Parents banned from taking pictures of their own children at sports day, article.
This insanity is reaching ever-higher levels, especially here in the UK. I'm banging my head on the wall. If some pedo gets off on seeing clothed children, all he has to do is go out in the street and look! So banning photographing them makes as much sense as... fuck, I can't even come up with an equally insane example to mock this. It's a self-parody.
The United States is not far behind in similar insanity.
ReplyDeleteIt's like something from the fifteenth century.
ReplyDeleteIn New Zealand the landlord of my gallery considered portraits of filmstars such as Kate Winslet to be pedophilia and asked me to replace them with pictures of old people, it was triggered by me being a pedophile because I took some photos of a 14 year old, fully clothed and nothing untoward at her and her parents request, but that was just the confirmation, it was initially based on me talking a little strangely apparently
ReplyDeleteMy brother and his wife are not allowed to take pictures of their daughter at her swimming lessons. This is the UK of course. What would Orwell think about this?
ReplyDeleteSome schools don't let cameras be used at sporting events, but then sell professional pictures taken during the game.
ReplyDeleteI kinda wish our kids school would bring in photography rules. Trying to watch a kids play with all these parents bobbing up and down getting pictures of their angles is quite distracting. The use of tripods up and down the aisle too is annoying. I wish they could get three of four parent volunteers, and film the whole thing with decent kit, then sell us the DVD, some mark-up to pay into the PTA committee, and everyone kid will be in focus and with audio taped from the mixing desk.
However, assuming that everyone is a pedophile, I blame the bloody media for that.
The UK press stirs up so much shit you can't tell what's happening over there. They're just trying to spark up homophobia and racism to cause some newsworthy riots. They're attacking the police as both bully boys and ineffective, underpaid, caring, hamstrung by beurocracy, overpaid, lazy, professionals. Government is full of asses, and the media delight in showing that bloody revolution is about the only recourse the average Brit has before they are bred out of home and country by Eastern EU immigrants spreading Muslim rule to otherwise Christian cultures like Birmingham.
Sorry, that's a bit harsh. They Guardian has a fairly balanced arts section.
That makes sense for what you're talking about, but from what I hear that's not the case it's more of a fear of a potential ped.
ReplyDelete"fuck, I can't even come up with an equally insane example to mock this."
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting here staring at this in total disbelief and don't know really what to type. If I can't take a picture of my own child..I guess next it'll be nude animals.
I wonder if it would be ok to take a picture of someone else's child? Then the parents could swap pictures..
I was at a presentation lately given to about 300-400 children at a school. The organization making the presentation had asked me to take some pictures to show the size of the group, etc. Just to be safe, I asked the princapal about taking the pictures and was told that it would be fine as long as I didn't zero in on any one child, group shots being ok.
I guess that's still where we are here in the USofA..
I'm fearing a state where you actually can and will be persecuted simply for taking a picture of a child in the street. We are just a hair's width away from that in the UK.
ReplyDelete"I wonder if it would be ok to take a picture of someone else's child?"
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is "because it's your own child", but rather "even if it's your own child".
Anyone who so much as looks at a child should be locked up.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Britain (meaning EVERYBODY there) should be locked up, man... Starting with those who come up with such insane laws. I just hope this will never become a reality in my own country, Slovakia.
ReplyDelete"I just hope this will never become a reality in my own country, Slovakia."
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, Slovakia. That bastion of democracy. That stronghold of civilization.
Eolake said: "I don't think it is "because it's your own child", but rather "even if it's your own child"."
ReplyDeleteEolake, I certainly understand that, I was just trying to make some fun.. But you knew that..
I guess I was too sleepy.
ReplyDeleteGood one though.
Yep, anonymous, child molesting and other similar crimes so prevalent in the real bastions of democracy are still quite rare in that stronghold called Slovakia. By saying that I do not suggest we don't have any crime in the country, though. But to be so persecuted by taking pictures of children in the public is unthinkable still.
ReplyDeleteI guess I was too sleepy.
ReplyDeleteGood one though.
You can count on most people here to get it. Others, not so much. Eolake usually gets it. Unless he's tired. Pascal. A few others.
One problem here in the states is that everyone assumes it's illegal for you to take pictures of anyone or anything without written permission. Even if you are on publoc property, have no expectation of privacy, etc. Good luck explaining your rights to some cop if it comes down to it.
ReplyDeleteThat is indeed a problem. Especially if the laws will trend to reflect that belief. The French laws already have some of it.
ReplyDelete[Gremlins, the Prequel : Master Grim Lin's Pet Kappa Demon Okâmi Nô Konohamaru Makankosappô Oroshî.]
ReplyDelete...makes as much sense as arresting people who pass in front of your expensive factory of rare, costly and super-secret perfumes, demanding: "Breathe, but do not sniff."
There's a character in arabic folklore, called Geha. He's a paradox, that guy, because depending on the stories, he's either the dumbest or the most clever guy you've ever heard of. (My guess is, there's two of them, probably twins, and one of them got all the smarts of the pair.)
In one of the stories of "smart Geha", a guy passing by the arabic equivalent of a hot dog stand stopped to enjoy the smell of grilled meat, and the vendor sues, demanding to be paid for it. Geha advised the defendant to take him as a legal council. Then he pleaded guilty, and asked the plaintiff how much he was asking for. "10 coins? Give me 10 coins", he told his friend, "and watch."
Then he dropped the coins one by one on the table, making them happily ring, telling the food vendor: "Please, count them carefully with me."
After the amount was confirmed, Geha gathered the coins and returned them to his friend: "Right then, it's settled. Case closed.
- Hey! What about my money? You didn't GIVE it to me?
- For the smell of your meat, I paid you with the sound of my coins. Fair trade, isn't it?"
I'd say fantasy and masturbation with no further intent, is quite like that story. At worst, people guilty of abusing Lisa Simpson in a daydream could be condemned to hang a photo of prison bars in their living room for a decade, just above the TV. That would really be an apt punishment for the crime committed.
The problem is, the very real fear of being arbitrarily arrested, created by a paranoid police State, is far worse than that.
Hey, that article is illustrated with a kiddie porn photo of clothed children having innoccent fun! I'm SO reporting them to the FBI... I mean Scotland Yard!
Whatever happened to "do sports, it'll take your mind off sex"? :-P
Actually, I think some of the indignant mothers in this photo are braless. I bet they even strip their children naked to bathe them!
This planet is just one vast orgy. At least, the Talibans have got it right. "When in doubt, prohibit. When suspicious, amputate."
Okay, more seriously now, I've got the genuine feeling it's too late to save the UK from going insane. Only a terrorist in a Guy Fawkes mask can still hope to change things.
(Feeling the vocation, Eolake? With your athletic build, gymnastics training and masterful fencing skills, all you still need is a black steed and a mute butler.)
"These Brittons are crazy!"
[End of Part 1]
[Epsode 2 : A New Dope]
ReplyDeleteSukiho,
Yes, clearly, the simple fact that you're not a Saudi nun, you definitely must be a foaming at the mouth psychotic sexual predator. Besides, you're a woman, and every pious believer knows that women are intrinsically evil. It was clear from the very moment one of you bit in that apple and made grea-great-great-.............great-grandpa Adam an accomplice in that heinous sexual crime. (Yes, sexual. Read Freud!)
Reminds me of that belgian comic where two young heroes in New York, facing italian-born mobster Don Vito Cortizone, meet his daughter who falls in love with one of them. Her good catholic father, taking at heart the virtue and eternal salvation of his flesh and blood, tries in vain to reason her, and finally puts his foot down: "Go to your room! You're grounded! You'll do what you please WHEN you reach your majority, at 65, like your mother!"
The late French singer Carlos, in Big bisou ("kissy-kissy"), used to impishly sing: "The parents of our parents, used to wait a lot, until they were 100 before daring to kiss". Menopause, the final frontier, weary Humankind's only hope against depravity... (BTW, Eo, I'm still waiting for the address of that 102y/o virgin you promised me.)
Seriously, Sukiho, I think that you, like me, are staying in a country that's direly mis-adapted to any evolved mentality such as ours.
I recently mentioned on this blog that I saw, on the TV news, images of the World Naked Bike Ride in Israel. Where the most daring participants stripped down to their underwear. Spencer Tunick need not bother the trip.
My 5y/o nephew was present. (That disobedient rascal, I had TOLD him to leave when I watch the news, there's frequent violence and bloodshed I don't want him to watch!) Seeing this, he started pointing, insisting and chanting: "Oh, the shame of them!"
That's his mother's typical Lebanese education... :-(
The same kid will pull his pants down halfway to the bathroom when he needs to go pee-pee, and regularly goes to the beach in ordinary swimsuits. He and his little sister also bathe together.
But seeing people undress? They're being BRAINWASHED into the reflex of declaring it shameful, and pointing and taunting.
Still, the kid's got brains. I'm hoping, in a few years from now, that I can just reason him into rejecting the complete absurdity.
I would say "that's the Third World", but... that's also the anglo-saxon West! :-(
Just recently, a report on French TV, in the country of monokini, investigated "the return of modesty", in a very ambiguous and biased tone.
Allegedly, it's "a reaction to the dictatorship of formatted beauty in the media", and yet the main targets of complaints are the women with "not-so-beautiful" bosoms... dissed by the "covered" women who have even less pretty ones! ):-P
It's very fortunate that naturism in dedicated places cannot possibly get challenged in France. But... does it HAVE to be either of two extremes? (sigh)
[watch for the sequel dear public, out soon.]
"Blogger has encountered technical difficulties and just lost your post in Limbo. We apologise for the inconvenience."
ReplyDelete[Episode 3 : Kingdom of the Pascal Skull]
ReplyDeleteI'm a "non-practicing believer" in Naturism. Not the same as a closet nudist, because in this country it's just not possible, one doesn't have a choice. I'm indulging in the dream of some day crossing the line, in a place (country, continent, planet, galaxy...) where it's safely legal. But nowadays? I'm being "gently coerced" into the exact opposite: that #$&%*#!!! fashion drift that says, in the days of ubiquitous feminine thongs, that men's swimsuits should be "boxers, not briefs"! I spent my whole childhood and youth in a speedo that still fits me perfectly! But "they" have come up with the lowest, most underhanded of all imaginable twisted excuses: today, it's been decreed by the public rumour that "only homosexuals wear speedos".
Which means that if I don't comply, I'll receive askance looks from 99% of the Lebanese (minus the 5-10% of gays that exist in every society, but, well, you get the point), and I even risk being annoyed by the police for "reasonable suspicion". A few years ago, anybody with a tattoo was labeled a Goth and hassled for suspicion of Satanism.
Arbitrary social dictatorship. Makes me sick to my stomach. Physically. Suddenly I need some air.
Yeah, Alex, me too. Damn fwazzin' media.
But more importantly, damn herd-like Orwellian masses, bleating whatever waltzing slogans they're fed, like turkeys getting stuffed through a funnel.
No true self-awareness. What utter, supreme shame for human beings. My cat's got more spine than that. ("And he can dere-lick his OWN balls, thank you very much.")
[SPOILER ADVISORY: cliffhanger ahead, slow down when taking turn left.]
[Episode 4 : Kill Bill Ogger To Try Saving Private Pascal]
ReplyDelete"it's more of a fear of a potential ped."
Cars kill an immensely greater number of children, not to mention adults, than pedophiles. (I mean "than pedophiles do". I wouldn't mind cars killing pedophiles.) And yet the populist politicians don't shake THAT mass-controlling fearmongering scarecrow. Why's that? Because "everybody has a car". The Pedophile is some ogre-like boogeyman, everybody's afraid of "it" precisely because nobody has seen "it". Cooking butane gas is far more lethal than all of AlQaeda put together, but which do people fear so much, and which do they get dramatically careless about? How many drownings occur in the family's home pool? More than half. Domestic dogs are far more dangerous statistically, whatever the criterium studied, than wolves. Most homicides are the doing of people whom the victim knew, trusted, and usually loved.
It's always the cloak of ignorance that's used to hoodwink us: the pedophile, the muslim, the jew, the nigger, the freemason, the commie, the god-hating liberal murdered of foetuses... Fear Oogie Boogie, and vote for meee! Woo-bee-doo!
But things won't change. Not when the average Homo moronicus takes PRIDE in being faithful to their own stupidity.
Either our whole race/species makes the bold choice to evolve, or we're doomed by our own hand. And today? Today, in June of 2009? This is no more a vague philosophical threat. The planet is about to cease being able to support us. Or to even STAND our parasitic presence.
Sure, the rich will suffer little from the direct consequences, generally. At first. Until they run out of poors to exploit, for abundance nearly always demands that the few exploit the many. (Read the third Myst novel, on the dark secret of the D'ni's ancestors.) But in the end, we're all getting it elbow-deep in the caboose. Some will just be a little more equal than others and a little sooner.
And yet, nothing changes. It's always "the other's fault", nobody sees any efforts thet THEY have to make, too busy cheating at the blame game.
Everybody's responsible. Everybody carries a part of the guilt.
"It's anybody's job, but if nobody does anything, somebody will get blamed and everybody will lose."
Sorry if I sound like I'm lecturing the whole world. But the whole world does need, absolutely, to shape up right now. It might already be too late. Care to turn this into a certainty? Not me.
[Tune in next week for the mekly startling attempted conclusion]
[Episode 5 : New Return Of The Pay-Back In Time, The Revengicide]
ReplyDeleteI tried voting, in Lebanon, to change things. Saudi money bought the election for the pro-American corrupt people previously in place, so no change. SSDD, Same Shit Different Day. As a response, Iran stiffens up, represses all freedom and reform aspirations, and gets immediate (and powerful) support from Russia and China.
The Commanding Officers are playing chess while the ship is sinking, daring each other to be the first to bail out.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself", said Ben Franklin. Well, misdirected fear, clouding the minds from the real and transcending dangers that we ourselves created, damn right, it terrifies me. I'm scared to death by the madness that's born from stupid fear. "ضربة الخائف تؤذي", a scared man deals nasty blows. (Local proverb.)
Our prehistoric ancestors, and after them the Native Americans, used to hunt vast and powerful herds with a very simple method: create a panic, and guide the stampede towards a cliff, from where most the beasts would plummet from the summit like comets to their death, ensuring a feast for the hunters.
But if the hunters and the hunted are the same species, this is suicide. "If all your friends jumped from a cliff would you...?" Sorry, got carried away. :-/
I must be getting old, it seems. :-P
Tommy suggested...
"I wonder if it would be ok to take a picture of someone else's child? Then the parents could swap pictures."
BRILLIANT! Man, you're a genius!
If we can't even trust ourselves, maybe we should start trusting each other.
Yes... yeeeessss... it's just about crazy enough to actually work.
Anonymous got pragmatic...
"Anyone who so much as looks at a child should be locked up."
And their eyes gouged out, islamic law style. And the still dripping globes of sin, then fed to the dogs.
Well, to the chihuahuas, since there's not much to eat.
"Ah, yes, Slovakia. That bastion of democracy. That stronghold of civilization."
Heard much about Slovakia lately on the News? No? Well, no news is good news.
"Upstanding, organized, highly civilized" nazi Germany did worse than even the Rwanda genocide. First, they killed six times as many people. Second, they didn't have the excuse of either crass ignorance or hastily reacting. It was a cold-blooded, methodically planned, industrially organised butchery.
I'm very, very tired of Lebanon, yes. But I wouldn't swap for the UK, where the worst is yet to bloom is its full splendor. (Mark my words...)
Slovakia's quite fine in my book, relatively and all things considered. I'd readily czech it out.
In Lebanon, if some degenerate pseudo-human rapes and murders a child, it's automatically a swift death penalty. No such bastard ever gets a parole release to have a chance at doing it again.
And taking photos in Lebanon is far less risky for a law-abiding, no-harm-meaning citizen.
[Next season coming up in July, if the bankers loan us the pharaonic budget to hire Bruce Willis.
Working title: "Attack Of The Unsliced Salami Post's Lesbian Vampire Mother-In-Law!"
Or maybe we'll go with "P-04, The Nextest Sequel". Concise, and to the point.]
"investigated "the return of modesty", in a very ambiguous and biased tone."
ReplyDelete?
Isn't that like saying "the painting was monochrome and colorful"?
Ambiguous is virtually an antonym to biased.
Well, the way I meant it, it was biased BECAUSE it was ambiguous. When a TV news report says one thing and its opposite, on a "sensitive" topic, then I know it's biased and trying to influence people.
ReplyDeleteFact : less women are going topless on France beaches... seemingly!
Claim : it's a "reaction to formatted beauty in the media".
Observation : the less sexy/formatted women are getting most of the criticism for going topless.
Testimonial (from these criticized women) : they're being dissed by clothed women who are even less sexy.
Claim + Observation = ambiguity.
Claim + Observation + Testimonial = biased news report.
Somebody's trying to establish a dubious point with a blurry report.
Dubious = biased ; blurry = ambiguous.
Another possibility is that you are right and I, am full of high-temperature N2 + 1/4 O2, commonly known as "hot air".
But hey, it's Summer, it's normal that the air be hot.
To be honest, every time I see or hear claims that seem to infer that increased prudishness is a natural evolution of Society, I go into Brown Alert.
What is Brown Alert? Well, it's when my fan-shaped radar detects bullshit in approach at low altitude.
And this, my friends, is perhaps the most impeccably-sounding rant of mine that I can recall. :-)
About 10 years ago, when I was in France, I heard/read (can't recall exactly, maybe both) an "etiquette summary on toplessness". So anti-Domai that, even back then when I hadn't heard about Domai, it made me bristle instinctively.
Excerpts:
"- You should only go topless if you have something nice to uncover. Showing bland or ugly bosom is poor manner."
"- Men's gaze should brush lightly what is exposed, looking for more than half a second is staring, therefore very rude."
"- If less than half of the women on the beach are going topless, you shouldn't do it. If more than half are, it's your decision."
Picture the same speech about bikini vs whole-body swimsuits in 1970, and tell me what you think!
"Only pretty women should wear a swimsuit and show themselves on the beach. Oh, and it's rude to frankly look at them. Now, y'all have fun this Summer, y'hear?"
France is quite the progressist country, but still NOT quite there.
Fortunately, the French only listen to the media and the Church when they hear something they're already convinced of. Most of them, when asked about the Pope's position on contraception and condoms, just give you a pitying smile and shrug.
And most of them, when they hear about UK paranoia towards public photography, roll their eyes in semi-disbelief, "are they for real?". Only place in France where taking photos is subject to very strict rules, is naturist places. Browse Voyeurweb.com, and you'll soon see why.
Better be careful then before saying "take a photo, it'll last longer". ;-p