More Ugly Logos

The Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan Am Games unveiled the logo for the games yesterday, and I have to say I have never seen something quite so vomit-inducing!

First off; not even in the height of the bad taste 70s would someone put Orange, Avocado and Sky Blue together. It's just plain wrong. Then the logo itself is just blobs devoid of and meaning or signification whatsoever. According to the press release, The Pan Am Games logo is inspired by aboriginal art forms common throughout the Americas before Europeans arrived. Uh, what? I see blobs. Just blobs. And while I'm sure the Micmaqs or Aztecs didn't have anything against blobs, I don't see how you can even pretend that this logo has even the slightest link to Aboriginal culture.

The bid logo was insipid and dull, but not offensive. Just boring. The actual logo for the Games makes my eyes bleed. Honestly, who is the design team that the bid committee is working with? They should never be allowed near Adobe Illustrator ever again!

Logo for the 2015 Pan Am Games, you are officially Dead To Me! Now excuse me while I go gouge out my eyes.

Uglympic Logo

You may have noticed, but I'm a bit of a nerd. I get excited about things like Olympic logos. So I'm sure you can all imagine my horror and what-the-effing-effness when I learned that the new logo for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia had been unveiled.

The original bid logo when Sochi was a candiate city is quite nice actually. Pleasant colours, interesting to look at, winterish. ...Perhaps a little more appropriate were these Games taking place in the Soviet Union, but hey, I've never been one to turn my nose at some fine Commie nostalgia!Enter the new logo. Techinally, I'm not even sure it qualifies as a logo — there are no graphic elements. I mean, anyone can download a clunky, "futuristic" font from the Web and colour it light blue in MS Word. Could this logo be any more bland? Incorporating the ".ru" domain name is supposed to be new and fresh — which it definately would be, had it been a part of the 1996 Olympic logo! Honestly, in 2014, who is going to find the Internet in the slightest bit interesting? The organisers might as well have put the fax number in the logo too!
Here's a quote: "To prove our commitment to innovation, Sochi 2014 will have a clearly digital Games emblem. Today, we welcome tomorrow." Oh barf. — Sochi Olympic logo, although it was tough, you manged to out-fugly even the Nagano Olympics and take the crown of Most Wretched Olympic logo ever. You are dead to me!

Tibet, China, Xinhua News Agency and the Ministry of Truth

I notice it’s been a while since I’ve gotten all ranty. I’ve been busy with other things; mostly trying to keep from losing my mind because of my university. But the violence in Tibet is bringing out the finger-wagging in me – and not just wagging, but pointing and reviling and j’accuse-ing too!

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, is publishing such total bullcrap with regards to the situation! It literally makes me livid with rage when I read the complete nonsense they come out with, trying every possible attempt to spin this public relations disaster. Then, I get even more raging when I remember that for the average person living in China, the only source of information they have is this brainwash 1984 Newspeak!

“Some monks even deliberately maimed each other, and then took photographs in order to make a sensation in the world.” ¹

“Throughout the incident, Lhasa police officers exercised great restraint. They remained patient, professional and were instructed not to use force. In humanitarian spirit, they even rescued the malicious monks who attempted sensation through hurting themselves.”²

“Lian said of the Dalai Lama: "He appears as a follower of non-violence. As for whether he is a terrorist, we mainly see he is involved in terrorist activities."”³

Or, if that wasn’t nauseating enough, there are some further examples here and here of the complete rubbish that Chinese people have to put up with every day.

For the last 30 or so years the Dalai Lama has being trying to find a way for Tibetan culture to be allowed to continue under Chinese rule. He has stated on numerous occasions that Tibet is a part of China. Xinhua just doesn’t want to listen. They endlessly repeat over and over that the Dalai Lama and his “splittest cliques” are trying to “carve Tibet out of the motherland”⁴ and hold the Olympic Games hostage⁵. — Going on the time I lived in China, I think most people are conscious of the fact that the Chinese press is pure propaganda — but just like that whole Richard Gere – gerbil thing, there is only so many times you can hear something before you have to begin to wonder. —Xinhua News Agency, spreader of mis- and dis-information, Communist party mouthpiece and sorry excuse for journalism: You are dead to me!

Young Tibetans are pissed because the Dalai Lama’s nicey-nice has gotten them nowhere, the Chinese government is just as heavy-handed as ever, and their way of life is threatened by large-scale migration of ethnic Han Chinese to Tibet.

I, for one, am glad that the situation is continuing and spreading — particularly to Xinjiang, another ethnic minority area forcibly integrated into China by the Communist Party in the 1950s. I can only hope the ongoing unrest will force Western governments to stop thinking with their pocketbooks about the huge Chinese market, stop turning a blind eye to all of the country’s flagrant human rights abuses, and finally start pressuring the Chinese Communist Party to behave like an honest member of the international community.

I'm (mildly) famous!

Of course you already all knew that, but now travel website Gadling.com has taken up my cause against Lonely Planet guidebooks to Burma.

Check out their story here.

Life is a Cabaret ol' chum

In honour of the day after Labour Day and all things scholastic, I present to you this Youtube. Classroom pranks are always good times, and who doesn't love a little Broadway now and then?

I wish this could have happened even once during university lectures — anything to break up the bone dry monotony of professors prattling away like an academo-speak jackhammer about the semiotics of contexuality and meta-hegemony.

God, how much fun would it be if life was a non-stop Broadway musical? Just think of all the dancing and costumes! And the constant perfect smiles! Of course we'd never get anything done because we'd need to break in to song about going to the bank machine or reheating yesterday's leftovers, but really getting things done is over-rated anyway.

Bring on the spirit fingers!

Top Ten Reasons I Love India

Number One: Chicken Tikka Masala

Number Two: Saris

Number Three through Nine: This Ridiculous Video

Number Ten: Mahatma Gandhi

Subway to York

A open letter to the people complaining that federal money for transit is not being well spent:

Are you stupid? Shut the hell up! After years of neglect and disregard, the federal government has finally come up with some money for public transit. So what if the money would be better spent on other projects — it's better than no money being spent at all. Of course political money comes with purse-strings, and I'd much rather the extension to York be built –which been in the works for a long time but perhaps not a top priority– as opposed to nothing being built at all! How can nothing be better than something?!

One thing at a time people! Once we get this funding, maybe Harper will throw some more vote-grab money our way later on. Until then, be happy that we are building the line to York University only twenty years behind schedule instead of building nothing at all.

Honestly, some people! If you want to complain about something really annoying, why not try the 100$ highway robbery metropasses?

Disreputable Planet

Given the opportunity there aren’t many places in the wouldn’t go; Kyrgyzstan, Chad, you name it. But one place I would not go is Burma. —Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to go. It’s supposed to be beautifully amazing. However, democratically elected leader and Noble Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi asked tourist not to visit Burma after the military seized power in 1988.

Since the coup, the military junta has done heaps of annoying and terrible things like: change the name of the country (to obnoxious and unfamiliar Myanmar); moved the capital (to Naypyidaw, a dusty, purpose-built settlement in the middle of nowhere); crippled the economy, tortured and killed pro-democracy activists; and persecuted ethnic minorities. In short, they are total douchbags. They have also kept Aung San Suu Kyi under an unflinching and unwavering house arrest which has prevented her from seeing her British-born children for the past 18 years, and kept her away from her husband’s funeral in 1999 (whom she’d hadn’t seen since 1989).

The jerk-faced Burmese military likes to have a finger in every pie and controls almost all aspects of the tourism industry (or more correctly most all aspects of every industry): hotels; transportation; restaurants; businesses; whatever’s going, you know they’re cashing in on it. Tourist dollars go straight into military coffers and provide much-needed foreign exchange to prop-up to the regime. Because this money allows the military junta to buy arms, consolidate their power, and smother dissent, Ang San Suu Kyi has asked foreign tourists to spend their money elsewhere and to not visit Burma.

Back in November (when I wanted to write this post, but didn’t have time), Lonely Planet published its fifth edition guide to Burma (nauseatingly referred to as ‘Myanmar’). That’s one-two-three-four-five editions of a guide to a country that shouldn’t even be on the tourist radar at all. Why are they publishing this guidebook? To go against the wishes of a nation’s democratically elected leader and put money in the pockets of a brutalitarian regime is totally irresponsible.

They do include a two-page “Should You Go to "Myanmar"?” section, which *of course* tells you should go (because otherwise you’re not going to buy their guidebook), arguing the trickle-down benefit to the local people. Realistically, if you are seriously concerned about the plight of the average Burmese person, I’m sure your money would have a much bigger impact and be of more benefit if you were to donate it to the Burma Campaign, rather than staying in a government-run hotel and wondering how that helps the local people when employees don’t get paid for months at a time then get beaten up if they try to complain.

Conversely, if you are a humble adventure tourist in search of a nice place for a vacation, there are plenty of countries in the world (without a self-imposed travel ban) where the local people are just as deserving of your tourist ¥¥¥ as the Burmese.

Anyway you dice it, this guidebook to Burma is bad news. People should not be going there, pointe finale. Lonely Planet, I’m calling you out for ignoring your moral duty and the request of Ms Suu Kyi, in the hopes of turning a quick buck. Shame on you! Your Lonely Planet Guide to “Myanmar” puts dollar signs ahead of social responsibility, and supports an oppressive and brutal dictatorship. –Because of this, I’m banishing Lonely Planet guidebooks from my bookshelf forever. You are: Dead to Me!

(If you stop publishing Burma guidebooks, or if the travel ban is lifted, you might get off my list, if you’re lucky. I probably still ixnay your guidebooks though for being such kowtowing, lackey jerks in the first place).

They Got Ping-Pong

Looks as though I'm not the only one down on China right now. The Toronto Star seems to think they're a bunch of no-goodniks too.

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Does this call for a drop down to the ranks of "Dead to Me"?

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Article here.

They Got the Red Book, They Got the New Look

Remember back in the day when everyone hated on the Soviet Union and got upset when they used their superior gymnastic technology to beat us in the Olympics? Then they self-destructed and it was America 's turn to be top-dog obnoxious bully. Well ladies and gentlemen, I'm calling it right now and you heard it here first: the 21st century's super-power super-villain is the People's Republic of China .

They snuck up on us with their cheap running shoe factories and delicious hoisin sauce and now they're well on their way to overtaking our rowdy southern neighbours for the title of "The Superpower You Love to Hate" — at least America has an elected government to keep up the checks and balances.

Let's review the evidence of China 's newfound jerkyness: Let's start with Taiwan. Taiwan is its own country, end of story. Why does China even care so much — Taiwan has no resources and little historical significance to the mainland. Could it perhaps be their bloated ego and over-inflated sense of self importance? Taiwan has been trying to resolve this ridiculous aberration of diplomacy for the past twenty years, but is scared youknowwhatless by China's huge army and threats of immediate attack.

Tibet — hmmn, how to put it nicely? China's invasion of Tibet in 1950 blows, and their continued efforts to destroy Tibetan culture and suppress self-determination blows even harder! Hey PRC: Get the hell out of Tibet! It does not belong to you except in your own delusional mind. Your thinly-veiled attempt to erase Tibetan identity by promoting mass Han Chinese migration and wrapping it in a pale veneer of 'economic development' is disgusting and smacks of cultural genocide. — Hoo-wee, Tintin, getting a bit hot under the collar there. Moving right along...

Human rights; at the moment, China only has terrible human rights for its own citizens, but how long before it tries to push its brand of commie management on everyone else (à la present global-capitalist American hegemony)? From Tian'anmen to Falun Gong and prison labour, China 's human rights record is boo-urns.

The whole problem is that no one wants to take China to task for its meanie-badness because they don't want to piss off the world's biggest market. So pretty much everyone just turns a blind eye and looks the other way, pretending everything is fine, when really China is executing and torturing people left, right and centre. Any place that, for example, harvests organs from political prisoners deserves a whole heap of sanctions and international condemnation instead of a tsk-tsk-tsk and ineffectual finger-wagging. The PRC's authoritarian, un-elected government certainly makes all these problems worse.

Clearly the People's Republic of China should go in the 'Dead to Me' section, but it has a special place in my heart and I just can't bring myself to do it — there are simply far too many things I love; chopsticks, propaganda art, the Temple of Heaven, dragons, pirated DVDs, spicy crispy ginger pork. I'll have to content myself with 'On Notice,' but be warned China; you better stop resting on your Moo-shu laurels and get your act together before I'm forced to drop you down to 'Dead to Me' with Pope Eggs Benedict.

All that being said however, Americans are still a bunch of bat-crazy mo-fos ↓↓↓.

Happy United Nations Day!

Today is United Nations Day everyone.

I think we should all take a minute to appreciate my nerdiness for both knowing that October 24th is United Nations Day and for being able to name all of the flags in this picture.

Thank you United Nations for make the world a better place!