Celebrity Big Brother and racism


I was watching This Week last night, usually I switch of straight after the My Moment of the Week. However last night I continued to watch as they discussed the situation in Celebrity Big Brother.


Now I’m not a fan of Celebrity Big Brother, the last time I watched Celebrity Big Brother was when Jack Dee was in the house, so unless I’m mistaken that was back in 2003. Therefore what I have posted in this post comes from just what I saw on This Week last night.


I came to the conclusion that Danielle, Jade and Jo’s behaviour towards Shilpa was a consequence of their lack of information, knowledge & understanding of other cultures rather then racism.


My reasons for believing this are first the discussion that This Week showed between some women (one was Jo from SClub7, I didn’t recognise the other) about whether Indians eat with their hands, showed that they had some knowledge of this occurring but they weren’t even sure where this occurred. One of them mentioned it possibly being China. From my knowledge in the “eastern” world it is the norm for people to eat with their hands. I know that as Muslims we are told to eat with our hands since that was the way the Prophet Muhammed ate.


Krishnan Guru-Murthy mentioned during the discussion that came after his report that Shipla was not participating in the alcohol drinking and discussion about sex that occurred in the House. Now from what I remember of watching Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother in the past those two activities take up some amount of time since people having nothing better to do. I don’t know why Shipla isn’t participating in these activities however I do know that in some Indian cultures these are still things which are not done or at least not done in public. People may have a drink from time to time but will only do it at home or in place where they are not vulnerable. The talking about sex is more a case of a sexual relationship being between the people in the relationship and it being a private matter. In the same way that most people would not invite others to watch them having sex with their partner why would you discuss it with someone else?


I think that the majority of the people who think what has been occurring in the house as racism will be the “educated” and “intellectuals” who can sometimes be over PC and they have a desire, hope or wish that British people were as appreciative, knowledgeable and understanding of other cultures as they are.

TV's dramatic political year


I have just been reading TV's dramatic political year. I watched some of those programmes like any one who knows me will know that I am a massive fan of The West Wing and it is being repeated on More4 and I have the all 7 series on DVD so there is nothing that stops me from watching and adoring what great television it was especially Series 1, 2 and 4.


However in 2006 I missed most of The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and found that when I spoke to blogers, classmates and lecturers no one seemed to impress and one of the complaints from the political and apolitical was the idea of the Purple Alliance winning a general election was just a little too much.


I like watching Spooks but find that I usually miss it for some reason or the other. The times I have watched they have done some good stories. I happen to miss all the exciting things like the attempted coup, the siege in London's Saudi Trade Centre, Juliet's car exploding in Westminster and Ruth faking her own death. However I did catch the attempt to flood London by sabotaging the Thames Flood Barrier which I thought was a good episode.


Like I said before I am a massive fan of The West Wing and was very disappointed when President Jed Bartlett stood down after eight years in The White House, I was standing there screaming four more years. I was really pleased when I heard that Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) was coming back to the White House to work for President Santos but was very disappointed when that just got us a few minutes of TV time. The most disappointing moment was when John Spencer who played Leo McGarry the Democratic Candidate for Vice President at the time died following a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital. His character died of a heart attack on election night. What was really spooky was that in the first episode of series 7 The Ticket, Jimmy Smits character Matthew Santos the Democratic Candidate for President says something like "you want out, you're gonna have to drum up another heart attack" and Leo replies “Thanks, that's a beautiful sentiment". The story involving China and Russia was fun and the Wedding episode featured some vintage Bartlett but Series 7 was all about the election and for me there wasn’t enough Bartlett while Santos was good he was no Bartlett.


I watched Geena Davis as Mackenzie Allen in Commander in Chief, where as a mother of three she goes on to become the first woman to occupy the Oval Office after a sitting President dies. I think Commander in Chief like The Amazing Mrs Pritchard made the mistake that the person in office was an independent. People just can’t envisage a world where that happens.


I don’t think I ever watched The Thick of It but when they had the Christmas special on I enjoyed that. I'm not sure if it will be returning to our screens any time soon but I would recommend that as one to watch.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip


As a fan of Aaron Sorkin I was really excited when I saw that after a break he was coming back to TV and had started work on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I saw an advert for the programme on More4 on the night that they showed the last episode of The West Wing which said coming soon however since then I have not heard or seen anything. Did I miss it?


As people may know Aaron Sorkin was involved in the first four seasons of The West Wing and also did the screenplay for A Few Good Men, wrote The American President, created and did the teleplay for Sports Night.


Aaron Sorkin has also adapted George Crile's best-selling book "Charlie Wilson's War" the true story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and a CIA operative who together manipulated the congress and the CIA into helping to arm the mujahideen in their fight against Afghanistan.

This Life + 10


As some of you may know This Life + 10 will be on at 9pm on BBC2 this evening. Ten years ago when This Life aired I was only 13 years old and not so interested in programmes such as this therefore I can't remember it and happen to miss it when it was repeated on BBC2 before Christmas however I plan to watch the programme tonight to see what it is all about.


When I woke up this morning I switched on to bbc radio 5 live and they were asking people to call, email or text and let them know what they were doing ten years ago and whether they are doing the same or how their life has changed since.


This got me thinking what was it that I wanted to be doing now ten years ago. I am finding it really difficult to remember but as far I can recall ten years ago I wanted to grow up to become a sports agent or a football commentator. As anyone who knows me will know none of those are true now and I doubt that I’ll ever end up doing any of those any time soon.


I also started thinking about what I wanted to be doing ten years from now which really worries me as ten years ago I had narrowed my list down to two and now I have no idea at all about what I want to do. Back in November 2004 I listed Academic, Campaigner, Charity fundraiser, Fair Trader, Journalist, Peace Advocate, Policy Developer, Refugee Advisor, Regeneration Worker, Relief Worker, Researcher, Strategist, Sustainability Advisor, Sustainable Tour Guide and Teacher as possible careers for me. Given that I may be just six months from finishing my academic life I have to seriously start thinking about what I want to do because if I don’t think I could just jump at the first opportunity of employment and end up doing that for the rest of my life.


From the list the jobs that really interest me are Campaigner, Charity fundraiser, Policy Developer and Researcher from the list above and the one that I wish to add to that is Conference & Events Co-ordinator/Planner.


If anyone has any advice, experience or knowledge that they wish to share please do not hesitate to contact me.