FinishMySong Blog

... only joking: our political system isn't that democratic!

Seriously, though, I wonder what all the fuss is about the alleged racist taunting of Shilpa Shetty in Channel 4 TV's 'Celebrity' Big Brother House. After all, this is supposed to be 'reality' television and if ignorance and bigotry aren't a reality in 21st Century British culture then I don't know what is.

I'd suggest that the kindest thing we, the public, could do to help Shilpa out of the xenophobic, racist environment she's found herself in is this: simply switch off your television, or else at least turn over to a channel that doesn't broadcast mindless tripe 24 hours a day - C4 would soon get the message and pull the show, liberating Shilpa from having to make small talk with morons like Jade Goody.

I mean, seriously: why would anyone sit up through the night to watch other people sleeping, anyway?! If I want to see reality I can look around the house and watch my cats sleeping. The whole thing almost inspires me to setup a webcam and introduce Feline Big Brother to the world. As we speak there are two very drowsy cats curled up by the radiator in my bathroom. To up the ratings I could casually whisper to Ebony that Tigger has a hairy face. Truly thrilling and inspiring stuff!

However, you can't altogether blame Jade, Jo and co (ooh, that has a good ring to it) for the demonstrations currently taking place in India over the mistreatment of Shilpa. I think the media machine that is our gutter press can be held responsible for that - once again, they're taking what is in one sense an utterly trivial matter of someone being bullied because of their race (trivial in as much as that it is not exactly breaking news - this kind of thing happens in places of work and education all over Britain every single day) and running with it because it seems to have attracted the public's attention, and therefore sells more papers. It doesn't help that our political leaders feel it necessary to submit comments about it... I can't help feeling that they've got their own agenda in mind when coming out to remark on such widely discussed matters.

So, for those of you who have no interest in BB (congrats on that point alone) and wouldn't be caught dead watching a minute of it, here's a brief synopsis of the issues for you, thus allowing you to go on with your life without bothering to read anything about it either: being nasty to people because of their race isn't nice. Some people's ignorance leads them to behave in this way. It happened on telly, perpetrated by some nobody's who our media machine seem to want us to look up to. And that's it. Go have a cup of tea and forget about it. :)