PUBLIC PROTEST

[Laurence de Mello]

Dear Friends and Members of PCW,

Yet again I find myself not only censored but an entite thread deleted because the world has gone mad in its effort to be politically correct.to the point where we no longer may voice an opinion without fear of deletion!

Last evennig I responded to a posting suggesting that the British were not generous and that we had the gall to not apreciate Viveza Criollo. The same member that had posted that comment is the same member who mailed several of us begging letters.

Within such letters the member asked if I or friends of mine could ''fund'' a ticket to get them to Europe. This member did not say ''I would love a job'' or ''Im really willing to work'' on the contary, this person even had the audacity to say ''sod work'' within the mail and that their ''dream'' was to ''have a cash machine in their room''!!!!!!!

I had always been gracious in response to this person until last evening. I saw that this person was a litle riled that we had not helped her in the way she had hoped and then she said that she had ''thought that the British were generous'' also she could not understand why we had not liked her ''Viveza Criolla'' which is basicllay a sport in Argentina where the natives get pleasure from ripping off foreigners!
I in response basically told her Vivezza Crollo was a deceitful trait and that I suggest if she want to earn some dosh she should ''get off your ass and get a job'',

Today I see that the entite thread has been removed! WHY? I would like to know.

I didnt even use any words of mine that have been censored in the past. So what was that that so offended the PC police here?
Was it the political jibe about 1982? I wonder! Is it because this is a polo site and therefore one is not permitted to scibble over the lines?

May I suggest to the Administrators that they set up a policy page and give a list of do's and dont's which must be abided to otherwise its deletion!
Because deleting postings or entire threads without neither expanation or a policy is not only rude but worrying.
Yes the administration have done a marvelous job in setting up this wondersful site, but in doing so they have put themselves in a position where there must be guidlines prepared as to what the rules are with regard to content. Without this, censorship is not justified and in fact it is worse, it is in fact fascist! After all they are selecting what is to be deleted based on personal opinion of the moment and not based on what you have clarified the rules to be!

It seems to me that today more and more people prefer to deal with controversy and uncomfortable subjects just by pretending that they dont happen! Pressing the DELETE button seems to be such an easy solution to a problem.

Yes protecting members from highly offensive content is one thing, but getting to the point that one is no longer permitted to respond to offence is Draconian! especially as the offensive remarks were not deleted! but my response to them was!,
So where does censorship start and where does it end? that is the danger of censorship and if an administration is going to enter into those murky waters he had better have a good and clear plan of action that is clear and understandable to all.

We are all subjected to the Nanny State and now it seems we ourselves our Nannying each others personal views.
The funny thing is, this is a polo site and some of the best polo lovers in history would have been outraged at such censorship, Such as Sir Winston Churchill, Major Ronald Fergusson even The Duke of Edinburgh. But they are great fearless men of the past and today we see a watered down society that live in fear of being seen as trouble makers or having the button pushed on them!
That my dear friends is why the world is in such a mess, because for a quiet life we no longer make a stand or have the guts to tell it like it is!

What a shame!

So while I think this is a fabulous site which has given me much pleasure,
I feel no alternative other than to resign in protest of the administrators current unclear policies.


Im sure this will be deleted too!

best regards to all

Laurence de Mello Alexander

[Hugh Evans (PCW Editor)]

Dear Laurence,

First of all let me say that I love your passion and contributions to PCW. You should be aware that PCW administrators DID NOT delete the entire thread (so please be careful what accusations you make in the interests of the truth) - it must have been deleted by the member who started the thread. However I did delete one posting and the reason for its deletion was that it was regarded as abusive by some members of PCW. I agree however that in future instances where these problems arise clearly the member should be notified the intention to delete, or at least the rationale to delete content, prior to its deletion.

I suggest this is a perfect catalyst to ask the PCW members to create their own policies for how members are to use the site. After all it's your community. Please make your comments and, once agreed, I will have the policies posted clearly on the site.

Warm regards,

Hugh
PCW

[Hugh Evans (PCW Editor)]

Dear Luis

Unfortunately I am unable to retrieve the post in question as the thread has been deleted by the person who posted it.

Kind regards,

Hugh

[Laurence de Mello]

Sirs,
please may I please draw your attention to the detail of the following statement;


''You should be aware that PCW administrators DID NOT delete the entire thread (so please be careful what accusations you make in the interests of the truth) - it must have been deleted by the member who started the thread. However I did delete one posting and the reason for its deletion was that it was regarded as abusive by some members of PCW''</</i>u>

Gentlemen my protest was about the censorship by the PCW administration, not about the amount of censorship. A POUND OF FLOUR IS THE SAME AS A TONNE OF FLOUR, ITS ALL FLOUR!

[Hugh Evans (PCW Editor)]

Dear Laurence,

I did take your point about censorship and have accepted that there needs to be a consistent standard applied. My comments as quoted above are in good spirit and do not seek to split hairs on the subject - I just wanted to be clear that I did not intend to delete the entire thread. I am quite sincere when I ask that we should establish an agreed set of policies for acceptable use. So, particularly given the heat in this discussion, I invite you and all other PCW members to contribute your ideas on the subject.

Kindest,

Hugh

[Laurence de Mello]

Dear Hugh,

I truly appreciate your response and understanding for the need to change things as far as censorship and policy..
I dont think its fair either that a creator of a thread may delete the entire thread if things are not going as one had wished, of course they should be able to delete their own postings but not those of others.
I think members should be permitted to cross litle boxes underneath postings such as
offensive / non-offensive or thumbs up or thumbs down etc. This also gives feedback and one a sense of what the majority or minority actually is feeling as a discussion progresses. It also gives the poster a chance to delete if he/she feels they are genuinely offending other members rather than only the same members minority that tend to enjoy witchhunts!

Naturally the written word is not always interpreted in the sense it was written, the process of intention is often a dangerous and grey area. This is especially noted in cutting commentary written in jest. This is another reason a box or star system is useful as one gets to see the direction the thread is going before it gets out of hand.


Thank you and best regards

Laurence

[Lorraine Hill]

Hi Hugh,

I'd like to make some suggestions as to ''PCW Terms of use' - and these are just suggestions, so I won't be offended if you decide to discard them :

• You must not use PCW to harass, threaten or attack anyone or otherwise behave in any way which would cause annoyance, nuisance, inconvenience or distress to other users. In particular, you must not use PCW for the following purposes:
• To transmit or knowingly receive content and/or language that is in any way unlawful, fraudulent, hateful, sexual, racially or ethnically or otherwise objectionable, defamatory, threatening, menacing, offensive, or obscene or in breach of any obligations of confidence. This includes the use of swear words and the use of offensive nicknames.
• To flood or “spam” PCW or any user who posts on PCW.
• To provide instructions for illegal or otherwise harmful activities.
• To transmit or knowingly receive information relating to (or include links to) pornography, pirated software and/or computer games or other counterfeit goods.
• To collect and/or distribute personal data concerning other users of PCW .
• To impersonate another person, whether a friend, family member, celebrity, PCW administrator or other PCW participant.
• To post chain letters or pyramid schemes.

[Laurence de Mello]

Dear Lorraine,

im sure Hugh would not allow any of the above but lets look at clause 2;

To transmit or knowingly receive content and/or language that is in any way unlawful, fraudulent, hateful, sexual, racially or ethnically or otherwise objectionable, defamatory, threatening, menacing, offensive, or obscene or in breach of any obligations of confidence. This includes the use of swear words and the use of offensive nicknames.

This is where the grey comes in, who is to say what is offensive? what may be offensive to one may be completly acceptable to others. This is when I talk about being overly politically correct.. The recent use by Prince Harry of the racial term Paki is I agree unacceptable if it is used in a derogatory or derisive manner, but then again amonst cross cultural friends many people use this language to each other and its taken for what it was just a silly joke . For example we can also say the term Gringo is also rascist or offensive and its used all the time in south america and nobody takes offence to it! What is happening is we are becoming so paranoid about ''offending'' we are stifling peoples usual non malicious behaviour. Many people use the term Crap on several postings, in fact the person that so objected to the F word uses it in her posts. Ok she inserts loads of C*%@$ but hello we all know it means Crap! what is crap? yes excrement, was anyone offended, I certainly wasnt but maybe another was! so its all relative. Ok yes, my mistake in the past was forgetting that maybe young people use this site but the F word is used daily on television during daytime veiwing by all the network etc those controlled by the church, so does that mean they are also in breach of obsenity laws? We have men and women kissing and scenes of rape, extreme violence, blood and murder on daytime soaps! which children as young as 6 watch! which I totally object to, I think that is more damaging to young people. But we cant control everything! If we continue in this overtly protective way we will never have freedom again. We have already lost so many civil liberties, cameras, id cards, phone tapping, email control etc etc where is this going to stop?
You get tasered in the US if you dont do exactly as you are told!!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw a decent family lady in her 60's get tasered by two officers just because she had the wrong seat in a sports stadium! When the lady was asked to move she objected as she said others were in her seat! Then what happened? she was tasered HELLO where the hell are we going in this mad world? and the scariest thing about that incident was that not one bloody person did anything to protect her or protest! WHY? because they were afraid they were going to get tasered themselves. But you know what? its bossy loud defiant pedantic people like me that will stand up and make an objection! I wonder if the members here that so object to WORDS would put their neck in the loop to defend the rights of others!
You get ejected by armed police now from an aircraft if you have a spat with an airline attendant! It may be only because you have lost your baggage or are not happy with the seat.
I was once arrested at Heathrow airport just because the check-in girl said that the baby seat I was carrying was a ''security risk'' I argued that the policy of the airline was that i may carry the seat onboard, she went on and on about the new rules of security. At this point I said "'well its not exactly EXPLOSIVE is it?''. Now you can guess what happened. When I went through the gate I was arrested by FIVE security men WHY because I dared to say the WORD EXPLOSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But i didnt leave it there and I made a formal complaint and actually received an apology from the managers for the over zealous staff. I objected not just for ME but for all of us. for our rights. Do you want rights?

I have worked for many years as an investigative journalist and producer of controversial factual programming, I have dealt with many topics that are considered highly controversial and it is for this reason I am adamantly against the creeping dictatorship by stealth! It is for this reason that I probably react what may be seen as badly to just a little bit of censorship on a forum. DELETION for a couple of rude words may seem petty but its the cherry on the cake of the dictatorship we now all find ourselves under.

You may say this has nothing to do with the topic here but it does and very much so!
We have to fight censorship when it becomes draconian, because later when we have no right to speak about anything which MAY OFFEND others we are all totally totally screwed! (whoooops theres an obcenity!)

I believe discussions like the one above that has morphed into the one we are now having here is a very valid one. For it affects us all and it certainly affects the future we wish for.

Even though this is a polo web site we are all people that are being bombared with RULES! So I welcome other comments on this.

Just for those that think the discourse has nothing to do with the site or if one finds it boring YOU DONT NEED TO READ IT DO YOU?

note: Obsenity;

The definition of obscenity differs from culture to culture, between communities within a single culture, and also between individuals within those communities. Many cultures have produced laws to define what is considered to be obscene, and censorship is often used to try to suppress or control materials that are obscene under these definitions: usually including, but not limited to, pornographic material. As such censorship restricts freedom of expression, crafting a legal definition of obscenity presents a civil liberties issue.

regards

Laurence

excuse typos!

[Trisha Soncini Lane]

This is not a public protest, it is a personal protest. I did not read the post, but if it was anything like previous posts, it very possibly needed to be deleted.

[Laurence de Mello]

Well actually Mrs Lane this is a public protest. That means its a protest made by a member or members of the public in public.
I see you are one of the politically correct police Mrs lane, thats fine, but your comments are based on conjecture and not fact!
You are now what is known as a counter-protester by demonstrating your support for the action that was the subject of the my original protest. This is a good example of the dangers of counter protestation over actions taken against protestors when the counter protestors have no full knowledge of the course or content of the actual facts or events. A bit like how so many people support the false war on terror but have no idea of the facts!

Laurence de mello

p.s Mrs lane is one of the members that was so terribly offended by the use of the F word ( I say F for fear of damaging Mrs Lanes hightened sense of propriorty). But sadly the lady in question then took my professional capabilities to task by insulting my capacity as a professional in my work field. She also said she could not imagine how anyone would want to play at my husbands polo academy because of the use of the F word. Well, lets hope for her sake that Mrs Lane never ventures into ''real society'' for fear that she may wilt and die!

[Trisha Soncini Lane]

Nonsensical....

[Laurence de Mello]

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

Euripides

[REY philippe]

Ma chere Laurence
croyez vous etre libre de demissionner comme bon vous semble de ce groupe??????? !!!!!!!!!!!
La france n'accepte pas votre demission!
je n'accepte pas votre démission !
Nous avons besoin de vous !