so last night i sat down to watch one of my fave shows - 60 minutes - and i was more psyched than usual cos anderson cooper had a segment. drink? check. popcorn? check. comfortable seat? check. good to go.
first segment is about training for secret service personnel (you know, the ones who dive in front of the bullet to save the president). but it is about how these guys learn about people who have killed or tried to kill masses of people (or a president because, apparently, one president is equal to masses of people). and of course this comes with footage - of distraught family at the scene of a tragedy; of bloodied bodies, both dead and alive. thank goodness i have emergency tissues on my table. i pull myself together.
next segment is about daily life in baghdad. how the daily drive to school for children is about loading guns and dodging bombs. children are interviewed who have watched people being shot in front of them. a girl starts crying. i grab another tissue.
finally coop is on. finally my spirits can be lifted. i am beginning to feel as though i am watching some lifetime true drama tear-jerker. this segment is about "hip-hop culture" (whatever that means) and its no snitching message. apparently in (i'm not sure what the term is) urban communities/inner cities/predominantly black neighbourhoods, the "culture" is to not snitch. i don't mean you can't tell your mom who ate the ice-cream without permission. we're talking, i saw you shoot someone but i can't tell anyone that.
it all starts to make so much more sense when they interview rapper cam'ron about how snitching is shameful (yes, as a public service these rappers make videos outing snitches and warning others against such foolishness). so coop asks him what he would do if he knew there was a serial killer living next door.
cam'ron tells him (duh!) that "i wouldn't tell no one, like there's a serial killer in 4e" (gosh! why would he want to do that!). "i would probably just move."
from the black hole of hopelessness that this hour of television has dumped me in, i'm thinking - ignorance can't be that bad, now can it?
3 comments:
I was just as stunned about the coop/cam interview.
I know you dont watch charm school but Mo'nique was giving back the girls their birth names and throwing out the nick name tags in the fire. These names by the way, they got from Flav. SO Mo'nique gets to a girl called Saaphyr, she says "this represented something ugly, what is your real name baby? So she says Saaphyr". so you can imagine Mo'nique was ashamed.
anyway the 'SOUP' host said, "Mo apostrophe nique, where do you get off calling other people's names ugly?
Glad you are back, trying to catch up with stories from home.
That is a depressing hour of TV. I heard the AC interview on the 60 Minutes podcast, and it just seems so ridiculous. I grew up in an entirely different world that the people who don't snitch so I guess I will never understand, but it is sad that they live their life by this code.
dearcabbie, i can't talk about that piece without getting riled up and hopeless. none of it makes sense.
how well you know me... no, i don't watch charm school. i think i would curl up in my bed and give up if i did. but that mo apostrophe nique moment sounds classic.
i am trying not to drown folk in my zimbabwe tales... cos i never get tired of them but i don't want to be like that crazy old aunt who tells you that same bad joke twenty times and you still have to laugh like it's new.
mr. shife - it is all foolishness. apparently this stemmed from "back in the day" when communities were more active and took it upon themselves to discipline and mete out justice without necessarily going to the cops. now folk just don't go to the cops or anyone else. basically they have handed over their communities to criminals who operate without fear or restraint.
deep breath.
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