SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Michael and John Chow: “Gutted” – Sex Palace demolition – “God’s Wrath at Prostitution”?

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Two Wellington sex entrepreneurs, whose 125-year old Palace Hotel (also known as Aurora Tavern) in central Auckland was in the process of being transformed into a brothel, are “gutted” that the Auckland City Council has demolished it.

Michael and John Chow’s property company, which purchased the Victorian- style building in 2008 for $3.3 million, had hoped to have it operating as a brothel by January next year, just ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. But when dangerous cracks appeared in the facade of the category B – Historic Place Trust protected  building on Thursday afternoon and an urgent investigation by Council officers and independent consultant engineers had concluded that the three-storey building could collapse, it was demolished that night.

Michael Chow is reported as saying:

“We have invested millions and millions on the property. I feel gutted, I feel they came to my home and they pulled it down. It was just a little bit of a crack“. [Emphasis added]

The decriminalising of prostitution under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, opened up more than a little bit of a crack in the legal framework that had previously protected women to some degree from the exploitation and moral debasement – associated with prostitution. [Read more…]

TV sleaze backlash gathers steam [as community groups express concerns]

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TV sleaze backlash gathers steam
By John Drinnan Sep 17, 2010

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10674013

Pressure is building on television networks to reduce the amount of sleaze in early prime time. The Broadcasting Standards Authority is expected to announce a decision next week that will set the new tone. There is particular concern about sexual content on early-evening TV.

BSA chief executive Dominic Sheehan said he was aware of concerns and had spoken to two community groups. He will be suggesting that the BSA board commission more research into the issue of how sexuality is presented, including the effect on early prime time – up to the 8.30pm cut-off for adult viewing. He had met the groups – one of which is Family First [a highly respected registered charity]- and they had raised convincing arguments that the BSA needed to develop its research.

There had been issues about the portrayal of sex in the news and in promotions. Sheehan stressed that the BSA acted only on complaints. It cannot act proactively or make subjective decisions. The authority has been created that way to ensure the industry is self-regulating. But self-regulation has gone out the door as the networks chase ratings.

Sheehan would not discuss an upcoming decision that will have an impact on how the BSA treats complaints about good taste and decency.

Television researcher Ruth Zanker has raised alarm bells about the growing levels of sexual content in early prime time, warning that children were being sacrificed on the altar of higher ratings for TV networks. But if the number of complaints are any judge, New Zealanders are happy with sleazy 7pm shows such as Family Guy.

The show regularly features a paedophile character and themes of incest and bestiality. AGB Nielsen surveys suggest an average 25,000 children aged 7 to 14 watch the show at 7pm each weeknight.

Sheehan said the context of shows – like the different approach of cartoons and of an edgy channel like C4 – was taken into account by the BSA.

TV2’s early prime time show Two and a Half Men regularly had a sexual theme. Another sign of the times in 2010 telly? A programme this week has included a promo for a show where a character is sexually attracted to pregnant women.

From the Archives: Concerns raised with BSA by SPCS re TV3 depiction of gratuitous violence. See: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0404/S00048.htm

SPCS congratulates the N.Z.Herald for its weekly "College Herald" articles

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Today there are three articles published in the NZ Herald – by secondary school  students decrying media community standards. They are :-

“Young girls having their innocence stolen” by Paula McDowell, Year 10, of Tauraroa  Area School.

“Overdose of bare flesh corrupts our kids” by Zhan Ye Chen, Year 13, Hamilton Boys’ High School, and

“Ears burn from dirty songs”,  Jacqueline Yee, Year 10, of St. Cuthbert’s College.

As a registered charity SPCS seeks to promote the spiritual and moral welfare of communities and it has as one of its objectives:

“To foster public awareness of the benefits to social, economic and moral welfare of community standards and to encourage constructive debate and discussion in this area.”

The Society applauds the young writers of these articles for boldly expressing views that run counter to the liberal mindset found in much mainstream media. Surely it is a sick mindset that champions the gratuitous depiction of promiscuity, pornography and the pestilence of moral vices involving prostitution, pimping and drug-taking, dished up with a regular deluge of obscenities; all for the sake of public entertainment.

The Society also has another objective “To support responsible freedom of expression that does not injure the public good”.

The Society applauds the three NZ Herald writers for their creativity and for being able to responsibly and freely express their opinions. It applauds the NZ Herald for allowing such views to be expressed in a Society where many officials in government agencies, including Crown entities as well as media commentators and academics, regularly seek to vilify conservatives who wish to point out the negative impact and toxic effect of the tidal wave of immorality that engulfs our community.

The corruption and harm associated with the “overdose of bare flesh” (porn sleaze) and “dirty” (obscene) lyrics, thrust upon the community – kids included – by pornographers and musical ‘artists’, is decried by all those who, like the Society seek to uphold community standards – “encourage self-respect and the dignity of the human person”.

Steve Crow’s “Boobs on Bikes” – “puerile, dismally witless and calulatedly offensive” – Sunday NZ Herald Editorial Opinion

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Writer of the Sunday NZ Herald Editorial suggests “…the [Boobs on Bikes] parade is best treated like the show-off child it so much resembles – by being ignored.” The writer is adamant that the massive billboard of a naked woman Steve, his bother David Bruce Crow of Inglewood and sister Leanne Marie Osborn of Fitzroy, New Plymouth, used to cynically market the Erotica Lifestyles Expo porn sleaze, was calculated to offend.

“But the billboard that expo organiser Steve Crow unveiled this week is of a different order [to the parade] altogether. By any measure, the image is objectionable in a public context and you don’t have to be a purse-lipped prude to think so.

“Puerile and dismally witless, it is also quite calculatedly offensive because it seeks not to attract those who are interested but to outrage those who are not.

“Hard-core pornography  – You know it when you see it … it is beyond distasteful and truly offensive

“Crow is terribly pleased with himself because of all the publicity he’s received. But the rest of us should make it plain what we think of this sort of cynical marketing.”

For full article see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10666077

Are some forms of mental sicknesses linked to immoral lifestyles?

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Taking leave of one’s moral senses is not without a due penalty, just as
taking leave without pay for two months has a financial penalty. Every
act that is motivated by moral debauchery, deception, treachery etc. has
moral consequences that impact on the mental and spiritual state of both the
perpetrator and the intended victim. [Read more…]