Really? What? Really??.

yping88

Australia's controversial media personality Alan Jones bullied Sydney Opera House's boss for refusing to let a horse-racing promotion ad on Opera House. Now, PM publicly suggested that Opera House can be Sydney's biggest billarboard!

yping88

Peeps, can anybody tell us what is going on?

Serin

I'm not following this closely so here is just my irresponsible rant.

Let's separate the two things first. Regarding the Opera House being used for horse-racing promotion, I wouldn't be too surprised. Australia is after all not a European country like France, which treasures high art more enthusiastically. Victoria has public holidays dedicated to horse-racing and football so you have an idea where the focus is. Another question worth considering is whether it is the first time the Opera House is used as a billboard for any kind of advertisement and whether it will be open to furture possibilities.

As for the bully, I didn't hear the radio program, but if it was as desribed in other sources, then it did seem over the line and an apology is due.

yping88

Serin 发表于 9-10-2018 10:22
I'm not following this closely so here is just my irresponsible rant.

Let's separate the two thin ...

Just woke up from the night duty, will get back to you later!

Thank you for weighing in, @Serin

yping88

Serin 发表于 9-10-2018 10:22
I'm not following this closely so here is just my irresponsible rant.

Let's separate the two thin ...

About the bully that inflicted on Louise Herron (Opera House CEO) on the radio program has been the talk all over the town. Alan Jones was reported yelled at Herron: Who do you think you are? when Louise rejected the decision made by the Premier to project this Everest horse-racing ad onto Opera House.

And Jones also threatened Herron about her job and told her she could lose her job if she refused the premier's decision to go ahead with the Horse-racing promotion ad to be shown onto Opera House.

yping88

Just a little big background about the Opera House: It has been listed as a world heritage stature by UNESCO in 2007 and been regarded as Australia's national icon representing Australia and Sydney in the international scale.

Yes, It had been used as a promotion to support Australia's Rugby team when it made it to the world cup final in 2015 and shown as GO WALLABIES.  

It had been used to promote a well-know cultural event Mardi Gras

However, the horse-racing sports got a bad name for gambling and animal cruelty and bear nothing with national, historic or cultural significance. Many insisted that allowing the horse-racing ads to go on Opera House will disrupt its artistic and cultural integrity!

freeozvisitor

拍马屁

freeozvisitor

Serin

yping88 发表于 10-10-2018 21:22
About the bully that inflicted on Louise Herron (Opera House CEO) on the radio program has been th ...

Thanks @yping88 for providing some more background. When it comes to drawing a line, people will never agree with each other. I'm not interested in horse racing at all and tend to agree with the animal cruelty accusation, so I have no sympathy to that group. But still, I can understand that there are people who are enthusiasic about the 'sport' and would like to see it being promoted. So in the end, it is the operator of the Opera House who should make the decision and Louise Herron is 100% justified to refuse it.

Then there came the state government that made the whole situation more complicated. Initially I thought that the government should STFU and stop meddling with the issue. The next day I realised that if the government actually owned the Opera House and had been financially supporting the operation all the time, then it had every right to voice its opinion. Of course the government shall not alter the decision made by CEO Louise Herron, but it may propose to change the rules and criteria to allow ads like this, and in an even more radical sense, call meeting to sack CEO it does not like, as implied by Alan Jones.

yping88

Serin 发表于 11-10-2018 09:54
Thanks @yping88 for providing some more background. When it comes to drawing a line, people will n ...

When it comes to promoting Sydney's tourist significance and bringing more economic gains to the city, a horse race carnival shouldn't be a way to go, should it? Given that horse racing is not even a world-wide popular "sport". Therefore, the money made in this carnival will mostly be pocketed by few rich sponsors and some by the local government. I can't see projecting the horse-racing ads on Opera House will do any good earning Sydney or Australia any different national or international name from its well-established artistic and historical magnificence!

There are many other alternative advertising strategies  for the riches to make their newly funded Everest horse race well known as the Melbourne Cup!

yping88

Serin 发表于 11-10-2018 09:54
Thanks @yping88 for providing some more background. When it comes to drawing a line, people will n ...

As for who financially funded Opera House will get to voice their opinions on how this national icon should be managed, it is a very fair perspective. Golden rule in the business world is that whoever got the money and financially support something will be having a say how to run it. But, that "how to run it" would have to make sense to the tax-payers since they are the groups who really pay for it to stay functional in its original intention: Be artistic and historic and keep its elegance and grace!

What really has happened is there is a petition against this type of promotion that involved 310,000+ people who are swearing to stand up for Opera House's artistic integrity. And the people-elected local government still chose to override Opera House's caregiver's decision and gave Ok to the horse-racing ads to go ahead. Hello, Sydney's general public deserves a better explanation!  

Serin

yping88 发表于 11-10-2018 16:38
As for who financially funded Opera House will get to voice their opinions on how this national ic ...

I actually agree with most of your comments and I know clearly where I stand regarding this specific issue, but again I have to emphasize that it is a matter of drawing a line and people have different measures.

Yesterday I did a search in a whim on Royal Albert Hall, the most famous music hall in London. Without question, the music hall has been a go-to-place for a lot of classical music concerts for so many years. Nevertheless there have been quite a few rock n' roll stars performed in the same venure, which I don't find inappropriate in general but can probably raise eyebrows of some more conservative people. My search wanted to find out whether the venure had held hip hop events and it actually has. I'm of the opinion that hip hop can hardly be called music and sits at the bottom tier in terms of musical taste. Therefore I don't think it's appropriate for any music halls to accept hip hop performance, but that's just my opinion and I'm sure there are people who disagree. From hip hop to horse racing, we are probably seeing a new low. But whether the degradation from classical music to hip hop is any better than from hip hop to horse racing, I don't know and people will see it differently.

Then there is the online petition. Again, I tend to not take too seriously the online petition because it is by no means representative. By comparing the population of Sydney, is 310K a majority or minority? No doubt the petition gives us a strong impression that there are a lot of people coming forward to protect their treasured values, but the government and the promoter can still argue that there are even much more people who will accept that or at least don't give a damn. It is not really practical to determine which side the government should support with the outcome of an online petition.

yping88

Thank you, @serin for sharing your research and weighing in your perspectives on this issue!

I will get back to you tomorrow.

yping88

Serin 发表于 12-10-2018 09:57
I actually agree with most of your comments and I know clearly where I stand regarding this spec ...

Thank you, @serin for bringing up Royal Albert Hall's case into this discussion!

This concert hall is a registered charity held in trust for the nation and keeps functional completely on public generosity and compassion for arts and science but government's fund! This hall's reverence resides in its historic significance, its original intention to have been built for.

So, my personal interpretation for that is whatever arts or scientific events, as long as it fills into the category in which it fulfill people's compassion to learn and entertain, to top it off, it brings in the revenue to maintain the hall, then, it can make it into its stage!

It is frowned upon for the hip-hop dance or Rock'n'Roll concerts to take the stage in Royal Albert Hall, but it is that the classic artistic genres give no approval to those street or pop arts to be called classic, not that they are attached to something as obnoxious as animal cruelty and gambling. For those pop arts to take Albert Hall's stage may downgrade its reputation for being elegant and classic, but at least those pop arts wouldn't inflict the fundamental harm to Albert Hall's general overtone!

yping88

Serin 发表于 12-10-2018 09:57
I actually agree with most of your comments and I know clearly where I stand regarding this spec ...

However, in Sydney Opera House's case, it bears so much values this nation holds dearly!

It's one of the national icons Australians take massive pride in, it represents Australia profoundly in an international scale, it has been treasured as both a historic and artistic icon with UNESCO.

We can imagine how much it takes for Opera House to make it to its reputation and worldwide respect today, then, it, with no doubt, hurts so many citizens to witness that hard-earned reputation and respect to be smeared in a blink of an eye!   

So, I share the same opinions with Opera House's defenders about the governments' controversial stance: Who can stand in the way when there is a dollar to be made!