So what do you want to know?

MoniqueWillKnow@gmail.com


*Disclaimer*

Please don't go basing your PhD Thesis on anything I write here.
The information I provide comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and I'm just as likely to provide the most entertaining answer, as I am the factually correct answer.

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Thursday 16 December 2010

*Caution - Contains the O word* My rant for the Oprah Bah Humbugs



This is what I posted on a Daily Telegraph Facebook page for Oprah fans, in response to the knuckle-draggers that are moaning about Oprah starving their kids and pets.

Ok this is (basically) what I posted on another comment which was a regurgitation of things I've been posting on this page for a few weeks. It makes me cranky that people buy into the sensationalist headings and severely edited (skewed) articles the media put out there to stir up talk and controversy.

That's not a dig at you Daily Telegraph! (Although I did forget to precede my comment with the get-out-of-jail-free disclaimer of "No offense, but...")

Merely a reminder for people to find the facts amongst the opinions and to use their intelligence before freaking out at emotion-tugging words and phrases like TAX PAYER DOLLARS (argh! Avert your eyes children!), AUSSIE BATTLERS NEGLECTED (quick children, scrape them up off the pavement, I think we can save them) and OPRAH CLAIMS ASHES WHILE SPITTING ON ANZAC BISCUITS AND DANCING ON DON BRADMAN'S GRAVE.
See if you can spot the fact from fiction.

Let's just remember that Oprah isn't Pacman and your family's grocery money isn't the pac-dots she consumes.

$5m through Tourism Australia (the tax dollars SOME people are freaking out over) was used to pay for logistics within Sydney surrounding the event - redirecting traffic, extra police patrols for crowd safety etc.
None of that $5m went to Oprah, Harpo or anyone to do with the event. Everything else was paid for by corporate sponsors who would have otherwise spent the money on those annoying ads in between your favourite tv programs, or between the pages of your magazine.
And that $5m will very quickly be turned into many, many more millions now and in years to come by the tourism it generates.

And every single one of the 200 audience members she brought over plus the 200 staff members, all spent money here and paid GST on the goods and services they used. That tax money goes directly down the line all the way to our primary producers.

I've said this a few times on this board - $5m for 4 hours of prime time advertising in over 100 countries, presented by one of the most famous faces in the world = BARGAIN.

Compare it to the $180m that was spent on bikini-clad Lara Bingle skipping across the sand yelling "Where the bloody hell are ya?", an ad campaign that did not, and could not, net us nearly as much publicity and ergo, money, and there is no logical angle to complain from.
Our country (and its people) have, in huge part, tourism to thank for the standard of living we enjoy, the natural beauty that has been preserved for aesthetics' (if not always morals') sake and the infrastructure we take for granted every day.

Tourism Australia has a budget to spend every year on promoting our country as a destination to the world. $5m is such a tiny part of that budget and this year, it was allocated to the Oprah event. Next year, that same $5m will go towards something you will probably never hear of, let alone have a chance to participate in.

Oprah has had the tourist boards of countless countries courting her for years, to come and visit their country to promote it. And out of all the ones she could have chosen, she chose ours. The first and only Oprah show to be filmed outside North America and WE got it. TWO in fact!
Even if you're not a fan of Oprah, Americans, pink diamonds, tv shows or indeed anything fun, if you are an Australian resident, YOU WILL benefit from this.

This event will be the literal manifestation of what she said to the crowds yesterday, which was a more flowery version of the old adage - you reap what you sow.

We put in one small seed and from it we will harvest so much more.

Plus I got a pink diamond necklace. Nuff said.

Ok. I'm finished.

By Monique Kowalczyk

So what do you want to know?
MoniqueWillKnow@gmail.com

*Disclaimer*
Please don't go basing your PhD Thesis on anything I write here.
The information I provide comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and I'm just as likely to provide the most entertaining answer, as I am the factually correct answer.