Iraq and America

World news:

Iraq has its first parliamentary poll since troops left the country nearly three years ago.

We take elections for granted in this country, because we can vote regularly (some would say too much).  But for anyone who has lived in a dictatorship, where the leader got to that position through violence, intimidation and corruption, a democratic election is extremely precious.


[The ink stain shows that they have voted, and they show it off as a badge of honour].

Here's a video of Christopher Hitchens talking about democracy in Iraq from a few years ago.  (If it sounds a bit boring, remember that this is the guy who drank and smoked himself to death.  He had the brain of political genius and lived like a rock star).  Try giving him a listen.

Also this week we've seen the devastation caused, not by dictators, but by nature as huge storms have hit America.

A couple of lessons here:
1. these are people living in the richest country in the world, but all their wealth won't protect them from nature.
2. nature doesn't listen to votes or campaigns any more than it does money.


The American political system isn't hugely different from ours. You have two main parties that everyone knows (Democrats and Republicans) and a lot of little parties that no-one knows (Libertarians, Tea Party, Green).  And a lot of the work that goes into getting in and staying in government is about being the most popular (or making the opponent look the least popular).

So there's a lot of mud slinging in American politics. Especially from the FOX network.
I know it's not always easy to understand what these guys are going on about so I'll paraphrase it for you: the present-US government are turning American into Nazi Germany, but doing it sneakily so no-one will notice.

Well, you guys will hopefully be around long enough to see if that's true.  If America doesn't turn into Nazi Germany, then either these commentators were wrong, or they stopped it happening.  stay tuned for the next 40 years to find out (Ooh, exciting!)



Crime:
Brian Bates calls himself Video Vigilante.  He makes it his business to follow prostitutes around until someone (the "John") picks them up for sex, then he records his confrontation with them and has evidence that he can give to the police.

His aim is to stop prostitution happening so widely, and his point is that these people are having sex in cars where anyone can walk past, including young children, sometimes in a car park, sometimes behind buildings, sometimes near children's play parks.

The important thing is that Bates is trying to do his bit to improve his local area. The LA Times calls him a video activist. The people who he catches call him much worse names.

Local News:
Filming session at WHYP went well, though we seemed to spend more time outside McDonalds than anywhere else -- and not because of the curfew, just because my 'team' were hungry.

We got some interesting footage, mostly of litter.  well that shouldn't be too hard to sort...

And finally...

Here's a video that I've chosen because it's funny. Go ahead and have a good laugh.

Now that you've had a laugh, I want you to have a good think.
Can this guy help the way he talks? Aren't we just laughing because he has a strange accent?
Isn't that a little bit racist?

[See what I did there, I lured you in to try and make you laugh so I could make you feel bad straight after.  It's a very effective tool for behaviour change].

But seriously though.  One of the things about humour is that there's often a victim. A bit like Vitaly and his pranks, we're laughing at someone else's expense.

I'm not suggesting we don't have a laugh now and then, but maybe I we just think about the victims a little more...