Falcon Heene Was Never In The Aircraft

AOG, Madrid

This whole charade is amazing. Not just because of the coverage it achieved in the US, but because the amount of countries which followed the story. A small boy was thought to be inside a hot air balloon in Colorado. And the world talked about it here, and here in the UK, here in the Philippines, here in France.

Fortunately, the balloon was empty and the boy, allegedly, was hiding in the family home's attic. The media have portrayed the family in question as being very media hungry. It seems the father has twice asked to be on Family Swap. When interviewed, the boy said it was all for a show. Was it a hoax? Who knows. It appears it was.

My take on the whole thing has bigger perspectives. I think it is a perfect example of the differences, injustices and disparities still found in our world.

Daily, children in the Middle East, Africa and India, die.

These deaths get little or no air time. Unfortunately, it shows once again that Western citizens' lives are much more valuable and newsworthy than the lives of non-Westerners.

It is also a monument to the Global reach of American media.

In my view, it shows us once again how the world is getting smaller, but only its rich citizens are worth knowing about.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Globalization meltdown in my living room

AOG, Madrid

I’m all for globalization, and sometimes the extent to which our World, certainly my life, are globalised, amazes me.

Today I was at home watching some television in my newly installed satellite dish. I live in a XIX century building in an XVIII century neighbourhood in Madrid, a city turned into a capital in the XVI century, of a country striding all centuries between the 500 AD and now. Hard to believe? come on over and see for yourself!

But back to today's lesson...

The furniture at home is Swedish (Ikea), my television, DVD player and mobile phone are from South Korea (Samsung). My laptop was assembled in China and it is a Toshiba- Japanese.

The clothes I wear are mostly European and American labels, sawn in Southeast Asia.

The cologne I wear is mostly French.

Bed linen is British (Laura Ashley, Habitat), Swedish (Ikea), or American (Ralph Lauren). I use an iPod, designed by an American company (Apple) and assembled in Taiwan.

My digital camera is a Canon; American, though it is probably assembled in Asia somewhere.

My life has always been like this, cosmopolitan even when I was not aware of it. Labels and international companies have always accompanied me and my friends.

But today I experienced a complete meltdown.

There I was, at home, sipping a latte from Starbucks (Seattle- though the beans were probably African, or Brazilian- the milk? local Spanish cow from the North fare) watching television through a US-designed system pegged unto a European satellite named ASTRA.

I was quite savvy with some of the television channels- Cubavision, Al Jazeera in English, France24 in both French and English, television from Ecuador, Colombia, the UK, Argentina, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal, even Korean and Russian television... in English, (don't ask, I don't know).

I could cope with all this, in fact, I loved it. But then it happened.

I flipped the channel and, suddenly, I was watching a Mexican soap opera dubbed into Arabic on a Moroccan television station through a European satellite using American technology unto my XIX century building and my XXI century life.

I spat out in laughter my Kenyan-Seattle coffee brew all over Ikea's imitation English Floral (itself an imitation of Chinese XIX century florals) and all over my Bolivian red carpet.

My brain exploded. It was too much. Even as I write this I laugh. I’m still giddy.

I can’t help but wonder what might come next?

Chinese opera dubbed into Swahili with Arabic subtitles courtesy of Tanzanian television?