Celebrity

I had some difficulty trying to explain to Serebe, a work colleague, the fascination of the West and in particular the UK and America, with the minutiae of the lives of the rich and famous. He watches a regular satellite TV program and often, on switching it on early catches the program before, which is devoted to a paparazzi-style following of some celebrity over a twenty-four hour period. He was completely at a loss as to why anyone should be remotely interested in someone’s daily routine, be they famous or not. I have to say that my attempts to explain, involving descriptions such as boredom, escapism, the wish to be horrified by the bad taste and habits of well-known figures sounded negative and unconvincing even to my ears (who has been known to pick up and pore over the odd copy of Hello.) Serebe felt it was a concept completely unknown here, maybe because people have more pressing needs to attend to.
We got on to talking about the of being famous for being famous, aka Big Brother, and finally got into the realms of the surreal. Try explaining the concept behind the Big Brother house to someone who has never seen it and lives within a culture where big family groups living in one room, and consideration and respect for everyone, is the norm. By the end of the conversation I think Serebe felt sympathy for people living in the celebrity hungry culture of the West and I have to say I agreed with him.

We’re told it’s been unseasonably cold the last few days. It’s very hot in the sun but shivery the moment you walk in the shade or the sun goes behind a cloud. We’ve put a quilt on the bed tonight.

C