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I find it a privilege being on this planet at the same time as you, and believe we all are here at this time of humanity for a purpose. I hope you will find it interesting getting into conversation with me and my readers.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Big Brother Bullying Scandal




The A list Bollywood actress and celebrity, Shilpa has received the headlines in the British Press as she is being bullied by other celebreties in the house of the Big Brother. Tens of Thousands of furious viewers have complained that this is racism and bullying, which is not tollerated by the viewers (although a source of entertainment).

Shilpa is being made fun of for being indian, for talking indian accent,......her culture is being ridiculed on how they eat food, what they eat etc. This truly shows lack of cultural understanding from other celebs on BB. The bullying comes mainly from other female contestants, who I believe in a very obvious way feel a sense of competition with this beauty from India, I believe they lack cultural insight and intelligense on communicating across what makes them different.

What I find more interesting is how the tabloid newspapers, such as The Sun, The Mirror and the Times have given this story a front page coverage......I am sure there are more important things happening in the world, but apparantelly people are more interested in reading about bullying celebs rather than Bush and Blair expansion of their troops going into Iraq......

My question to you is, why do we love the lives of celebreties and what is happening in their lives......thousands of Asians are being bullied every day, why does it become of such an importance when a celebrity is being bullied?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting what you have written. I think the papers have shown interest to this story because we think that because of the position they are in, the celebrities shouldn't be so judgemental towards others. They are in the public eye, people look up to them and they should be careful not to offend others because of their race, disabilities, jobs etc. Then again, are the contestants in BB really celebraties? What have some of them achieved to have gotten the label CELEBRITY? How much knowledge to they actually have about other cultures? and how willing are they to learn?

Another point that is important to think about is that many of the people that gave those comments probably think that they aren't racists, but being put in a situation where you are confronted with the 'unknown', the real feelings and judgements (if you have) come out. It's easy to sit in your armchair in your living room and say that you would never say anything like that. We never know before we've been put in a situation like that. This is why it is important to not be afraid and have an open mind to the 'unknown', and you might surprise yourself by actually liking it and slowly CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR LITTLE BOX...

Unknown said...

I have to say during the Prime Ministers question time in the parliament today, he was asked out about what is going on in the BB house and how this is reflecting the British and their dealing with other cultures.
BB into the parliament.......way to go

Anonymous said...

Hellooooo Elham
can we write our comment in persian? anyways... i think people like to talk about celebrities, cause they are rich and famous and as matter of fact 99% of people wants to be like them, rich and famous.
badesh inke (injaro dige bayad farsi benevisam ;) ) Times ya rooznamehaye dige dar morede BB harf mizanan ke chyzy nist.. too iran mardom noon nadaran bokhoran, vaze eghtesadie mamlekat eftezahe, bad yeki az vaziraye mamlekat nazar dade ke tebghe ayeene eslami zano shohar bayad ye saathaye khasi bayad ba ham bekhaban ke too salamate bache tasir nazare...
akhe yeki nist bege be to che... ya inke raiis jomhooremoon gofte ke khanooma bishtar bezayeen... inke migan farzande kamtar zendegie behtar eshtebahe!!!! aghaye raiis jomhoor lotfan sokooto ra-ayat konin...

Unknown said...

sara jan,are be farsi ham mitoni benevisi.

Yes people do want to often become like the celebreties, but what is interesting is how Jade and Shilpa are standing up agains each other. Jade is famous as she entered BB few years back, as Shilpa actually is a film star,I believe there is some sort of envy from Jade's side....

Anonymous said...

Jade is jealous I think, because Shilpa is beautiful, intelligent and a big movie star/model. Jade became famous after her time in BB years ago. What is she actually famous for? For being loud, rude, having a boob job? It is obvious that she comes from a low class background, especially seeing how her mum acted in the BB house. We are seeing two women from two different classes in conflict. So maybe it's not about race, but about class?

Unknown said...

race and class, how can you seperate these two??????

Anonymous said...

well I think this issue is as important as other issues,no more no less.

Anonymous said...

I think this has become a big issue because the English have been trying for a while now to stop racism. but programmes like this are showing that there is still a lot of racism going on even between celebrities who are suppose to be a good role model for the new generation. also i think that we are all racists in some level and when we see someone acting upon it, we get angry and we attack that person. we do that because, in my view, then we can say: 'its not me who is a racist, its her' but actually we are angry with ourselves for being a racist. How many times, honestly, have we made fun of Arabs, Turk’s, Pakistani’s, etc. I think to be able to answer these questions, we first need to look at ourselves in a very honest way and see why do we see some races lower than us.

Anonymous said...

just wanted to add something.... elham, it is interesting that you have 7 comments on this subject and none on the others. see, even we are more interested in what jade and shilpa do rather than freedom of expression and global warming.

Unknown said...

why are we interested in the lives of celebreties then? do we actually want to be like them and have their lives? are we envying their lives?