So you think you’re cultured?

Why Julian Assange is dangerous

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

Yesterday, we commemorated the contribution made by Alan Turing. Born exactly a hundred years ago, Turing was a brilliant mathematician who headed the codebreaking unit in Britain during the Second World War.

It was he who was largely responsible for inventing the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park, the secret British centre for codebreaking. His team could decipher cryptic German messages and this information was used against the enemy itself.

Naturally, it was crucial that the Germans not find out about the Enigma machine and so the secret of Bletchley Park was kept until well after the War when the danger was over.

It was the secrecy around the Enigma Code which shortened the War.

Which brings me to Julian Assange and why he is dangerous. In my opinion, had amoral Assange been around during this war and had he learned about the Enigma machine, I am convinced that he would have blabbed it to the World and endangered the lives of many millions of Allies.

Le Chef- movie review

liligans Films, So you think you're cultured?

Funny thing about this film. I enjoyed it very much while I was watching it, but on thinking it over what struck me was how silly it all was.

So what did I enjoy? Well, 99% of the acting was excellent. Jean Reno is his usual consummate self as is the rest of the cast, apart from the villainous manager, Stanislaw, who is oh so evil!.

I particularly enjoyed the pomposity of chefs being satirised. It is only food, after all and chefs are not deities. Not really. So when the film makes fun of molecular cooking and those big white plates with microscopic portions on them, I feel validated for thinking that chefs have delusions of grandeur and that some cooks take themselves far too seriously.

The French are good at comedy, as are the Brits. They have finesse and they don’t go for stupid special effects etc, which bore me to tears.

So what I really enjoyed about Le Chef is that it made me laugh and nowadays I am desperate for a chuckle what with Greece and Syria and all that stuff.

On reflection, however, the film is very predictable. No surprises there and not much depth. I particularly winced at an embarrassing scene in a rival restaurant which would have been more appropriate for a Dumb and Dumber scenario.

So what? I ask myself. A bit of amusing froth is what I wanted and Le Chef is well worth it for that.

The Dictator- a movie for the politically savvy

liligans Films

I was bowled over by the movie, “The Dictator”. Sacha Baron Cohen’s ventures in the past were quite amusing but I did squirm occasionally at the crassness of his humour. In his latest production, however, Baron Cohen is very impressive. His script is tighter and the acting is much better, but, for me, the most impressive trait of “The Dictator” is its acerbic satire.

This film is strictly political and if you want to enjoy it to its full potential then you have to be au fait with current affairs. It is not a children’s movie, nor is it for teenagers who are more familiar with Justin Bieber, say.

The satire revolves around the latest Arab Spring’s toying with democracy and the downfall of a few regimes. Cohen is quite ruthless about dictatorship in general and Arab and Muslim dictatorships in particular. He attacks racial prejudice and stereotyping and even the U.S cops a bit of a beating.

The main target of his satire, however, is a dictator who reminds us just a tiny bit of the former and currently defunct Libyan ruler. Baron Cohen plays the part of the dictator as if he were born for this role.

He is refreshingly politically incorrect and I have to admit that I roared with laughter many, many times and even clapped out loud. Cohen says it like it is. No spin, no BS, just the truth as many of us see it.

It felt good to have one’s feelings validated. For those of you who like a bit of romance, well, there’s even a dose of that in “The Dictator” and it’s handled in the Frank Capra style of romantic comedies.

I would honestly describe “The Dictator” as sophisticated satire. If you like politics and you like biting satire with brains, then you should not miss this film.

One Direction is haunting me

liligans So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

Hard to believe but I was there when the new One Direction pop up store opened this morning. This is the second time that I have come upon the One Direction circus.

Please don’t think that I was in the long queue of fans like several hundred silly girls were. I just happened to walk past in Chapel St at 9 a.m and heard some squawking and squealing followed by a countdown.

“What the…is that noise?” I asked and then I saw them. Not One Direction, cause they aren’t even here. They apparently aren’t due in Australia until next year. No, this was a gaggle of pubescent girls and a couple of boys as well. There were even some parents there, for crying out loud. They were all lining up outside this small shop which is cashing in on the hysteria about the boy group.

We stood across the road and laughed, but to be honest, the laughter soon turned to sadness as we watched those girls make fools of themselves over T-shirts and other paraphernalia about One Direction.

That Simon Cowell is a very smart man, isn’t he? To think that he can organise a non-event on a frosty morning for a boy group that isn’t even present. To think that hundreds of girls would get up early in the morning to line up outside a pop up store and chant and squeal for hours. (Some of them for seventeen hours, so I’m told) to buy some trinkets with pictures of their favourite member of the One Direction farce, is absolutely mind-numbing.

Once the countdown for the opening of the store was over the girls rushed in and we continued our walk.

The whole thing was senseless. I actually had to explain to my husband that One Direction aren’t even here yet.

“So what was all that fuss about?” he asked. “Why were they screaming?”

He got a shrug from me in response. “Let’s get out of here,” I said and we walked on anxious to distance ourselves from the hysteria.

Why is the ABC protecting Peter Slipper?

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

At 5 am today I read that Peter Slipper, Speaker of the House in Parliament was being accused of sexually harassing, James Ashby, a young man in his employ.

By 6 am the story had disappeared from the ABC’s online site. Other online sites were still reporting the allegations while the ABC story was gone.

I was puzzled about this disappearance. Who told the ABC to remove the story?

By 7.30 am the ABC put the story about Peter Slipper back on its site.

Hmm…

One Direction-Wrong Direction

liligans So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

There are some horrible scenes around Melbourne. Pre-pubescent girls and even some weird six year old boys are experiencing fits of hysteria outside the Crown Casino. Some of them are crying and shrieking, others are fainting while others, who are still upright, are gesticulating and wriggling about under a spell of some sort. Perhaps St Vitus dance?

Until today I had not even heard of the boy group who are the objects of their affection and the cause of all these histrionics. Apparently, they are called “One Direction” which evidently refers to the one direction, straight to the bank, that promoter, Simon “Midas” Cowell is heading once again. He certainly has the Golden Touch.

I had a serious look at those youngsters in his boy group. Stupid hairstyles full of gel, naive faces, so sissy looking and I wondered what is the matter with those silly young girls that would cause them to tremble at the mere mention of the name “One Direction.”

I’m fully aware that hysteria over pop stars has always gone on, but there seems to be a pronounced trend towards effeminate boys being the flavour of the moment. Justin Bieber comes to mind. Not very macho, in my opinion. Pity about that.

Did I ever behave like that at that age? In all honesty, I could never, ever swoon over a “celebrity” the way that those girls are doing. It’s simply not my style and I can’t relate to such pathological hysteria.

How degrading it all is to see yourself on TV behaving like a randy goat. Simon Cowell must be killing himself laughing when he watches the circus that he has created. Surely, those girls must suspect that they are being taken for a ride in the wrong direction.

p.s
Good Grief! I just found out that there are two “One Direction” boy groups. One is from the UK and that’s the one that is driving Aussie females crazy at the moment. And there is another in the US who aren’t very happy with Simon Cowell and are threatening to sue him…allegedly. Two directions. Take your pick. lol

Chadstone Shopping Centre cleaners protest

liligans So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

Well, well, well, who can deny that coincidences happen? In yesterday’s blog, I finally expressed my exasperation with the dirty toilets at the Chadstone Shopping Centre- the biggest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. My gripe was with the management at the Mall and not the cleaners.

This morning ABC radio has interviewed a cleaner from Chadstone who is about to start a long protest march from the Mall to the city with his fellow cleaners. The cleaners complain that they are having to do more and more work for less pay. Apparently, their employers, Spotless (lol) who have the contract for Chadstone are taking advantage of them.

Doesn’t look good for Chadstone management, does it?

Chadstone Shopping Centre is suffering from budgetary restrictions

liligans So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

With all that’s going wrong in the world of retail wouldn’t you think that a complaint about the nauseatingly dirty restrooms at the Chadstone Fashion Capital would be taken seriously?

More about that later.

It’s no secret that things are looking grim in the retail trade. Shops are closing down and going out of business. Consequently, shopping centres and malls must be feeling the pinch as well. They will simply have to try harder.

More about that later as well.

So what is to blame for the downturn?

Certainly there’s the GFC. But there are other factors as well. Retailers like to blame international online traders and they are demanding a GST placed on all online shopping to level the playing-field.

But that would only add 10% to the cost of the item. Most overseas online purchases are very much cheaper than the 10% GST difference. So even if a GST were imposed on online sales these would still continue to grow.

Firstly, because the world of online shopping is huge and it’s tempting. There’s so much choice out there that local retail just can’t match.

Secondly, retail, particularly department stores, have been providing less and less personal service. Now you would think that retail would try to outdo online shopping in the personal service field. They’ve got an obvious advantage here. After all, they have the goods and they should offer a shopper face to face attention. What an opportunity to outdo online traders!

But service has been going downhill for too long. Staff shortages have meant that you get more attention online. How ridiculous is that? Combine that with cheaper prices and immediate responses by online sellers and it’s no wonder retail business is suffering.

Now we get to the main substance of this blog. About time…

I’ve often complained about poor service in department stores and lack of facilities at Chadstone Shopping Centre, in particular.

I did so again a couple of months ago to one of the Chadstone executives. His name is David and he is in charge of customer complaints.

He is a busy man.

And that’s why he took several weeks to respond to my complaint about the terrible state of the restrooms in his Centre. Dirty floors, lack of paper, blocked toilets, wet and slippery conditions. You get the picture.

At long last, David phoned me only to explain that it costs a lot of money to supply hand towels instead of the useless hand dryers. It takes a lot of money to monitor the hygiene of the toilets.

David assured me that the restrooms get cleaned at the end of each day (whether they need it or not, apparently).

But he did not seem to understand that toilets should be cleaned often. They should provide paper hand towels or efficient hand dryers such as the Dyson ones that actually dry your hands well.

There were budgetary restrictions, David said, and he used that excuse over and over again, when I talked about making shoppers welcome at “The Fashion Capital of the Universe.”

He made it all sound so sad that I almost offered him a donation. On the whole, it was a pathetic response to a complaint about dirty loos.

Mind you, this is the same centre that is planning a multi-million dollar expansion, in spite of David’s unfortunate budgetary restrictions.

It doesn’t make sense to tell me they can’t afford to keep the loos clean and make the place shopper-friendly. There’s not much point in expanding unless you raise the standard of the service provided.

Happy shoppers lead to more business, David. Isn’t that “Retail for Dummies” advice?

But you’re the expert, David, and I’m a mere customer who fails to appreciate budgetary restrictions when it comes to hygiene.

Shame on Premier Anna Bligh of Queensland

liligans Politics

Politics is a dirty business and elections bring out the dirt in heaps. The Queensland elections are in full swing and things aren’t looking good for the incumbent Premier, Anna Bligh. Her opponent in the premiership stakes is Campbell Newman who used to be the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. And he was a good one, so good that Bligh fears his popularity and has to accuse Newman of all sorts of nefarious deeds.

Newman has denied any such activities, but Bligh is so desperate that she has continued to accuse him of corruption and nepotism. She would like to accuse him of causing the Great Flood of Brisbane last year but that has turned out to be her government’s mismanagement according to a recent report on the tragic events.

Because of her constant accusations, the CMC (Crimes and Misconduct Commission Queensland) has been asked to investigate whether Campbell Newman has done anything wrong. It turns out that there have been no improprieties in his dealings as Lord Mayor.

In spite of this finding, Premier Bligh has refused to apologise to Newman. He has in fact said that she owes an apology to the people of Queensland. She’s still banking on finding something nasty about her opponent if she skulks around long enough.

I expected better of Premier Bligh. How could she stoop so low and not have the guts to admit that she might have behaved badly?

Her government is on the nose at the moment. Queensland is praying for a regime change and I hope that the voters will disapprove of her muckraking.

Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, is going to lose my support.

liligans Politics

How can Tony Abbott claim to be defending women’s honour when he demands that Defence Minister Stephen Smith apologise to the Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy?

I do not intend to go into the details of the scandal that took place in the Defence Academy last year. It’s far too complicated. There was some filming of a sex act which was broadcast simultaneously on Skype without the knowledge and permission of the woman in question. Minister Smith was rightly outraged when he was told about it and expressed his disgust at the way the woman was subsequently victimised by the Academy.

The person in charge of the Academy at that time was Commodore Bruce Kafer and a report on the whole business says that “overall” he is not to blame and will be reinstated.

Be that as it may, I feel that Kafer did not behave as well as he should have last year. So Stephen Smith is correct in not apologising to him.

On this occasion, Smith has been valiant and admirable in his criticism of the Defence Academy and its head.

However, I fail to understand why Tony Abbott, who claims to be a defender of female rights, should then decide to continue his Dr No impersonation and blame the Minister for NOT apologising to Kafer. Surely, this would have been an opportunity to support the Minister’s ethical stand. Abbott could have demonstrated that women should not be treated with such disrespect by the Academy.

But no, instead, he reverted to his silly stance of criticising everything that the government does, even if it’s good.

That is so disappointing. He is in danger of alienating Liberal supporters like me. I already disapprove of his ridiculously unrealistic and unnecessary maternal leave scheme which will pay high earners their entire salary for six months. Talk about absurd!

And now Abbott proves how erratic he is by siding against women in the Defence Force case, just so that he can attack a serving Minister who has some balls.

Abbott has done well to raise the profile of the Opposition, but he is in danger of spoiling it all by being too adversarial.