Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say 'ha ha ha' instead

[Klose]

SYDNEY - SANTAS in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional 'ho ho ho' greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported on Thursday.

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say 'ha ha ha' instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use 'ho ho ho' because it could frighten children and was too close to 'ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

'Gimme a break,' said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

'We are talking about little kids who do not understand that 'ho, ho, ho' has any other connotation and nor should they,' she told the Telegraph.
'Leave Santa alone.' A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was 'misleading' to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself. -- AFP

Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20071115-37061.html

 

[eastwest]

Ridiculous - political correctness gone mad! Can imagine it happening in the US but not Oz.

 

[ZDragon]

Cannot Ho?

Now go Australia

1) cannot say "Ho" Sei Liao
2) Cannot Drink "Ho Ho Ho" Holick,, The Advert will say.. .Ha Ha Ha HaLick
3) Anyone with the Surname HO has to be changed to Ha
4) Wordes like Ho sei bo? Ho Sei Liao? Even Greetings like Ho bo will have to be changed to Ha Sei Bo, Ha Sei Liao and Ha Bo.
:devil:

 

[Big Kahuna]

What?
Ho = Ha???
Hotel = Hatel??
Holiday = Haliday??
Holly = Hally??
Hole = Hale??

Nowonder they pronounce "good day" as "good die".....we have Singlish....they have Oglish :lovegrin:

 

[gooseberry]

Ridiculous - political correctness gone mad! Can imagine it happening in the US but not Oz.

Heheh.. yep, totally ridiculous. Too much US cultural influence....

 

[zcf]

THe person who got offended probably are the one who are really dirty minded? If not how to relat "Ho ho ho" to that? :sweat:

But I thought Australia legalise prostitution also.

 

[Paul_Yeo]

People always complain SG ban this . ban that, but other country also like that what.

 

[Gymrat76]

Hahaha... burst out laughing when I read this... "Ho, ho, ho" indeed.... :bsmilie:

 

[Sion]

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use 'ho ho ho' because it could frighten children and was too close to 'ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

Try to ask him to say, "Ho Say Boh?" to a woman in the street in US and see what he gets. :bsmilie: