As I have previously stated avoiding the news is a somewhat critical factor to my chances of surviving a ‘human’ existence. Sure I can take a random dose of political nonsense or ridiculous slathering of pop culture from time to time – but when it comes to things like CNN or The New York Times, it’s pretty safe to say I can’t be down.
However the news, to me, is like all of the other things that I know I should stay away from but still dabble in from time to time because, well, I suppose it’s just my personality.
Sitting alone at the dinner table this evening as I do every night lately, I decided that instead of reading a book or doodling poetry, I’d check out the word from CNN. The only reason such a brave notion crossed my mind is because as we all know, once I hit Aussie soil I lose complete touch with everything happening on this planet – by choice. I am by no means saying my fellow Australian people take this stance or are subject to a clueless state due to any geographic or political restriction, please. I personally, on the other hand, have intentionally constructed a down under existence completely opposite to life in New York City. One where I, for the most part, have no idea what the hell is happening anywhere outside my peripheral vision.
I digress…
So in comes CNN with an immediate story about an 18 year old girl who set herself on fire because she can’t deal with her drug addict husband who she was married off to when she was 11… you caught that right? Ee-le-ven. Of course CNN makes point to say what part of the planet she lives on and throw in lots of side stories about how women are treated in this particular area… blah blah blah… blah blah blah…
I don’t give a shit if the girl is from Illinois, Indonesia, Iran, or Iceland… one fact rings clear to me. Adult men, in 2010, rape young girls referring to it as ‘marriage’ commonly in certain ‘cultures’. Meanwhile people in other societies are pissed off because they can’t get home early enough from their job at IBM to catch the end of their favorite soap opera, or because their boss won’t give them a certain Friday night off to catch Kanye live.
Some days I reckon it’s better if I simply say nothing.
What do you reckon?
There aren’t words strong enough. I guess all we can really do is try to make a world where such things are impossible.
Hello Michael. Occurrences like this are one of the many reasons I claim alien status. I stand by the belief that politics don’t cause problems, people do, and for some reason a large collection of Earthlings attempt to turn everything into a political issue (or “religious” which is just another form of politics to me), overlooking the fact that humans are the actual cause. I also believe that darkness roams in various roams, but that’s a bit too deep for blog language. x x