"No man, I felt like an idiot so I'm reading up on this while Iraq war situation..." JD from Scrubs

“Whatever you do don’t mention the war, I think I may have said something but I’m think I got away with it…” John Cleese as Basil Fawlty on Fawlty Towers. While these words were spoken by John Cleese nearly 30 years ago, they are still very relevant to today, only this time we are talking about the war on Iraq and Afghanistan particularly through the media.
Now the military has more say as to what goes to air on what is happening in the war zones, in the war on Iraq one the images were more like a video game, now we have embedded journalists with battalions and commanders have veto rights on what is “published”. Does anyone actually know what is happening in the war zones? For months we had action shots and images like Saddam Hussein statues toppling, but recently all that we know about is when an Australian is injured or killed in the war zone.

While this does seem like we are being kept in the dark, who really wants to see these disturbing images of war, so long as it does affect us in everyday life are we really worried. So long as we don’t have to see images of dead bodies of children or bloody figures running from soldiers we are quite happy to live our lives. This has a two fold effect though, because as long as we are not seeing the devastating effects of the war, popular opinion does not go against the war. When the true images of the Vietnam War came home the public turned against the war and we saw mass protests against the war. Now instead of protests we have popular commentators discussing their thoughts on the war but we are able to either tune in or tune out depending on how we are feeling.

The media when it comes to war has a lot of responsibility when reporting, we don’t want to see the Falklands War repeated; when it was reported that the enemies missiles were not shooting straight, while this seems interesting to the public it had a devastating effect of the British army losing two ships the next day. Information is much more accessible to anyone in the world now; militaries have to be conscious of the enemy looking up media reports from around the world. At the end of the day we have to protect our troops who believe in what they are fighting for, but war will always cause divides friends and work colleagues no matter what, unless you’re like JD from scrubs…

"You're Black Puh-leaze" Dr Cox to Turk

National identity- what the hell is National Identity- is it the country you were born in? The country you choose to spend you life in or the country that you escape to? While some argue that it is the country that you are born in I disagree. While I am born an Australian, my mother is English and while she has chosen to adopt the Australian National Identity, I have in fact chosen the British Nationality- I have dual citizenship and plan on living the majority of my life in the Queens Country.

But what about those who have become displaced through no choice of their own? The refugees who leave everything behind, should they give up their nationality and cultural ideas just because of something they had no choice in? This is no longer such a problem, with the internet now offering ways for people all over the world to continually connect with their cultural counterparts. With Hindu sites and Islamic sites offering connections for these people to feel comfortable no matter where they are in the world (well so long as they have a computer near by that is!).

But is this starting to blur national identities- if a person can be a Kazakhstanian (think Borat if you are confused) in America does this then blur the lines between an American National Identity and a Kazakhstan National Identity, does it then in fact develop into a whole new national identity- perhaps Kazakhamerica or Amrekhatanian? Confused? I know I am, I think it all boils down to this- National Identity is no longer bound by border (you can thank airline travel for that- Thanks Mr Branson!), it is now the cultural group with which you identify with and the internet now offers this ability to one and all (well one and all who have internet connections). I still like to think of myself as a British citizen just born in the wrong country!!! Just like in today’s clip we see Turk identify with being an African American yet as Dr Cox clearly points out he is in fact not!

I'm fairly sure that if they took all the porn off the Internet, there'd only be 1 website left, and it would be called Bring Back The Porn.” Dr Cox

Well today’s quote comes from Dr Cox’s Perry’s Perspective the first is that if someone cannot make up their mind as to what coffee they want in the time it took them to get to the front of the line he should be allowed to kill them (I definitely agree with this) and finally every man is an island. I definitely agree with the first two on that one. Porn is the life blood of the internet and it is what has led to many improvements on the internet (well why else would guys want faster downloads other than to look at naked women- it wasn’t so they can read the latest bible reading I’ll tell you that much!).

But how much of it is real sex? I mean they are invent stimulating machines so that people can (pardon the expression) get off while chatting (having cyber sex) online. What happened to the good old days of doing things the old fashioned ways? Don’t get me wrong cyber sex definitely has a lot less consequences than real sex (no chance of pregnancy, no chance of STDs and little chance of anyone you know in the real world finding out), but what kind of impact is this having on our relationships with people, how will the population grow if people are just having simulated sex. Yes it is sex people so yes you are cheating on your spouse when you do it, but what kind of impact is this going to have when you take someone to court for divorce and the reason is unfaithfulness to someone overseas! Thank goodness we now have no fault divorce.

It also makes you wonder how young people looking on the internet to learn about sex are going to deal with the real thing when it happens because here is a news flash people real sex is messy, nobody has that perfect a body and not all positions are comfortable for everyone- no matter how much that girl looks like she is enjoying it I can give you a hot tip- SHE IS GETTING PAID to pull that face and look like she is enjoying it!!!!!

But at least the internet does offer options for the older folk among us, apparently as we get older our sex drive doesn’t diminish and while a lot of us do not want to think about it they do have needs as well. But in the end everyone should be allowed to have some fun- but as Dr Cox points out is it all there really is on the internet? If so what does it say about us as a society?

“Turk, you just schooled on black rap by the two white girls in America!” Carla

I am a happy Caucasian female and while I live in a very multicultural society even I can experience some form of racism- more because I have been into places where I am actually the minority and have feared for my life. But I still feel sickened when I discover that extreme groups exist in our world that promotes racism and white superiority. In fact looking at the website the Intelligence Project http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp that shows how many hate groups exist in each state in America. The most are found in Texas (66) and that turns my stomach.

It is also through the internet that we are starting to see the spread of this kind of diseased form of thinking- even in Australia we have the Australian First Party http://ausfirst.alphalink.com.au/ which seems safe at first but when you start actually looking at the beliefs of these groups that you realise how deranged these people really are. I know the internet is a form of free speech and I’m fairly sure these groups would have a problem with what I think but seriously people it is now the 21st Century can’t we leave the whole categorising people based on their race behind in the 20th century? I mean in this day and age we are all so mixed up it is even harder to define what we really are and who we identify with in our community.

What is even more interesting in our world today away from the extremist groups is taking the political corrected ness way too far that we now always have to have the token black guy in advertising everything from schools to hospitals. We have taken such a swing from discrimating against other “races” to wanting them in our world so much to show we are non- discriminatory that we end up marginalising those we want to feel a part of the group. Confused? Just watch this weeks scrubs moment and it will all become a lot clearer…