from over a million men to under a half-million men. However, the pork of the National Labs have kept them doing busy work to sustain money flowing into their respective states and cities. LA has had a number of personnel problems largely driven by the were above it all attitude of its population. Mishandling of classified documents, Hollywood bookkeeping, dont rock the boat management, etc. Most of the work could be moved to other National Labs leaving LA to its other function as a hot storage site till the facility in Nevada is completed. It would kill the local economy, but that is not the legal defined mission of the laboratory. It would make a nice attitude adjustment for the other labs as well.
Assume for a moment that a conservative advocacy group was accused of voter registration fraud four weeks before the upcoming elections, and had been accused of similar activities in 2004. Further imagine that this group was accused by some of its representatives of campaigning for a Republican candidate for the U.S. senate in a key state that could determine which party controls that Congressional chamber. Do you think this would get reported by the media, especially given all the attention on expected electronic ballot irregularities in the upcoming elections? Might be front-page news, and the lead story for the broadcast networks, right?
Well, on October 11, the Associated Press reported (hat tip to reader Saw the Light) such alleged activities in St. Louis, Missouri, by a liberal group called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The Kansas City Star reported similar allegations against the group on October 24. And, a video made available by a St. Louis blog called Pub Def on October 4 showed ACORN workers admitting that they had been registering voters specifically to elect Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri). Yet, a Google and LexisNexis search indicated that not one major national news organization other than AP chose to report any of these allegations. Not one.
(Update: A reader just sent me an October 21 article from the Columbus Dispatch concerning voter registration fraud by ACORN members in Ohio.)
According to AP:
At least 1,500 potentially fraudulent registration cards were turned in by the St. Louis branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, leading up to Wednesday's registration deadline for the Nov. 7 election, said Kim Mathis, chairwoman of the St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners.
Invalid registrations solicited by ACORN workers included duplicate or incomplete ones, a 16-year-old voter, dead people registering, and forged signatures, Mathis said.
The article continued:
This year in Missouri, ACORN has turned in about 40,000 new voter registrations. Half of those were in St. Louis. The other 20,000 were collected in the Kansas City area, according to election officials.
Four ACORN workers were fired over a September 2003 incident after the St. Louis board pointed out more than 1,000 questionable new voter registration forms collected by ACORN.
ACORN registered more than a million U.S. voters in 2004, when it also had to defend itself against fraud allegations. That year, unreadable cards, duplicate registrations and other invalid or potentially fraudulent registrations turned up in Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia.
This was reported by the Kansas City Star Tuesday:
Kansas City election officials have asked the U.S. attorney and the local prosecutor to investigate possible voter registration fraud.
Election director Ray James said Monday that at least half the new registrations submitted this fall more than 15,000 registrations have discrepancies, which he described as duplicates, questionable or unreadable information, or names, addresses and Social Security numbers that dont match existing records.
Most of the names were submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN.
Pub Def reported on October 4 (hat tip to Gateway Pundit):
Several former and current workers demonstrated today in front of the St. Louis office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) demanding to be paid for work they had performed and alleging that they were instructed to tell people to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill while registering voters in support of the proposed minimum wage increase.
Ten-year ACORN veteran Josephine Perkins claims she was fired last week, in part because she informed the teams she supervised that it was inappropriate and illegal for them to campaign for McCaskill while being paid by ACORN and Give Missourians a Raise, the political action committee which supports Proposition B and, according to campaign finance reports, has given money to ACORN to circulate its literature.
Update: The Columbus Dispatch reported on October 21:
Three paid solicitors suspected of filling out voter registration forms for people who dont exist could face felony election-fraud charges.
The Franklin County Board of Elections moved yesterday to refer the workers from ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, to county Prosecutor Ron OBrien.
Yet, no major news outlet has bothered to report any of this. Once again, imagine how much focus this would get if ACORN was a conservative advocacy group campaigning against raising the minimum wage and for Sen. Jim Talent (R-Missouri).
The Saudi government has evacuated Sarwar Palace in which former prime minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was living, and which was given to him by the Saudi government when he went into exile for 10 years in a deal after President Pervez Musharraf took over the reigns of the Pakistani government in 1999.
Due to the evacuation, some 20 servants who were working for the Sharif family at Sarwar Palace have lost their jobs and are looking for other jobs in Saudi Arabia. Nawaz Sharif, who had been living in exile under a deal in Saudi Arabia for the last 7 years, had applied for a British visa so that he could travel to the UK for his son Hasan Nawazs treatment.
Nawaz Sharif left for London 9 months ago on the condition that he would not take part in any politics and would soon return to Saudi Arabia. However, in defiance of the condition, he got an extension on his UK visa and is also participating in politics a move that has irked the Saudi government. Infuriated by Nawaz Sharifs defiance, the Saudi government has taken back all facilities granted to him and has also evacuated the Sarwar Palace. Nawaz Sharifs mother and other family members will now live with Nawazs brother Abbas Sharif at his house in Madinah. Nawaz Sharifs son-in-law, Captain Safdar, has also left for London.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Poor Nawaz. Maybe Galloway can loan him one of his leotards...
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest U.S. radio broadcaster, is considering a possible sale of the company and hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. as an adviser. The shares jumped 9.7 percent.
The board is evaluating alternatives to increase the share price and can't assure that a transaction will occur, San Antonio-based Clear Channel said today in a statement.
The hiring of Goldman Sachs brings the Mays family, which controls Clear Channel, closer to a possible leveraged buyout. Chief Executive Officer Mark Mays has spun off the company's live entertainment unit, Live Nation Inc., and sold shares of its outdoor advertising unit, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., in an IPO. The stock has been hurt by slow growth in the radio industry.
Clear Channel spokeswoman Lisa Dollinger declined to comment beyond the release. The company said in its statement that it won't comment any more about the matter unless a specific transaction is approved by the board.
Shares of Clear Channel gained $3.15 to $35.50 in extended trading. They rose 15 cents to $32.50 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The shares rose yesterday following CNBC reported that the Mays family is ``warming'' to the idea of a leveraged buyout.
The company has had ``serious'' talks with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. about going private, the Financial Times reported today, citing people familiar with the situation. The Mays family previously rejected approaches from private-equity investors, the Financial Times said.
Rosa Parks became an enduring symbol of the American civil rights movement after she refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., 51 years ago. Today, Parks has posthumously become a pitchwoman for a line of pickup trucks.
Another civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr., also has been pressed into service by General Motors in a new TV commercial. The spot also includes images of President Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, the late race car driver Dale Earnhardt, some dancing hippies and a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
The commercial for Chevrolet's Silverado truck has gotten plenty of airplay -- and a few expressions of surprise, shock and puzzlement -- since it went into heavy rotation during pro football games and the baseball playoffs over the past three weeks.
The ad mixes vintage photographs and news footage from the past half-century, accompanied by a rousing John Mellencamp song called "Our Country." Some of the images are uplifting, such as a photo of Parks sitting on a bus and a brief clip of King preaching. Others evoke painful memories, such as Nixon's wave from the presidential helicopter upon his resignation in 1974, U.S. troops in Vietnam, damage from Hurricane Katrina and the twin light beacons at the World Trade Center site that memorialized those killed in the attacks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/25/2006 06:56 ||
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Another reason to love my F-150
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2006 7:46 Comments ||
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Rosa Parks, MLK, Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, Dale Earnhardt, dancing hippies, and 9/11. And, almost, an atom bomb. What's the message this iconography is trying to get across?
Rosa Parks, MLK -- "Silverado: official truck of the Civil Rights Movement"? "Judge our truck not by the color of its paint job, but by the content of its engine bay"?
Richard Nixon -- "Silverado: this truick is not a crook"? "Silverado: official truck of my dog Checkers"? "Buy this truck or you won't have General Motors to kick around anymore"?
Muhammad Ali -- "Silverado: floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee"?
Dale Earnhardt -- "If Dale had been driving a Silverado, he'd still be with us"?
atomic bombs -- "Silverado: it's 'da bomb!'"? "Our trucks are tough enough to survive the end of the world"?
Or maybe all together, the message is this: "This ad was put together by self-indulgent Baby Boomers who lack sufficient moral judgment to know the difference between history, nostalgia, and commerce,"
Posted by: Mike ||
10/25/2006 7:51 Comments ||
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nice post Mike.
I kinda got this impression of Mellencamp that he's not exactly a big business kind of guy. I always thought he was fairly lefty. I figured he'd be doing this truck ad and giving some proceeds to poor union workers or some such. I could be wrong though.
#5
Oh, good freakin' grief. A few want to whine about this ad? It's our history folks. Could've well just put in clips of the Challenger explosion, kids fleeing Columbine or Jerry Spring for that matter. Time for the whiners to grow up. And, I really don't get the NAACP guy's quote...about it "just hauling debris off from Katrina." Wasn't Katrina ALL about New Orleans and how Bush is evil? I would've thought they'd be milking that (and Rosa Parks & MLK's inclusion). Good grief, that ALL says to me that "Pickups ain't just for rednecks anymore."
Here in the outskirts of Atlanta, I can't tell you how many black (mostly construction) guys I now see driving Chevy pickups. Almost boggles the mind. I'd bet they'd be o.k. with the ad. It's high time some people just quit their whining and do some REAL work.
Posted by: BA ||
10/25/2006 9:28 Comments ||
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#6
Oops, Jerry Springer (not Spring).
Posted by: BA ||
10/25/2006 9:28 Comments ||
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#7
While I agree with Carson in the article that King and Parks' role in the Civil Rights movement are and should be seen as patriotic, I also agree with Mike that this confusing melange of disconnected images screams Baby Boomer idiocy.
I'm reminded of those ultimately meaningless GAP ads where [insert historical personage] "wore khaki". A spoof I saw showed a famous picture of Der Fuhrer and said, "Hitler wore khaki".
#8
I find John Mellancamp offensive, and am very angry about Cesar Chavez not being represented. Mexicans do the work no one else is willing to do and should be represented as well in this shameless plug. Mexicans like Chevys too.
#9
Why couldn't they just put the rangerup.com girl in their ads? That's something we could all agree on, right, boys?
Posted by: BA ||
10/25/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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#10
There's something, um, healthy, yeah that's the word, healthy, very healthy about her, BA. I'm pretty sure I need to check her vitals - to see if she's as healthy as she looks. Healthy. Yes.
#12
That ad surprised me a little given Mellencamp's poltics and the focus on disasters. The east coast was just fisherman, but the South was Hurricane Katrina and the West was a wildfire. Nevertheless, I thought it was an effective ad.
What really puzzled me though, was the Chevy Silverado ad entirely in Spanish. Was that aimed at all the illegals working construction? Kind of like the Home Depot stores in the South with bilingual signs (spanish in big letters, english in small letters underneath).
#14
Since schools gave up teaching real history and instead spend endless hours of selling guilt and sin for being American, I doubt very many in the under 40 brackets would understand much of the imagery. So Chevy is appealing to soon to collect Social Security crowd. Wow, thats leaves the future to the Japanese truck manufacturers too.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Zimbabwe's loss-making state airline has announced a 500% increase in fares, making air travel impossible for all but the country's most wealthy. Air Zimbabwe said spiralling costs had forced it to increase ticket prices on all domestic and international routes. A return trip between London and Harare now costs 1,865,000 Zimbabwean dollars, or $7,460 (£3,982). Even using black market currency exchange the trip would work out at $1,245 (£665).
Bolivia's president said Tuesday that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez would throw his support behind the Andean country if Venezuela were unable to win enough votes to defeat US-backed Guatemala for a seat on the UN Security Council. 
Assume for a moment that a conservative advocacy group was accused of voter registration fraud four weeks before the upcoming elections, and had been accused of similar activities in 2004. Further imagine that this group was accused by some of its representatives of campaigning for a Republican candidate for the U.S. senate in a key state that could determine which party controls that Congressional chamber. Do you think this would get reported by the media, especially given all the attention on expected electronic ballot irregularities in the upcoming elections? Might be front-page news, and the lead story for the broadcast networks, right?
The Saudi government has evacuated Sarwar Palace in which former prime minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was living, and which was given to him by the Saudi government when he went into exile for 10 years in a deal after President Pervez Musharraf took over the reigns of the Pakistani government in 1999.
