When you thought that there would be more important things to contest or whine about, like the erosion of democracy and freedom á la New Labour + Tories or why not the constant hammer pounding upon the armed forces not only from the Talibans but also from HM own government.
But alas, the truly mind boggling depths of human ineptitude seems to have sunk even lower. We are told from the Guardian (do recall that since it is the Guardian they are with all certainty pushing spin and over hyping to new far-reaching horizons) that the MoD is ignoring women and ethnic minorities in its new attempt to promote the armed forces; with toy dolls.
Before surgically removing the backbone of this story let us first contemplate why they should be complaining at all. Why would you want your profession to be turned into a media gimmick by a government department, so that they can remove focus from its incompetence and focus instead the beam-of-truth on dolls. Before ranting and complaining please, oh please I beg you, consider why and what you are complaining about and do not just jump at every opportunity at some spotlight shine.
Further for the MoD, they currently have a £2 billion shortfall in their budget yet instead of spending their money on more equipment for the sorely needing fields of Afghanistan they are spending it on dolls. Yes I concur these figures might not have cost that much to produce but consider that soldiers are having to suffer at the incompetence of this government and its ministries at every single bloody turn. Did you know that they have just withdrawn the Vector from service (after introducing it only in 2007) after having paid £487,000 per deathmachine-capable-of-anything-but-its-main-purpose and they bought 200 of them giving a total bill of £974,000,00.
Giving that this is the kind of mental capacity we can expect from the MoD, saving money should be a priority for them, since you can be as sure as an "amen" in a church, that they will mess up the next big contract as well. Every penny counts as they say. The MoD should really have as their maxim 'Every solider counts' but we all know that spending money on kit, be it whatever, is better than spending money on gear which actually will blow the turban of the Talibans. For really you have got to give it to the insurgents in Afghanistan (there are more than just Talibans; ranging from foreign fighters from Europe to disillusioned Pakistanis): They are facing the full military brunt of the modern world and they are still coming out on top, as they did with the Soviets and the British before them and even Genghis Khan before them...
But lets deal with that article shall we now.
"the 25cm all-male models - including commandos, infantry, pilots, divers and parachutists - were criticised last night for insulting the 17,900 women in the armed forces. The MoD was also accused of racism after 25 images of the toy figures posted on a website promoting the range were all white-skinned."
While no-one is denying the excellent work carried out by female soldiers in HM Armed forces, not at all, you must look at the bigger picture. There are 425,500 personnel in the stated above of which females constitute a tiny tiny fraction of just 4%. Furthermore this is a gimmick aimed at boys (boys-with-toys suddenly got a whole new dimension of relevance), with all likelihood; young boys. Young boys at this age are just that, young, so young in fact that they play with action figures or to use the more common sobriquet 'dolls'. The MoD is also planning to make a buck or two on these dolls so why would young girls buy action figures when we all know that they like barbies? And if there are any of you same-sex-PC-fanatics out there who wish to take me up on this; then please be my guests. If you can find a toddler out there (female of course) who would rather play with an action packed MoD top-of-the-brass commando and the like instead of a Barbie, then please tell me. While you do that the rest of us who are, quite frankly, tired and sick of your PC bollocks will return to the real world where girls are girls and boys are boys, where the former enjoys pink and dresses and the latter mud and action-figures.
Girls, the MoD is not trying to discriminate against you (hell, if the past years of positive-discrimination does not show that I do not know what will) they are just facing up to the real world for once. Even though this is a remarkably retarded way to spend defence money they are at least being honest about it, so please do not get your knickers in a twist (I know that is slightly sexist but I could not stop myself, truly).
As for the discrimination against ethnic minorities, lets look at the figures again. Barely 10% of the armed forces are ethnic minorities. This leaves us with (assuming that no ethnic minorities are women) 86% white male personnel and people are jumping up and down, wondering why no minorities were made. If the answer has not knocked you in the head by now, like a mad football skinhead hooligan with a bad hangover, then I am afraid you live in cucko-land and only Gordon Brown can help you now for, lo and behold, he lives on the same planet.
Question is why does it have to be replicated, lied about and reflected in a product which is to put the armed forces in a good light for the toddlers of tomorrow? Why must reality be so skewed as to make a representation which is not true? Would it have been better if half the soldiers where ethnic minorities and women? Must we copy the sorry state of census-tinkering they love doing down at the BBC where half of their on-camera staff appears to be Asian even though this is not a real reflection of the Asian population in Britain (of there entire British population 12% are immigrants - not 50% if we were to believe the BBC). Even the ethnic minorities themselves have started to complain to the BBC about this, clearly something must be wrong? No, if you are going to spend your tax-payer defence cash on stupidities like these then at least make it an honest stupefaction.
No comments:
Post a Comment