LETTER FROM LONDON 2
I am currently watching a lot of TV, this can sometimes be a dispiriting experience. In the last week two programmes on religion, Louis Theroux’s American’s Most Hated Family in Crisis and My Brother the Islamacist, were both incredibly depressing films and testament to the statement that to make a good man do bad things it only requires religion.
In Theroux’s film the monstrous clan casually discard unwanted sons and daughters who have strayed from the faith, whilst Rich the Islamacist convert refuses to meet with his unveiled mother as this would humiliate and disgrace him nor will he shake his brothers hand with his right but reserves his dirty left hand for the unclean ‘Kuffar.’ Such madness is as old as religion itself, the need for the unclean other, the solidarity of exclusivity and separateness, the horror and disgust with modern life, a toxic mix of repulsion, fear and one suspects a certain dangerous attraction, all that naked flesh!
Whilst Jamie Oliver’s Dream School on Channel Four is an attempt to re-introduce to education a number of young people who failed in or dropped out of the conventional education system by introducing them to a range of ‘celebrity experts,’ teaching everything from History under the pompous David Starkey, to politics by the much more laid back former advisor to Tony Blair Alistair Campbell. The experiment was an interesting one and it was truly satisfying to see a few of the young people begin to engage; Professor Robert Winston in particular seemed to catch the imagination and inspire some genuine curiosity. However overall the experiment felt like a failure, swimming as it constantly was against the current of the ‘innit’ culture, ignorance dressed up as defiance. (‘Innit’, incidentally a phrase much employed by our Islamic friend Rich mentioned above). It was Alvin Hall the American finance wizard who turned out best to have his finger on the pulse. Jamie and colleagues kept referring to the young students as ‘bright,’ Alvin observing “maybe bright meets something different here than in the States.” Of course the students were not bright, many showed considerable potential, curiosity, a hunger, even desire to learn, but bright they were not, demonstrating the luminosity of a very low energy light bulb. Overshadowing all however was the sheer yobbish bad mannered ignorance that constantly sabotaged any attempt to create a learning environment. This was finally summed up by one student who decided that she had had enough and demanded that her mother take her home, subjecting her mother to a ten minute harangue, liberally littered with fuck this and fuck that. The mother finally concedes, “She’s my little girl and I love her!” The sheer moral bankruptcy in this exchange left me feeling like throwing something at the TV set.
However if I needed cheering up there was always Masterchef, I cannot explain the extraordinary addictive quality of this programme, but addictive it is and it draws me in at a level of emotional engagement that constantly surprises me. I think it is a combination of the tremendous demands made upon the aspiring chefs combined with their intensity, passion and commitment.
Book review by Andrew Roberts in The Wall Street Journal gives Mohandas Ghandi a long overdue kicking. I recommend it.:-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160371482469358.html
One thing Ghandi said, which had a certain wit about it, was when asked what he thought about western civilisation he said “it was a good idea.” I sometimes feel the same about a free press in the UK. Now I think a good case could be made to say that Britain has the best broadsheet and the worst tabloids in the world. However the concentrations of media ownership in the hands of a few megalomaniac moguls like Rupert Murdoch has broken the legs of a free and independent press like a well swung baseball bat. The current phone hacking scandal has, unfortunately for News International, got, as they say in the news industry, legs. This one will run and run. There are many strands to this sordid and corrupt ridden affair, two of the most concerning being the role of The Metropolitan Police in the initial cover up and the degree to which politicians colluded with the Murdoch empire.
A big fan of newspapers I am saddened by their steady decline at the hands of electronic media, however one silver lining may be the diminished hold that the Murdoch media and poisonous rags like The Sun and Daily Mail have over politicians, so long in thrall to their bigoted and ignorant editors. Perhaps we have seen the last of Sun headlines which read ‘It Was The Sun Wot Won It.’
In Theroux’s film the monstrous clan casually discard unwanted sons and daughters who have strayed from the faith, whilst Rich the Islamacist convert refuses to meet with his unveiled mother as this would humiliate and disgrace him nor will he shake his brothers hand with his right but reserves his dirty left hand for the unclean ‘Kuffar.’ Such madness is as old as religion itself, the need for the unclean other, the solidarity of exclusivity and separateness, the horror and disgust with modern life, a toxic mix of repulsion, fear and one suspects a certain dangerous attraction, all that naked flesh!
Whilst Jamie Oliver’s Dream School on Channel Four is an attempt to re-introduce to education a number of young people who failed in or dropped out of the conventional education system by introducing them to a range of ‘celebrity experts,’ teaching everything from History under the pompous David Starkey, to politics by the much more laid back former advisor to Tony Blair Alistair Campbell. The experiment was an interesting one and it was truly satisfying to see a few of the young people begin to engage; Professor Robert Winston in particular seemed to catch the imagination and inspire some genuine curiosity. However overall the experiment felt like a failure, swimming as it constantly was against the current of the ‘innit’ culture, ignorance dressed up as defiance. (‘Innit’, incidentally a phrase much employed by our Islamic friend Rich mentioned above). It was Alvin Hall the American finance wizard who turned out best to have his finger on the pulse. Jamie and colleagues kept referring to the young students as ‘bright,’ Alvin observing “maybe bright meets something different here than in the States.” Of course the students were not bright, many showed considerable potential, curiosity, a hunger, even desire to learn, but bright they were not, demonstrating the luminosity of a very low energy light bulb. Overshadowing all however was the sheer yobbish bad mannered ignorance that constantly sabotaged any attempt to create a learning environment. This was finally summed up by one student who decided that she had had enough and demanded that her mother take her home, subjecting her mother to a ten minute harangue, liberally littered with fuck this and fuck that. The mother finally concedes, “She’s my little girl and I love her!” The sheer moral bankruptcy in this exchange left me feeling like throwing something at the TV set.
However if I needed cheering up there was always Masterchef, I cannot explain the extraordinary addictive quality of this programme, but addictive it is and it draws me in at a level of emotional engagement that constantly surprises me. I think it is a combination of the tremendous demands made upon the aspiring chefs combined with their intensity, passion and commitment.
Book review by Andrew Roberts in The Wall Street Journal gives Mohandas Ghandi a long overdue kicking. I recommend it.:-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160371482469358.html
One thing Ghandi said, which had a certain wit about it, was when asked what he thought about western civilisation he said “it was a good idea.” I sometimes feel the same about a free press in the UK. Now I think a good case could be made to say that Britain has the best broadsheet and the worst tabloids in the world. However the concentrations of media ownership in the hands of a few megalomaniac moguls like Rupert Murdoch has broken the legs of a free and independent press like a well swung baseball bat. The current phone hacking scandal has, unfortunately for News International, got, as they say in the news industry, legs. This one will run and run. There are many strands to this sordid and corrupt ridden affair, two of the most concerning being the role of The Metropolitan Police in the initial cover up and the degree to which politicians colluded with the Murdoch empire.
A big fan of newspapers I am saddened by their steady decline at the hands of electronic media, however one silver lining may be the diminished hold that the Murdoch media and poisonous rags like The Sun and Daily Mail have over politicians, so long in thrall to their bigoted and ignorant editors. Perhaps we have seen the last of Sun headlines which read ‘It Was The Sun Wot Won It.’
