Going overboard
By Sean O'Donaile
We seem to have finally entered the world of the absurd
with all the nonsense which passes for news in these
parts. I've never been a fan of ``Sky News and
Mis-information On The Hour'', but their recent
bulletins take the biscuit or is it the Willy.
The Clinton Circus is in full flight - the President is
under serious threat from his libido and the nation
holds it's breath.
Special Consultants, advisers, analysts and other
career minded chaps are wheeled out - there's Skip
Rutherford, Rick Carbinonio and Bob too, telling us all
what we already know - Monica must be wishing she
hadn't told the truth. RTE joined in the carry-on,
jetting reporters 3,000 miles to stand in the cold and
repeat Sky News garbage.
It suits Rupert Murdoch to fool us into thinking the
super rich and tax dodgers actually care about us -
hence Sky's special feature on the Queen Mother - ``the
grandmother of the nation''... falling off her horse and
or was it the wall - more experts, royal consultants
and surgeons were hauled up to discuss the intricacies
of ``everyone's favourite'' and her hard life.
There was ``...an immense sense of relief for the
British people'' when Lord St John of Rawlsey informed
us that she was bionic and was back in action.
Sandwiched in between the delusion were brief reports
on the latest Catholics to be shot, but where's the
glamour or, more importantly, the political motive in
highlighting this. Finally their coverage of the
reactionary John Paul II's visit to Cuba was full of
loaded language and inaccuracies. The Pope was ``going
to pull no punches'' and was ``undaunted'' in fact of
``this old Marxist dictator''.
Nowhere was it mentioned that Cuba has the highest
literacy and health rates in Latin America and the
so-called ``freedom'' that El Papa yearns for a means a
return to the bad old days as a playground for
America's low-life. What with Rupert Murdoch recently
receiving a knighthood from the Vatican, they know what
side their bread is buttered on.
Still we know who ``our man in Havana'' is and he's not
the man with the burst football on his head.
The type of clientele that would infest Cuba if
permitted were featured in BBC 1's The Cruise. Said
cruiser cost £260 million to build, hence it would cost
you a tad extra than a weekend in Bundoran. Likewise
your flowerpot of loose change wouldn't go far in the
Blackjack saloon, inhabited by Norman Flellerblum and
friends. Norman is a ``professional glamber'', which is
an excuse for a millionaire bum - he figures on losing
about 10,000 dollars on the tables in a week. He begins
his night by patronising young women and ends his night
by abusing the same women, minus a few grand. Norman is
entertained by Clint Holmes, a Tom Jones lookalike with
more sweat, who has a fake voice and tan, which fits in
well.
Further down the scale and hidden in the kitchens and
laundry rooms are the Hispanics and blacks, who work
seven days a week, eight months a year in order to send
remittance money home to their clans in Latin America.
Meanwhile Clint and Norm' get on with the schmutz and
smazzle on the good ship, which resembles a giant
Kimberely biscuit on water.
Overboard, I say!
Or maybe a few weeks in Chiapas, Zapatista country in
Southern Mexico, which is where Belfast duo Eamonn and
Deirdre and their two young children ventured in search
of the revolution.
``Chiapas'' is one of the many excellent Teilifis na
Gaeilge programmes, which receive scant coverage in the
print media. After a few nights in Mexico City, where
the cripples are forced to travel on skateboards and
homemade go-karts, the O Dochartaighs head for the
hills, via San Cristobal, which was seized by the
Zapatistas during the famous 1994 rising. Despite
government bombardment San Cristobal remained in the
hands of the indigenous Zapatistas, and a peace process
ensued.
After seventy years of misrule the one party-government
was forced to grant concessions to the EZLN. One of
these benefits was the construction of a commune-style
village by 100 or so extended families in Deiz de
April, named after the date revolutionary hero Zapata
was gunned down in 1919.
Muintir O'Dochartaigh aren't long knuckling down to a
diet of tortillas and beans, a wooden shack, washing in
the river and relieving themselves in a tin can.
Matters have changed since the uprising - the
landlord's casa grande is used by the community and the
land has been redistributed among the locals who eke
out a living harvesting maize, free from the
gangerman's whip.
There are many striking similarities with our own
situation, including the government massacre at a
peaceful march in San Pedro and the constant shadow of
the military. The risen people would fit in well in
Carrickmore or Springhill, with the revival of their
own language and culture, a pride in their way of life,
and a plethora of murals and ballads. And not a Sky TV
camera in sight.
Unfortunately for Eamonn and Deirdre the flying ants
and heavy rains become too much for the children and
they go overboard, returning to their own revolution in
Belfast.
The Celtic Tiger teenagers of the Free State, featured
in RTE's Prime Time, are a world away, busily consuming
E's, hash and flagons. Soft drug use and ``bush
drinking'' has increased dramatically here in the last
ten years or so, and our rates are the highest in
Europe. Various pundits and counsellors cite increased
emphasis on materialism, where a quick ``buzz'' is
desirable, as a leading cause.
Our education system, which promotes such ethics, is
another factor, as it provides little in the way of
self esteem, identity or confidence in our youth. After
the last week's viewing one would have to question the
Sky TV notion of ``freedom'' - somehow the native of
Chiapas and Cuba seem more content than the dollar
laden cruise merchants and Celtic Tiger's teenagers.
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