Monday, 17 January 2011

Gold Rush

Over the past two weeks...I've really gotten into this Discovery Channel show....Gold Rush.  It was a limited episode show and apparently took off big in public appeal since early December.  It's the simple story of how seven or eight guys....mostly down on their luck....have taken to team up and launch a gold expedition into Alaska.  Up until today, I kinda considered the whole thing to be true.  Well....it's not.

I started to read up on the team and the exploits of the gold expedition.  It's mostly just a storyline that the Discovery crew cooked up, and took these guys to form a crew.  The lives described by the Discovery team?  Mostly all bogus.

I sat there and pondered upon this.  It was a reality show.....advertised and designed to be factual.....but it was mostly all fictional.    I felt like I'd bought a car that was a lemon.  But then I came to realize that I valued TV mostly as entertainment, and the show is pure entertainment.

My most impressed moment?  The carpenter on the crew had come up with a project and erected a "cabin" within two or three days after he'd started it.  I admit....there was no roof, and no insulation....but it was a cabin in the purest of form.  Of course.....now we can readily view the cabin as just an image.....because there were likely three or four guys in the background for Discovery who built the shell, and the actor/carpenter just acted this out.  

I actually thought the cabin was impressive enough as a structure that I would have moved right in and made an effort to ride out a year in it.

So I stand back and mostly ponder over the show now.  It appears that any idiot could have raised his hand...as long as he had personality, and been put on the show.  The mining side to this?  I'm guessing they accidentally did find the $20k that they claim, and maybe that part is the only true segment of the show.  And yes, I will continue through to the last episode....that's how addicted I am.

Kazachstan and American Idol

I sat and found this today...American Idol being run in Kazachstan....and actually...this kid is pretty good.


"Baby Doc" Returns

In the history of dictators...none have ever returned after being kicked out....until today.

From Haiti, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has returned.

It's been over twenty years since "Baby Doc" got on the plane with his entourage and suitcases of money....and left because of pressure from western governments.  "Baby Doc" ended up in France and the cash that he brought along....was mostly gone within three or four years.  His entourage ended up breaking up and drifting off.  His wife left him.  "Baby Doc" ended up as a taxi driver for a number of years.

Haiti has a legendary connection to the Duvalier family.  "Papa Doc" was considered one of the most ruthless dictators of the past century.  His son "Baby Doc"....never really had a chance to take off and give anyone much of an impression.  He might have been a four-star dictator....he might have been some wannabe dictator with style and grace.  He might have even been a reformist dictator (we've yet to see one of them).

My guess is that Haiti has descended down to a point where anything constructive....even bringing in a dictator....would be a positive move.  A huge crowd to greet the guy?  It'll be curious.  Anybody over the age of thirty probably remembers "Baby Doc" and probably would support the guy....because of the ongoing circumstances in the country.

My fascination with this?  Here was a guy who just packed up and left his home with an entourage, cash, and a trophy wife.  He lost all three.  He became a taxi-driver on the streets of France and just survived from week to week.  You have to imagine that behind the scenes over the past year or two....a couple of political figures finally got around to the idea that bringing "Baby Doc" back....was the best situation for everyone in Haiti.  And you can only imagine "Baby Doc" sitting there in a dark French cafe....sipping French-roasted coffee and suddenly being approached by a couple of Haitian guys in suits.  It's a made-for-TV movie....if you ask me.