Kaz You Feel The Cynicism?
September 27th, 2006Kazakhstan, a country that we will never hear about again but whose history is filled with violent dictators (surprise surprise) and awful men, took out an ad today in the NYT to defend its image from the new movie, Borat. I smell a rat, and he’s whoever at the NYT decided that it was acceptable to run an ad by a country whose leader is currently involved in the murder of opposition leaders. I’m all for free speech if you’re not one who denies it. That might sound hypocritical, but I would argue that the reverse argument is asinine. You know, “Well, because we believe in free speech, we have to let them speak.” That’s nonsense. If bin Laden requested to run an Advertisement in the Chicago Tribune he’d be rebuffed. Why should a dictator, elected in a crooked election and covered in blood, be allowed to defend his honor in American papers?
Why? So that Washington won’t feel that bad about dealing oil with them. Cynical though it sounds, it’s certainly true. The New York Times ran the ad because money is money, and the Kazakhs asked to publish it because they had to give up some token gesture. And while I’m being cynical, let’s look at this story, about how the Aviation Industry can cut CO2 emissions by twenty five percent if they just come together.
Wonderful stuff, though it’s not gonna happen, and that’s testament to the allure of money, more than anything else. If it did, though, I’d be the first one to congratulate Sir Branson.