Kazakhstan gold medal athlete saluted with Borat anthem

Oh God Oh God Oh God.

If it wasn't in mainstream media, I would never believe it.

According to the Telegraph:

Mariya Dmitriyenko had just won the gold medal in the 75 target event at the 10th Arab Shooting Championship in Kuwait and as she stood on the podium with the other medal winners she was expecting to hear the sound of the Kazakhstan national anthem. 

Instead the obscene lyrics of the spoof Kazakhstan anthem from the film Borat began to play...

Uh-oh.

From the Kuwait Times:

The organizing committee of the International Shooting Grand Prix issued a statement yesterday regarding the accidental use of Borat’s parody national anthem in place of Kazakhstan’s real national anthem at a medal ceremony in Kuwait on Thursday. The committee accepted responsibility and offered further apologies for the incident. “The committee gave an official apology to the Kazakh delegation to the tournament, and the national anthem was replayed correctly. The Organizing Committee of the International Grand Prix expresses its utter regret for this unintentional mistake and reaffirms its great respect to its brothers and friends from the Republic of Kazakhstan, and affirms the deep sports relations between the Kazakh and Kuwait shooting federations.”

...Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov told the ITAR-Tass news agency the incident “is, of course, a scandal and demands a thorough investigation, which we intend to conduct”. ITAR-Tass quoted shooting team member Oksana Stavitskaya as saying that Asian Shooting Federation President Sheikh Salman Al-Sabah had apologized to the team. “Sheikh Salman personally apologized to us. 

He recognized that the use of the music from the scandalous film in place of the anthem of Kazakhstan was completely a mistake of the organizers. He explained that the awards ceremony was conducted by a firm under contract,” Stavitskaya said. The Kazakh news agency Tengri quoted team Coach Anvar Yunusmetov as saying tournament organizers had downloaded various countries’ national anthems from the Internet, and had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong.

This incident must have added insult to injury in Kazakhstan, where the government threatened to sue Sacha Baron Cohen for his Borat act in "Da Ali G Show" days.

Baron Cohen used the threat as an opportunity to provoke them further:


Borat Response to Kazakhstan Government by BoratSon

When the movie came out, it was not released by the central Asian 20th Century Fox distributor following a request by the Kazakh government, although some Kazakhs apparently find it funny. Gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko seemed to take it well. But her team demanded the medal ceremony be corrected and restaged.

The movie was also banned in most Arab countries, which may explain the blunder.

Australia is now selling virgins online

The Telegraph reports that an australian escort agency has, among its various women for hire, a 19-year-old student who is offering her virginity for $15000.

And indeed, there it is:

Her nationality is given as Chinese, as well as these vitals:

• Name : MOC Virgin    
• Age : 19
• Body Size : 6
• Cup Size : B
• Height : 166
• Language : English, Mandarin
• Type : Student
• Speciality :Virgin
• Bookings : 15000/Virgin

The most disturbing part (if it can get any worse) is her "must sold by" date of 12/12.

Obviously, this is upsetting both to moralists and to human rights advocates.

The Australian Christian Lobby commented, "selling someone else's virginity takes the cause of women's liberation back centuries." And it does.

Anti-trafficking organization Brothel Busters representative Chris Seage says that he believes the woman is  in it willingly. "There is a sadly recurring theme among young Asian girls who come to Australia to study and work, and get themselves into debt. It is clear she is doing this because she needs the money urgently."

Apparently Australia has no laws against the offer to sell virginity, or that an agency would profit by it.

"This is pretty common in Sydney," said an anonymous spokesman from the escort service, adding that they already have two interested pigs perverts clients. She will get to keep about half of the price on her maidenhead.

Latvian health ministry frowns on "beer money"

This is the new 1 Lat coin, issued at the height of midsummer festivities in the Baltic country to celebrate the beloved beverage.

According to the Bank of Latvia (via The Telegraph), "After water and tea, beer is the third most popular beverage in the world. The builders of the Egyptian pyramids were given three vessels of beer a day."

But apparently, the Bank received a strongly-worded letter from the Latvian health ministry, complaining that "The coin contradicts our efforts to cut down on the consumption of alcohol in society."

Apparently they're on a crusade. Earlier this year, the health ministry also wrote to a school that had the history of whisky as part of a senior oral exam. They said the topic was "unacceptable."

Meanwhile, Latvians are lining up to get their hands on the new coins.

F'd Ad Fridays: Good Friday Edition

Not exactly the Garden of Gethsemane...

It wouldn't be Easter if someone didn't get in trouble over an ad mocking Jesus. Today's winner for irreverent "WTF?" comes from Italy, where a Jesus lookalike is being "crucified" tied to a bed by a large dominatrix and pleads to God for help — on his bluetooth earpiece:



The Telegraph quotes a reaction from Avvenire, a daily newspaper owned by the Catholic Bishops Conference: "It's a sordid concept and incredibly insulting to those who believe in Jesus Christ."

This was produced, by the way, by Italian technorocker Andrea Fumagalli from Bluvertigo.



Yeah, he's going to Hell.

"Mamma drinks, baby drinks"

That's what this Italian ad (via the Telegraph) says to le donne incinte of the northeast region of Veneto.

According to news site Cronica (article is in Italian), 1 in 100 babies in Europe are born with some sort of fetal alcohol effects. However, it also states that 60% — 65%, according to the Telegraph — of Italian women consume some alcohol during pregnancy!

The advertiser is "Unita' Locale Socio Sanitaria N. 9" (Local Health Unit #9) in Treviso. Their site has an ad with body copy:



It says: "Drinking alcohol during pregnancy and nursing can damage the physical and mental development of your baby" and it leads to a campaign site, mammabevebimbobeve.it

The Telegraph reports that critics complain the campaign — which appears on buses, billboards and in women’s restrooms — is in very poor taste. Even the governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said it ran the risk of giving a “distorted image of women and in particular expecting mothers.” Italian media in general are calling it a "shock campaign".

It reminds me of the smoking fetus ads of the '80s.

What do you think? Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a tragedy for affected children. Many international health authorities, including Health Canada, recommend no alcohol intake whatsoever during pregnancy, because a safe minimum consumption has never been established.

Some authorities, such as the UK's Department of Health, are a little less extreme:

"As a general rule, pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid drinking alcohol. If they do choose to drink, to protect the baby they should not drink more than 1 to 2 units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk."

I would never recommend to anyone that they drink during pregnancy, because it is an additional risk factor (like eating sushi). However, I have to admit that my wife, and a few of our peers had the occasional glass of wine while pregnant. And this is why shock is a bad idea for this issue. I think this Italian campaign makes the mistake of trying to scare women into compliance with a "zero tolerance" message. Especially in a culture where moderate daily alcohol consumption is considered a quality of life issue.

Like shame-based ads that tell young people not to drink or do drugs, they overstate the case and risk having an opposite effect. After all, when 60-65% of their pregnant peers are drinking regularly and only 1% have babies with symptoms, will some tune out the ads and just assume their public health authority is full of merda?

All things considered, they might have been better off with a positive message of "the less you drink, the better."

So bad, it's good? Or just so bad?

The Telegraph reports that the following ad was withdrawn by the Austrian Military by order of the country's Defence Minister:



Another YouTube poster (and apparent fan of Mafia Wars), gives this rough translation:

Audi Driver: hey Girls, wanna go for a spin in my fast ride?
Girls: ehh not sure, there's not even enough space for all of us
Soldier: wazzup girls, in the mood for a joyride?
Girls: *yaaaaay*
Soldier: join the army if you wanna drive a tank
Soldier2: jump in, starting engine
Audi Driver: hey, what about the spin?
Girl: forget it, I want to drive something big
Narrator: the Austrian Armed Forces offer unique opportunities for young people who are at least 18 — everything else is just everyday life

Low-budget production, apparently amateur acting, vehicular penis envy, and downblouse shots... What's not to love?

According to Judith Goetz of the Austrian Students' Union, quite a bit:

"The video is trashy and an embarrassment... It is totally archaic to show such an obviously sexist video at a time when women are already part of the Austrian military."

Indeed, the commercial is offensive — in many ways. It appears to insult the intelligence of young men as well as women.

But is that what they were intending all along? One of the inevitable downfalls of aging is that younger people stop making sense. Not to mention that humour rarely translates well (especially from German or Japanese!) What I'd really like to know is what the average Austrian 18-year-old thought about this ad.

Col Johann Millonig, from the Austrian army's marketing department, claims this ad is "so dorky it's brilliant".

I'll leave that up to you to decide.