I have not been sleeping too well since arriving in Australia. Partly of course due to jet-lag; but also due to my mind not being fed. Aussie newcasts are parochial and even serious newspapers are 95% local. And for a nation that prides itself on multiculturalism you would never know it from the TV screens. Wall to wall whiteskin presenters on the commercial channels. Thank God for ABC.
To relax at night I have been watching REVENGE Season 2. I enjoyed Season 1, soap opera though it was it was well done. Season 2 has lost the plot. I don’t really understand it even after reading the episode summaries on WIKIPEDIA. It is drowning in complex sub-plots.
So last night I watched the first episode of BORGEN Series 2 , the ongoing saga of the first Danish female prime minister and her struggles to come to terms with the sacrifices needed when you wield power. Danish TV deserves its high reputation. This is TV for grown ups. Superbly produced and superbly acted with believable characters. It is more like documentary than fiction.
Brigitte Nyborg comes to power as a Moderate (what we would call a Social Democrat?) supported by the Socialists and The Greens. Faced with the ongoing war in Afghanistan her conditioned response and her Coalition government policy was to pull out the troops immediately—until she saw the situation though the eyes of Afghan women—and through the eyes of the Danish soldiers themselves. They think that they are making a difference, and risking and giving their lives for something worthwhile. And so she has to sacrifice her friends, her marriage, and form new and unpleasant alliances to do what is right. Very Machiavellian, and necessary viewing for milk-sop liberals and peaceniks.
The Afghan situation is complex—and I do not think that The Taliban are all bad. As the Arab Spring has shown, given the democratic right most Muslim societies will vote for a deeply conservative government based on The Holy Qu’ran. And emphasizing the emancipation of women as the main reason for invading Afghanistan is not real.
The decline of Western moral values, the triumph of Mammon over spiritual values, and the rise of consumerism and Showbusiness celebrity gossip culture that has led directly to the cover-up of the Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris, et al disgraceful paedephile scandals can be directly correlated with female emancipation. (Spin in your grave George Bernard Shaw).
This episode of BORGEN saved itself by also showing that saving the lives of 89,000 children per year was a sound reason for the ongoing war and deposing the medieval Taliban. Go watch.
In my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” the thread that holds together the disparate stories of the expatriates who wash up in The Arabian/Persian Gulf is the price paid by young, vulnerable and innocent children during the bitter tribal conflict between Arab and Jew, and the ongoing power struggles to control cheap oil supplies. And perhaps even more destructive are the attempts by The West to impose essentially Christian liberal democratic free market principles on tribal societies better suited to the more atavistic Shar’ia Law. This is a Gulf that cannot be bridged.
You can preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:
http://www.amazon.com/author/mikerichards
And download it if you have a Kindle. If you do not, or prefer a paperback, you can order from:
http://www.thebookdepository.co.uk
They offer free shipping worldwide.