Following on from Zen's last post about the Dom Post taking a swipe at the Catholic Church, my folks brought to my attention the cartoon in yesterday's NZ Herald. I'm not going to paste it here but you can follow this link. Basically, it shows a man and a woman working in a pharmacy and the man saying that the Catholic Youth Pilgrimage was a roaring success.
The woman next to him is reading from a paper saying 'SALES' and there are condoms on the shelves next to them.
My folks brought it to my attention (as I said) with my mother struggling to find the humour in it, or indeed if it was supposed to be funny.
If it was implying that condom sales had gone up because of a visit of young Catholic pilgrims then I would say that is not only false but also insulting and offensive. It's like the cartoonist is very much anti-Catholic or anti-religion and because he couldn't find anything to use he made this up out of thin air.
The sort of Catholics who would go to WYD to see the Pope are not the type to use condoms - not even married Catholics.
If the cartoon was meant to suggest something else, then neither my folks or I can see what it's supposed to be.
My folks brought it to my attention (as I said) with my mother struggling to find the humour in it, or indeed if it was supposed to be funny
ReplyDeleteI would agree with your mother, I also looked at the cartoon and scratched my head wondering what the message was supposed to be and if it was supposed to be funny?
If it was implying that condom sales had gone up because of a visit of young Catholic pilgrims then I would say that is not only false but also insulting and offensive
Whether it was insulting or offensive I will leave up to others to debate but it almost certainly true.
When you get large numbers of people together for any event the sales of certain items (ice cream, drink, condoms, paper tissues..) always go up irrespective of what the event is about. Real life for you Lucyna!
I noted one report that a Brothel was offering a 10% discount for anybody showing a membership card for this event, they meant it as a promo joke and they were stunned when several people took up the offer!
The sort of Catholics who would go to WYD to see the Pope are not the type to use condoms
Really how do you know this?
Sb
Real life for who, SB? It was Fletch that made the post.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get large numbers of people together for any event the sales of certain items (ice cream, drink, condoms, paper tissues..) always go up irrespective of what the event is about.
There were a lot more murders too. And apparently the number of people saying "Nim" rose astronomically. It always does at large gatherings.
The cartoonist has forgotten the NoToPope protesters who bought thousands and thousands of condoms to hand out to WYD participants. If he were to check Sydney's street rubbish bins, he'd find most of those condoms thrown out - unused.
ReplyDeleteZentiger:
ReplyDeleteAh you got me I thought it was Lucyna who wrote the post.
And apparently the number of people saying "Nim" rose astronomically
What! even at a RC Pope event! - I am shocked really shocked!
Lucyna:
You logic defies belief! Have you been going round checking Sydneys rubbish bins again!
Sb
sb, so you think it's far more likely that most of those condoms handed out to pilgrims by the NoToPope activists were kept? On what basis?
ReplyDeleteThe initial news reports right after they won their court case indicated that pilgrims, once they realised what they had been given, got rid of the condoms.
And then I read stories such as this one: Who is like God?, and it seems there was a lot more going on than tawdry minds such as your own can even comprehend.
sb, so you think it's far more likely that most of those condoms handed out to pilgrims by the NoToPope activists were kept? On what basis?
ReplyDeleteLucyna I was commenting on a cartoon which was commenting on Condom sales. I was not commenting on the free condoms.
You would have expected that free condoms would have suppressed the sales of ones via other outlets.
What do I think happened to the free condoms ? Well some were used, some were kept for later and some were thrown away!
tawdry - nice word but it means "Cheap and gaudy; showy" do you really think I have that sort of a mind? Never been accused of that before?
Sb
Sb, the "free" condoms were bought by someone. They didn't just materialise. I'm suggesting that if there was a spike in retail sales of condoms, then that spike can be directly attributed to the NoToPope people BUYING them.
ReplyDeleteDo we understand yet?
But I wonder where the cartoonist gets his facts from as struggling bussinesses hope for $230 million boost - yet that was not to be. The pilgrims were not there to shop. Instead a miracle occurred on the World Youth Days - retail shopping plummeted.
SB, given out free to the Pilgrims, yes, but the protesters would have had to have bought them from somewhere. Lucyna's hypothesis did occur to me also when I saw the cartoon yesterday, that most of them likely had been bought by protesters, given to pilgrims and thrown away. Actually, if I were a pilgrim, I would have accepted them, opened them and thrown them in the rubbish just to make sure they couldn't have been fished out by someone else and used.
ReplyDelete"the "free" condoms were bought by someone"
ReplyDeleteI am a disadvantage here as I do not know how the distribution of the free condoms was managed or if it happened at all.
While that is true that somebody had to buy them I would assume that the organisers would pool their money and make a bulk purchase via mail order, if you buy condoms in box's of a thousand then you should expect approx a 50% price from the normal shelf cost. If they could not manage 1000 then what was the point, if they did manage 1000 and bought them one at a time then they are idiots! (note I class them as idiots anyway for such a weak protest)
Lucyna: I am wondering why you class the discovery that Catholic Pilgrims are mean and poor a "miracle"? after all water into wine a miracle yup - dead back to life - yup - Pilgrims wont spend money on shiny stuff and will argue over the cost of a banana - not really a miracle.
Some local poly got it completely wrong, not really a surprise either. Sydney will have got something out of it, they had to have slept somewhere, bought some food, bought some drink.
Sb
SB, yes they slept somewhere; on the last day most of them slept under the stars in the freezing cold at Randwick. And before that? -
ReplyDeleteWith WYD08 coming to an end, WYD08 Coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher OP reflected today on Sydney’s achievements as host city.
“This week the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit has welcomed with open arms 223,000 pilgrims – including over 110,000 from 170 nations.
“We’ve accommodated 120,000 pilgrims in our schools, parishes, homes and other venues and served 3.5 million meals across around 400 venues.
It was the same with Pilgrims that stopped over in our Parish in NZ before flying off to Sydney - they were billeted and fed here by families.
SB, I dont think Lucyna was classing the lack of materialism as a miracle, she was directly quoting a post by Ben Myers who classed the lack of materialism as a miracle.
ReplyDeleteAlthough again, I think he was poking gentle fun at the materialists and secularists who no doubt 'believed' they were in for a bumper week, and perhaps even 'believed' unprecedented sex would occur as one gets whenever more than 100 people gather.
As for the first, ample proof the miracle of retail never happened. A great blow to those that worship materialism. There may be a few of those people reconsidering their faith at this point.
As for the second, I think I'll just leave you to your opinion. Although, when sex is involved, is it more accurate to call it "fantasy"? :-)
Fact or fantasy, I suspect that bonk level was actually way below the statistical average for large groups. You'd probably get more pregnancies at a state funeral.
I wonder if the cartoonist is brave enough to lampoon adherents of Earth Day, AIDs Week, Live Aid
ReplyDeleteThese secular media frenzies are often highly counterproductive and pathetically fail to live up to their lofty aims. Usually they are little more than an opportunity to flaunt youthful idiocy, and sell some more ad space while looking noble.
The rank media hypocrisy surrounding Christian events is just as vile as ever. Nobody questions the "religious" beliefs of Tony Veitch or the weekly assortment of armed robbers and murderers assaulting the public.
Is it a conspiracy? No it's just incompetence and lazy prejudice, wash rinse repeat, wash rinse repeat, wash rinse repeat.
Actual journalism is absent, readers don't care what the facts are, they enjoy lurid stories about mentally disturbed individuals rather than the mundane reality that Christians basically want to mind their own business, and help their neighbours.
As this week's Listener points out in the article on celebrity culture, we are awash in breathless tabloid reportage, and undemanding stories with the most mass appeal, designed to keep the audience happy in order to insert marketing messages into their pliant brains.