Boo Astro! Boo!

I am horribly, utterly ashamed.

A few hours ago I chanced to watch an Olympic ad on Astro and was shocked and disgusted by our unoriginality. I've gotten used to seeing Christopher Reeve, Avril Lavigne, Kofi Annan and (my personal favourite) Andrea Bocelli tell the world what they perceive of the Olympics and I was rather surprised to hear a translation of Bocelli's version (in BM) being narrated by a woman's voice. At first I thought this was just for the benefit of non English-speaking viewers, but as the ad ended, imagine my disgust at seeing said quote attributed to Siti Nurhaliza!

Now, one COULD put this down to a similarity in content (ie Siti and Bocelli think alike, no matter how silly THAT idea is) but let's look at the beginning of each version:

Bocelli: "If you had the strength of Hercules...legs as swift as the wind.."
Siti: : "Kalau anda mempunyai kekuatan Hercules, berlari laju..."

To my readers, please, I beg you if you have Astro look out for these ads and tell me I imagined the whole thing. It's a downright dirty shame not only for Astro, but for Siti. With this act not only does this prove how "starving" we are for integrity, it also speaks volumes for Siti's character the moment she acquiesced to endorse the advertisement.

It's a sad day when we have to lift our lines from a blind Italian singer to make up a horrible, weak facsimile. Do we not have a conscience? All the integrity and spirit of the Olympics alas, doesn't reach our part of the world, apparently.

Boo.