(published by The Jakarta Post on 16 June 2010. Click here)
People, including teenagers, were curious to watch the Indonesian sex videos that were circulated on the Internet last week. Although people accused Ariel Peterpan, Luna Maya and Cut Tari of having featured in the videos, the media, experts and police refrained from explicitly mentioning the names, instead they preferred to say the stars of the videos are national “celebrity look-alikes”. The three celebrities have denied all the allegations.
“They are just unlucky,” said a friend of mine referring to the “amateur sex video” stars whose names are suddenly positioned at the top of Internet search topics. The “unlucky” statement may be true, as many similar video tapes probably exist of other public figures but, luckily, have yet to be revealed in public. The latter are either clever in hiding the scandal, or even smarter by not allowing their secret life to be intentionally recorded.
As usual, the unlucky video stars are facing the hypocrisy of our society, as the public noisily condemned it as an immoral act, while, at the same time, searching for the video on the Internet and watching it in the name of curiosity. Housewives in my wife’s arisan (gathering) have been so excited to talk about the hot video and, thanks to BlackBerry technology which helps our gaptek society (gagap teknologi — lack of technological knowledge), easily share the video with each other and gossip about it at every meeting.
No matter whether the real Ariel, Luna or Cut Tari featured in the videos, we don’t know yet — although some experts found an 80 percent similarity after analyzing the tapes. However, suppose it is them, this is not our business but their own personal lives. Doesn’t everyone have the right to record every activity, even the most private ones, their sexual activities (if they want to)? As long as it does not enter the public domain, why bother about it? People do this without considering the risk of tape leakage, then get into trouble when their video is posted on the Internet due to their own stupidity.
The sex video of the national “celebrity look-alikes” became our problem after it had been circulated on the Internet and our children had access to it, and spread it among their friends via cell phone and email. The cell phone raids by police and teachers doing school to school searches recently found that about 80 percent of the students had the videos on their phones. For Indonesia, sex videos involving Indonesian celebrities are indeed more attractive than similar videos featuring foreign actors/actresses.
Instead of questioning the three actor/actresses, it would be better for police to hunt down the one responsible for uploading the videos onto the Internet. The perpetrator is more dangerous than the “celebrity look-alikes” who star in the videos.
So what the three “celebrity look-alikes” have done is considered their private domain, unfortunately, they may have been careless safeguarding the recorded material. Would there be any issue if their videos had not been revealed to the public? We wouldn’t know what they had done and our society would have remained at peace, right? We had better not waste time examining other people’s personal lives, no matter how dirty it is. We have the right to no longer respect them, but don’t be too surprised with the phenomenon of casual sex in our society nowadays.
My friend was correct when he said they were just unlucky. So if you like being naked before a camera or like to record your sexual activity, even with your legal spouse, and keep it in your computer, cell phone, on CD, flash disk or other storage device, you had better destroy it, before you are unlucky too.
***
Serpong, 14 June 2010
Titus J.
People, including teenagers, were curious to watch the Indonesian sex videos that were circulated on the Internet last week. Although people accused Ariel Peterpan, Luna Maya and Cut Tari of having featured in the videos, the media, experts and police refrained from explicitly mentioning the names, instead they preferred to say the stars of the videos are national “celebrity look-alikes”. The three celebrities have denied all the allegations.
“They are just unlucky,” said a friend of mine referring to the “amateur sex video” stars whose names are suddenly positioned at the top of Internet search topics. The “unlucky” statement may be true, as many similar video tapes probably exist of other public figures but, luckily, have yet to be revealed in public. The latter are either clever in hiding the scandal, or even smarter by not allowing their secret life to be intentionally recorded.
As usual, the unlucky video stars are facing the hypocrisy of our society, as the public noisily condemned it as an immoral act, while, at the same time, searching for the video on the Internet and watching it in the name of curiosity. Housewives in my wife’s arisan (gathering) have been so excited to talk about the hot video and, thanks to BlackBerry technology which helps our gaptek society (gagap teknologi — lack of technological knowledge), easily share the video with each other and gossip about it at every meeting.
No matter whether the real Ariel, Luna or Cut Tari featured in the videos, we don’t know yet — although some experts found an 80 percent similarity after analyzing the tapes. However, suppose it is them, this is not our business but their own personal lives. Doesn’t everyone have the right to record every activity, even the most private ones, their sexual activities (if they want to)? As long as it does not enter the public domain, why bother about it? People do this without considering the risk of tape leakage, then get into trouble when their video is posted on the Internet due to their own stupidity.
The sex video of the national “celebrity look-alikes” became our problem after it had been circulated on the Internet and our children had access to it, and spread it among their friends via cell phone and email. The cell phone raids by police and teachers doing school to school searches recently found that about 80 percent of the students had the videos on their phones. For Indonesia, sex videos involving Indonesian celebrities are indeed more attractive than similar videos featuring foreign actors/actresses.
Instead of questioning the three actor/actresses, it would be better for police to hunt down the one responsible for uploading the videos onto the Internet. The perpetrator is more dangerous than the “celebrity look-alikes” who star in the videos.
So what the three “celebrity look-alikes” have done is considered their private domain, unfortunately, they may have been careless safeguarding the recorded material. Would there be any issue if their videos had not been revealed to the public? We wouldn’t know what they had done and our society would have remained at peace, right? We had better not waste time examining other people’s personal lives, no matter how dirty it is. We have the right to no longer respect them, but don’t be too surprised with the phenomenon of casual sex in our society nowadays.
My friend was correct when he said they were just unlucky. So if you like being naked before a camera or like to record your sexual activity, even with your legal spouse, and keep it in your computer, cell phone, on CD, flash disk or other storage device, you had better destroy it, before you are unlucky too.
***
Serpong, 14 June 2010
Titus J.
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