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Blame the History Channel
02/04/2008 14:55 - (SA)
Chris Roper
Tsk. 28 000 bags lost, and 50 flights cancelled because Heathrow's new Terminal 5 can't handle the volume - and these people want to host an Olympics?
It's got so bad, plans to have a grand procession of the Olympic torch through Terminal 5 had to be cancelled, and the Revolutionary Smoggy People's Torch will now belch its confused ideological message via the Royal Suite at Heathrow instead.
Now, I'm just funnin' with you, as Adolf Hitler used to say to Eva Braun (and more about him later). I have massive sympathy for the poor sods who got it wrong at Heathrow, but I do wonder how many of our beloved South African prophets of doom (you know, the ones who say "Pah, and these people want to host a World Cup?" when they can't find a parking place in Sandton on a Saturday morning) are now spreading stories about how the Olympics is going to be moved to Australia because of the incompetence of the British. They've moved the sorting of the bags to Italy, coincidentally, so maybe that's not so far-fetched.
It's always instructive to use the UK or USA as sounding boards for our local reactions to social and economic events. I can't help comparing the antics of our very own University of Free State video stars with those of Max Mosley - the story referred to in the British press as "F1 Boss Max Mosley Caught With Five Hookers In Nazi Orgy Video Scandal".
It's a great story, but since all of you will already have read the story on News24, watched the video, searched Netads24 for a list of suitable agencies, and phoned in your order for five hookers dressed as the Springbok front row to arrive on Friday for a good whipping session, I won't get into details.
Except to cut and paste from the News of the World: Max Mosley "son of infamous British wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley is filmed romping with five hookers at a depraved NAZI-STYLE orgy in a torture dungeon. Mosley - a friend to F1 big names like Bernie Ecclestone and Lewis Hamilton - barks ORDERS in GERMAN as he lashes girls wearing mock DEATH CAMP uniforms and enjoys being whipped until he BLEEDS."
Comparisons, comparisons
Good, rousing journalism that. Lovely use of upper case. I can't help marvelling at the parallels between the UFS racist video and the Mosley anti-Semitic video. In both cases, women feature as the real subjugated parties, and race and religion are the excuses.
In the UFS video, female cleaners are taken advantage of. In the Mosley video, female prostitutes. The only difference, really, is that in the one case they were tricked, in the other highly paid.
While the UFS video is undeniably racist, the Mosley one is less clearly only anti-Semitic. You can't help but feel sorry for a man whose sexual being (going on the evidence of one video and reams of hysterical press, so take this analysis with a pinch of buttock) appears to be bound up in a very old idea of sexual power, with some very clichéd trappings.
You also have to question how it happened that, for many people, Nazi uniforms and paraphernalia became sexy. Call me crazy, but I blame the History Channel.
Now there are commentators out there who are saying that this is all a brilliant marketing ploy by the F1 people, to get viewers interested in watching a sport that is incredibly boring unless you happen to be a fan. But I say, no, the problem is real and it's deep. I knew there had to be a reason that horrible German won five F1 Championships in a row from 2000 to 2004. Of course, I am a Fernando Alonso fan.
But seriously, folks, as Adolf Hitler used to say to the chaps in the bunker, if there's one thing the Mosley video teaches us, it's that racism isn't the preserve of young, dumb and violent idiots from the University of Free State, but something that exists at all levels of all societies. Not that it makes it any easier to stomach.
Chris Roper is the Editor-in-Chief of 24.com, and thinks all Ferrari fans are smelly.
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