WESTERN CULTURAL IMPERIALISM: THE DAKAR RALLY

Merely nuts:

It’s not often that the Vatican and I agree on anything, but I was pleased to read that they have criticised - I might even go so far as to say “attacked” - the Dakar rally as “a bloody, irresponsible, violent and cynical attempt to impose questionable Western tastes on the developing world”.

Totally insane:

The challenge is therefore much larger than a simple motorsport event, and involves the confrontational relationship to technology that underpins contemporary automobility. This confrontational realtionship is organised around relations of risk and masculine performativity expressed through “P-plater moral panics” and obscene urban-driven 4WD SUVs as much as it is through organised motorsport.

Me like drive car. It fast and make big noise. Kangaroos better watch out.