Ach go háirithe

I was well and truly C.O.T with this one. Below is the offending hoax email that warranted this reply in my previous post. I maintain that it being Monday morning and all that my defences were down and as such was an easy target. Having said that, Johnny I doff my hat to you sir on a job well done.

Dear Sir,

It was with great interest that I came across your website a number of months back. I have always been an avid supporter of the rejuvenation of the Irish tongue in our native country. Having the youth of our country revitalise it using new media formats, perhaps not accessible to the older generations who have been carrying the flag up to now, is most encouraging, and for this I salute your efforts.

However I watched with growing anxiety over recent posts as it descended in quality, beginning with incitement to racial slander against our the Muslim neighbours who have braved inequality and injustice brought about on a global level by terrorism and the foreign policies of world leaders and on a more local level by the small mindedness of certain natives here in Ireland.

These posts kept occurring and, while I felt they might have been incidentally brought about by the choosing of pictures which might have drawn amusing remarks, have now become too numerous in number to ignore the fact that you are quite obviously a racist bigot. Please correct me if I am wrong in this regard, but I felt too strongly about the matter to stay silent.

The reason for my mail, and what you might call the straw that broke the camel’s back, is your most recent post, a picture of a group of unfortunate disabled men, attempting to live an enjoyable life, ignoring their obvious disadvantages by partaking in the sports that every young man aspires to, and you, as insensitive and arrogant as you have proved yourself to be in the past make a mockery of them, that you and your “buddies” can ridicule their valiant efforts.

Well done sir, you have truly out done yourself and I hope you are proud, it is individuals like yourself who undo the efforts of the good people in this world to bring a level of equality and respect to those who are racially disadvantaged or physically disadvantaged.

Finally I submit that, rather ironically, you are emotionally disabled in being able to laugh at those more unfortunate than you.

Yours in disgust,

Chastise
1. To punish, as by beating.
2. To criticize severely; rebuke.
3. Archaic. To purify.

Its Monday morning, bleary eyed I unpack my foll-dolls and boot up my PC. Point click…… wait……..send and receive……….wait……read…… the usual workday morning routine. What was unusual about this workday morning was an email i received titled “To Web Administrator, Achgohairithe Websiteâ€?, the web administrator that’s me I guess, I better have a look.

Not since Bill Cosby took it upon himself to ring Eddie Murphy and lecture him regarding the content of his shows has there been a chastising of such Biblical proportions. Like Eddie I too was shocked and a little insulted by the mainly disparaging remarks I was subjected to on this most unusual of Monday mornings.

First things first, I had to eliminate the possibility that it was an attempted hoax on the part of one of the lads. Usual suspects contacted, negative replies on all fronts. While I still have my suspicions, I do have a bit of time on my hands so bite why not, as the Japanese would say!

In the email I get accused of incitement; incitement of racial slander against the Muslim community! I also get called an emotionally crippled racist bigot!! Nice ha? The writer seems to have come to the conclusion that I’m a racist bigot on the grounds that the Friday Caption Comp shows me up as such. While I cannot control (to an extent) what comments/captions people come up with I can control the pictures. So let’s take a closer look at these pictures and see exactly how far I’ve slipped into this racist quagmire.

Caption Comp Pic # 1
(Muslim lady filling out a poling card, around the time of the Iraqi elections)
Caption Comp Pic # 2
(Group of, possibly Russian, soldiers fishing on a frozen lake)
Caption Comp Pic # 3
(Arabic looking man sitting in front of pile or rubble)
Caption Comp Pic # 4
(Business man lying down in a roadway, half constructed church in bg)
Caption Comp Pic # 5
(Swimmer wearing a funny hat getting given out to by a bald man)
Caption Comp Pic # 6
(A black child on a bike surrounded by a group of scary looking police men)
Caption Comp Pic # 7
(Group of Arabic looking soldiers standing in a circle talking and pointing)
Caption Comp Pic # 8
(Two lady pilots sitting in a jet fighter cock-pit)
Caption Comp Pic # 9
(Obligatory Bush doing something stupid photo)
Caption Comp Pic # 10
(Muslim man calling people to prayer)
Caption Comp Pic # 11
(Guy looking scared looking at a naked lady)
Caption Comp Pic # 12
(Bearded men dancing holding a stick)
Caption Comp Pic # 13
(Star Trek movie still)
Caption Comp Pic # 14
(UEFA/FIFA delegates making speech)
Caption Comp Pic # 15
(Obligatory Bush doing something stupid photo #2)
Caption Comp Pic # 16
(Arabic leader giving press conference, strange hand gesture)
Caption Comp Pic # 17
(3 one legged men paying soccer)

That’s 5 Muslim/Arabic themed pictures and 2 pictures containing people of colour. Given my propensity to use images of topical issues (where possible) as subject matter for the FCC, it’s hardly surprising in today’s climate that one subject seems to have cropped up more than once. This was in no way deliberate on my part and for someone to accuse me of having some hidden agenda or saying that I’m guided by an alterative motive when selecting pictures for the FCC is just plain WRONG!

There are some things on this Blog that should be taken with a pinch of salt; the FCC is one of these. It may not be very ‘pc’, but hell if I can’t be un-pc on the net where can I be un-pc??

Maybe i need a read of this:
Posted in Ach go háirithe | 3 Comments »