A Sweet Advert, but a Bitter Taste

American television loves sporting events. It loves them because they're popular, but it also loves them because they provide numerous opportunities for commercial breaks, which at this point are pretty much the primary art form in North America. During the recent Superbowl and the Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony, Coca-Cola used these commercial breaks to air an advert which would appeal to the emotions of the millions of viewers and get them to buy more of the weird sugary brown water that they sell. The spot featured a number of children singing 'America the Beautiful' in a range of languages, highlighting the diversity of the USA and the ability for people from all backgrounds to come together and celebrate the history and achievements of the country. It's an incredibly cheesy advert, which rather obviously plays on the 'cute kids' angle, but I guess it does its job.

However, some of the viewers of this harmless commercial have been outraged. A number of people on Twitter and Facebook, among other places, have been arguing that English is the national language of the US, and songs like 'America the Beautiful' should only ever be sung in English. This ignores several important things – such as the fact that the US does not have an 'official language', and that the original European settlers spoke Dutch, French, German, Swedish, and Spanish for hundreds of years before English became the de facto national language. But it does highlight the growing tensions between white, English-speaking Americans, and those from other backgrounds – particularly Latinos.

The US has long been a nation of immigrants, and has so many Spanish speakers that it will soon be the majority language. There are Chinatowns in every major city, where Mandarin and Cantonese are regularly heard. There are even pockets of French speakers in states like Maine near the Canadian border. In theory, language shouldn't be a big issue in the US – the diversity of tongues should simply be an everyday fact that people have adjusted to. But it isn't. It remains a highly emotive issue that is able to whip part of the country into a nationalistic, borderline-racist frenzy. This shows how well conservatives in the US have done in moving the debate away from economics and towards culture.

Look at the so-called 'Tea Party' for instance – the ultra-conservative movement that sprang up in the wake of Obama's 2008 election. Many of the people complaining about the Coca-Cola advert have no doubt voted for or otherwise supported Tea Party candidates in the past. The movement is most popular in the poorest states, but it is bankrolled by some of the richest people in the country. The result is a movement which ignores the low wages, corporate subsidies, and exporting of jobs to Mexico and China which keep its members poor, and instead blames 'foreigners', Latinos, Muslims, the disabled, and the unemployed for their problems. The response to the Coca-Cola advert is the latest example – the idea that the big problem facing America is its languages, rather than its economic policies and institutionalized inequality, would be laughable if so many people didn't believe it.

This focus on cultural issues rather than economic ones is a masterstroke by the rich elites that run these social movements – they have got the poor white English-speakers of the US to focus their hatred on other marginalized groups, rather than realizing their similarities and combining their power to focus on the rich and the corporations who are encouraging inequality and poverty in order to line their own pockets. And as long as this continues, we will keep seeing ridiculous controversies like the one over this commercial.

[ sporting events, coca-cola, sochi winter olympics, america the beautiful, twitter, facebook, tea party, economic policies, social movements ]

Recent hack and crash prove computers rule the world

On Tuesday, a hacked Twitter account caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to temporarily plummet, resulting in several minutes’ worth of world-wide panic. A tweet posted by the Associated Press claimed that President Barack Obama had been injured in a series of explosions. It was quickly refuted by White House staff and, moments later, @AP posted a retraction and apology: “The @AP Twitter account has been suspended after it was hacked. The tweet about an attack on the White House was false.”

But it was too late. The damage had been done. Word spread and the market took a massive hit. Luckily for panic-stricken investors though, it rebounded as soon as the record was set straight.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently looking into the root of the compromise. So far, the Syrian Electronic Army has stepped forward and claimed responsibility, but their claim remains unfounded. (Days before, Twitter had suspended the group’s account after they took credit for hacking three of CBS’s largest accounts: 48 Hours, CBS-Denver, and 60 Minutes. Suspicious activity..?)

The Associated Press has nearly 2 million followers on Twitter, but none of them were responsible for the recent stock market snafu – their computers were.

You read right. Computers caused the world to plunge into madness for a few short minutes. Automated online trading systems are programmed to scan the Internet for news updates via buzzwords, and then execute trades immediately, without reservation. Once these systems identified “Obama,” “explosions,” and “White House,” they started a fire-sale.

Concerned yet? Have we put too much trust in our computers?

21st Century terrorism has taken on a variety of faces. Suicide bombers driven by religious beliefs. Psychotics with private arsenals. But perhaps the ones who wield the most power in our digital age are cyber terrorists, like those responsible for the AP hack. They were able to incite panic on a global scale with only a few keystrokes. Authorities are scrambling to figure out when and where the next attack will take place. This time it was the stock market. Next time – the nuclear launch codes?

Now you have to be concerned...