The Eclectic Catch Up Post

Well, there are a number of blog posts that I’ve been mulling around in my head for the past few weeks but haven’t been able to post, because what little literary prowess I possess has been utterly devoted to term papers, final projects, and various other end of semester endeavors.

So, I give you the eclectic catch up blog. Hopefully this will give you a little to chew on for the next few weeks as I tackle my finals while packing up for two moves, and a 60 hour work week during the Pepperdine Bible Lectures.

First
Nike’s new Futbol Ad Campaign in lieu of the upcoming world cup is amazing. The slogan “Joga Bonito,” Portuguese for “Play Beautiful,” subverts Nike’s long time branding of “Just Do It” substituting skills and teamwork as their lauded qualities rather than the traditional individual glory hounding they usually promote. On top of that though, the ads are just a ton of fun to watch.

I think this link should work for you… if it doesn’t, email me and I’ll figure it out when the internet is working better: http://nikefootball.nike.com/nikefootball/siteshell/index.jsp

What’s really interesting about this campaign though, it along with the commercials, Nike has formed a web community to go along with the message of the ads. Web communities, such as Facebook and MySpace, have become increasingly prominent helping people keep in touch with one another and connecting individuals with similar interests. Joga.com is a collaboration between Google and Nike to form an online community of soccer enthusiasts. If this campaign is deemed successful, I would expect there to be a number of other similarly ad based web communities springing up in the near future… an interesting cultural movement to keep tabs on.

Second

(this will show you how long I’ve been considering a few of these posts) Over Christmas break I saw the film Munich with my brother and father. While there is little room for technical criticism of the film, Spielburg’s kinda good at what he does, the message of the film struck a sour note. I have to say, I loved the film. It was gritty, raw, emotional, well done, and thought provoking, but still there was something that didn’t sit quite right about it. So, I went back and read the book that it was based on. Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team By George Jones. Two things struck me about the book taken in relation to the film. First of all, I was amazed by the overall accuracy that the film kept with the book. Of course, little moments such as our protagonist being almost blown to pieces in the Greek hotel bomb fiasco and the little girl picking up the phone and almost getting herself blown up, were added in keeping with Spielburg’s typical character development. The second, and more important, issue that reading the book raised was that the theme of the movie was not in line with the theme of the book, though, granted, the difference lies in subtle nuance. The movie was crafted to leave you questioning the effectiveness of counter-terrorist action, and ultimately leave you opposed to the ongoing conflict. The book does indeed raise questions of the actual effect of such counter-terrorist measures, but responds with an ultimate acceptance of the fact that such measures have saved hundreds, probably thousands of lives. Without the time to delve into further in-depth analysis as I had originally planned, here are some quotes I had pulled out to illustrate my point.

“Having made the decision to quit, they felt depressed and relieved at the same time. Though Black September seemed not to be active any longer… [lists some terrorist successes]… Reading the papers, Avner and Steve wondered if their mission, for which Carl, Robert, and Hans had given their lives, had made even a dent in international terror. Ephriam’s many-headed monster was not slowing down. And even where it appeared to be slowing, as with Black September, it was probably just as much due to a policy decision by Arafat’s faction of the PLO after the Yom Kippur War. It was possible that some of the mechablim now saw the United Nations and the [298] conference tables in Geneva as better staging areas from which to push the Jews into the sea.
Not that it mattered. What they did had to be done, as far as Avner and Steve were concerned. Israel could not allow her sons and daughters to be murdered with impunity. In the spring of 1975, even in their blackest mood in Geneva, Avner and Steve would have defended the mission unequivocally.” (297-298)

“Avner’s present views on his mission are devoid of second thoughts or regrets. He claims not to have ever had any personal feelings of enmity for the men he killed or helped to kill, but continues to regard their physical elimination as something demanded by necessity and honour. He fully supports the decision that sent him and his partners on their mission, and has absolutely no qualms about anything they did.” (335, Epilogue)

“Saying this could be mistaken for the suggestion that there are no standards of restraint in warfare, but this is not the same thing at all. One can, in terms of moral justification, distinguish between counter-terrorism and terrorism in the same way one distinguished between acts of war and war crimes. There are standards; terrorism is on the wrong side of them; counter-terrorism is not. It is possible to say that the Palestinian cause is as honourable as the Israeli cause; it is not possible to say that terror is as honourable as resisting terror. Ultimately both the morality and the usefulness of resisting terror are contained in the uselessness and imprality of not resisting it.
Toronto, 16 June 1983” (340 Epilogue)

“Of course, this frequently happens to authors at the hands of hostile reviewers, and I mention it solely to illustrate why a contentious book, perceived as “right-wing” – and parts of which may be open to genuine doubt – is not likely to receive an open-minded examination in the left-wing media.” (345) [Notes on a controversy]

Jones, George. Vengeance. 1984.

Third
Well, there’s a third and even a fourth that I wanted to talk about… and they were more interesting… so I guess you can consider this the cliff hanger, perhaps tomorrow…