It is the astounding arrogance of them that I just can not believe!
Some of us thought that with the inauguration of Barack Obama and the election of Julia Gillard that perhaps the world was evolved enough to be able to see beyond the colour of our skin or the gender we belong to...The symbology was potent that we were headed for a kinder, gentler, more equal world where the despots of the Middle East would be over thrown and that greedy, white, gun toting, capitalists were on the wane...
But how far have we really come in the age of pervasive digital technologies?
Not very apparently...
This was posted first at mashable.com and here and hopefully will spread across the world via the social media network which it was obviously squarely aimed at AND (far be it for me to suggest the generation of a possible internet backlash as an even handed commentator on the news) cause some real damage to the company for the reprehensible stupidity of the man who is the gun toting elephant shooter CEO of GoDaddy.
Shooting elephants is the last bastion of the would be 'Raj'. Dress it up as you might, the symbol of the white man sitting on the largest land mammal in the world in an 'exotic' country smacks of imperialism and the unforgivable sense of entitlement that these white men possess. To advertise it on the internet is about the most despicably dumb thing I have ever witnessed.
The underlying message to this action , of course, is one of domination. I can kill an elephant, ergo my company can be a giant killer as well. Regardless of the actual sense in the killing of an elephant -what, the herd crushed a bit of sorghum on a farm? Oh hang on a second the villagers came and stripped it of its flesh so obviously it didn't get wasted... Well maybe if the villagers had access to the vast amounts of food available to the fat white CEO of GoDaddy they wouldn't need to behave like starving African villagers. Don't be fooled by the bonhomie this video tries to create out of such an act of environmental vandalism as this, it clearly gets its message out in a way that it was designed too.
Why make a professional quality video of yourself shooting an elephant? In the way of the sitters for portraits by the Dutch Masters its about possession, discreetly exposing your wealth to an appreciative audience and documenting your self for prosperity. All of this adds up to a colossal disregard for just about everyone that isn't a white gun toting CEO. But I guess thats the point isn't it?
I had hoped that the kind of elevated sense of ones self that led several American visitors to Australia to recently exhort Gumaroy, an Aboriginal professional musician and street performer to 'play for me boy', had long been deflated by the overwhelmingly diverse number of intelligent, literate and sensitive men and women of all races, religions and ethnicities gaining a voice on so many digital platforms.
The beauty now is that changing the tide of opinion and opening these very topics for debate is just as easy as posting a video on a social networking site. It is also just as easy to respond on a world wide basis.
After viewing that video I know that if I had a GoDaddy account that I certainly would be looking to cancel it right now.
Or am I over reacting? Should GoDaddy be GoneDaddy?