Showing posts with label political crackdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political crackdown. Show all posts

Friday, February 14, 2014

In Twitter exchange, NYTimes reporter admits he looks the other way on human rights abuses

LGBT rights activists upset with NYTimes reporter over incomplete article

Sam Borden, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote an article about some American Olympic athletes being upset with LGBT activists, who are calling attention to the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place in Russia under President Vladimir Putin ("American Lugers Annoyed by Group’s Gay Rights Video," 11 Feb 2014).

Christian Niccum and Preston Griffall, both American Olympic athletes competing in Sochi, said they were ruffled by some of the social media activism of LGBT supporters and allies. In particular, the pair of athletes objected to a YouTube video by Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion lampooning the savage heterosexism now sweeping Russia.

In the article, the American athletes bemoaned stereotypes that they now felt that they must endure because of the CIDI video, but The New York Times reporter never asked the athletes what they thought about the violence that LGBT Russians must face in the current oppressive crackdown atmosphere in Russia.

Sam Borden The New York Times Sochi Olympics Luge Article violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russia Twitter - See more at: http://s203.photobucket.com/user/maslow25/media/ScreenShot2014-02-14at173101_zpse18d7bb5.png.html#sthash.9zUlhY4v.dpuf

Perhaps if Mr. Niccum and Mr. Griffall had been able to have empathy for the plight of LGBT Russians, the Sochi Olympics might garner them some additional fans. But the silence from American Olympic champions and even from reporters from The New York Times seems to suggest that there's an unofficial attitude of appeasement toward President Putin's violent crackdown.

Here is the CIDI video, which ridicule only scratches the surface of the brutal heterosexism in Russia. Even this small amount of humorous criticism triggers painful cognitive dissonance for athletes and media, who'd apparently want to keep the extreme violence locked up in a closet. This video has now been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube :

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Google Changes Sochi Olympics Home Page To Protest Russia's Violent Anti-LGBT Crackdown

Google has symbolically changed its home page to draw attention to the controversial enabling of the violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russian by the International Olympic Committee.

Google Sochi Olympics Gay Pride Rainbow Colors Home Page Smacking Russia's Violent Anti-LGBT Crackdown photo ScreenShot2014-02-06at200958_zpse0490b89.png

Google's Olympics home page cited a section from the Olympic Charter that forbids discrimination :

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." – Olympic Charter

The change of the "doodle" was also made by Google to its Russian homepage.

Google Changes Russian Sochi Olympics Home Page To Protest Russia's Violent Anti-LGBT Crackdown photo ScreenShot2014-02-06at202044_zps5ae8ec7d.png

Google's digital action came on the day when activists in New York orchestrated their latest protest against the violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russia. Activists acting in solidarity with the group Queer Nation NY staged a protest outside the Russian consulate in Manhattan one day before the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russia, LGBT activists have been staging protests world-wide in the time leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to short stock of Sochi Olympic Sponsors ?

Hedge funds can probably make a killing by shorting stock of Sochi Olympic Sponsors

The marketing setbacks facing Coca-Cola's karmically-doomed sponsorship of the Sochi Olympics seem to be the tip of the iceberg.

Last year, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a highly-visible attack on super-sized sugary drinks, seeking to ban the sale of high-calorie drinks as a way to fight obesity and obesity-related maladies, like diabetes and heart disease. A court blocked Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sugary-drinks, but Mayor Bloomberg's successor has vowed to fight to restore the ban. Efforts to improve its corporate image have also proved to be problematic for Coca-Cola after the corporation faced allegations that it was depleting ground water and contributing to pollution in India. Coca-Cola's role in creating water shortages in India have led some local authorities to suggest last week that they would take actions to demolish a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Coca-Cola is still recovering from the shocking 2009 documentary exposé, The Coca-Cola Case, of its labour violations in Colombia, Guatemala, and Turkey.

Similarly, the damage that McDonald's is doing to its own reputation following it's own deadly silence on the violent Russian LGBT crackdown comes at a time when the world's largest hamburger chain is losing customer loyalty and is facing an embarrassing sales slump. "We've lost some of our customer relevance," CEO Don Thompson told Wall Street analysts during a conference call this week.

Separately, it's unclear how much the credit card issuer VISA stands to lose, if anything, from the recent spree of credit card fraud impacting several large American retailers.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to create a bespoke basket of Olympic sponsor equities, and then short it ?

2014-01-27 at 21.44.49 Virtual Assistant Greenlight Capital Short Coca-Cola Stock Screen Shot photo 2014-01-27at214449VirtualAssistantGreenlightCapitalShortCoca-ColaStockScreenShot_zpsf71905ed.png

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Coca-Cola Social Media Gimmick Censors "Gay" But Not "Straight"

Enjoy Coke, as long as you're not "gay" ?

In a startling new development, the world's largest sugary-drinks maker Coca-Cola has censored its social media followers from using the word "gay" in the company's new social media gimmick -- but not the word "straight."

The normally proud Sochi Olympics sponsor, Coca-Cola is expressing shame to its social media followers if they try to type the word "gay" into a meme generator that lets users affix brief messages on a blank red Coca-Cola can, but one that still bears the trademark white swoosh, or wave. The censorship is evidenced by a capture video of a computer screen's movements posted to YouTube by a user named Kaleb Sutra.

Social media followers who type the word "gay" are met with the following response : “Oops. Let’s pretend you didn’t just type that," the same as if followers had just typed in curse words, like "dick," "pussy," or "bitch."

Coca-Cola's association of "gay" with profanity comes on the heels of the proud Sochi Olympics sponsor trying to disassociate itself from the doomed marketing gimmicks of McDonald's, which launched a karmically-challenged social media campaign on Twitter with the hashtag #CheersToSochi in the face of a violent, seemingly government-sponsored crackdown against LGBT Russians following the passage of an anti-gay propaganda law last year.

That the tinge of censorship has now befallen Coca-Cola's latest social media campaign reveals the adverse advertising conditions the large sugary-drinks maker must confront in connection with this year's controversial Winter Olympics, set to take place in Sochi, a southern Russian coastal resort town across the Black Sea from Turkey. Russia's anti-gay law has sparked global outrage ahead of the Olympics, and many foolish corporations like Coca-Cola, which blindly paid large sums of money to sponsor the Sochi Olympics, must now account to their customers for the sponsorship of the games in a nation that is violently cracking down against its very own LGBT citizens.

Since last summer, Coca-Cola had become the target of protests based on its sponsorship decision, and last week one LGBT activism group released a brilliant YouTube video, mocking Coca-Cola's morally bankrupt brand for having once sponsored multi-cultural dignity and respect but which now supports Russia's violent anti-LGBT crackdown.

No word yet on how Coca-Cola's own Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (LGBTA) Business Resource Group, or its other Diversity Advisory Councils, are able to reconcile the corporation's controversial sponsorship of the Sochi Olympics.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to short some stock ?

These latest marketing setbacks add to Coca-Cola's growing problems. Last year, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a highly-visible attack on super-sized sugary drinks, seeking to ban the sale of high-calorie drinks as a way to fight obesity and obesity-related maladies, like diabetes and heart disease. A court blocked Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sugary-drinks, but Mayor Bloomberg's successor has vowed to fight to restore the ban. Efforts to improve its corporate image have also proved to be problematic for Coca-Cola after the corporation faced allegations that it was depleting ground water and contributing to pollution in India. Coca-Cola's role in creating water shortages in India have led some local authorities to suggest last week that they would take actions to demolish a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Coca-Cola is still recovering from the shocking 2009 documentary exposé, The Coca-Cola Case, of its labour violations in Colombia, Guatemala, and Turkey.

Similarly, the damage that McDonald's is doing to its own reputation following it's own deadly silence on the violent Russian LGBT crackdown comes at a time when the world's largest hamburger chain is losing customer loyalty and is facing an embarrassing sales slump. "We've lost some of our customer relevance," CEO Don Thompson told Wall Street analysts during a conference call this week.

Separately, it's unclear how much the credit card issuer VISA stands to lose, if anything, from the recent spree of credit card fraud impacting several large American retailers.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to create a bespoke basket of Olympic sponsor equities, and then short it ?

2014-01-27 at 21.44.49 Virtual Assistant Greenlight Capital Short Coca-Cola Stock Screen Shot photo 2014-01-27at214449VirtualAssistantGreenlightCapitalShortCoca-ColaStockScreenShot_zpsf71905ed.png

Friday, January 24, 2014

New Activist Video Mocks Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Over anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

LGBT activism group Queer Nation NY release protest video attacking Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

The pop culture touchstone that was once Coca-Cola's advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)'' has been juxtaposed over snippets of video showing the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place right now in Vladamir Putin's Russia.

The irony of the disturbing images in this protest video is that this theme song originated from one of Coca-Cola's most effective advertising campaigns ever -- an advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company),'' a little ditty of "hope and love sung by a multicultural collection of teenagers on the top of a hill" -- has been transformed to reveal how morally bankrupt Coca-Cola's brand really is.

If Coca-Cola cared about diversity and the respect and dignity that every person deserves, irrespective of how people may be "different," then Coca-Cola should fully address the violence now taking place in Russia since President Putin enacted legislation that bans the dissemination of so-called "gay propaganda."

Perhaps the LGBT community should begin protests outside of businesses that serve Coca-Cola and sing a new interpretation of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company)," one whose lyrics more accurately reflect the disturbing images of violence and brutality in Queer Nation NY's new protest video.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Queer Nation NY Protests Outside NBC's The Today Show Over Olympic Coverage And Silence On Russian LGBT Crackdown

Members of the LGBT direct action group, Queer Nation NY, protested at the exterior set used by NBC's The Today Show on Rockefeller Plaza. Activists unfurled a huge banner and heckled The Today Show co-host Matt Lauer over the network's controversial one-sided reportage of Russia in the time leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sotchi. LGBT protesters demand that the network fully report about the violent crackdown against Russian LGBT's ordered by the dictatorial leader, Vladamir Putin.

In a statement posted on Facebook, an online administration of Queer Nation NY communicated :

RELATED : Queer Nation NY protests against Russian LGBT discrimination enablers continue, this time at Carnegie Hall

Activists from around the world are questioning why the media and people in the media are refusing to acknowledge the human rights abuses taking place against LGBT's in Russia. Last year, the French pop superstar Mylène Farmer was in Russia when anti-LGBT violence broke out in Saint-Pétersbourg. Ms. Farmer, who enjoys a huge LGBT fan base, remained mum about each of the violent attack and the over-all crackdown that claims as victims her very own LGBT Russian fan base.

RELATED : London gay rights protest over Coca-Cola Sochi sponsorship

RELATED : If Mylène Farmer were a real gay icon, she would denounce the Russian government's violent crackdown against LGBT community

LGBT activists have also been targeting special NBC Olympics commentator Johnny Weir, the former figure skater. Mr. Weir has been using many media appearances to deny that the violent LGBT crackdown is taking place in Russia -- leading activists to label Mr. Weir as a "Putin apologist."

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Man Nails Ball Sack To Red Square Cobblestones To Protest Government's Political Crackdown

The Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky was hospitalised Sunday after stripping naked and nailing his ball sack to the crevice between cobblestones in Moscow's Red Square in protest against the Kremlin's crackdown on political rights. The following video shows Mr. Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum when police officers arrive and take Mr. Pavlensky into custody.

"The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic," The Huffington Post is reporting.

See also : Naked artist nails his scrotum to square in anti-Putin protest