Reality Shows!

Watching TV sometimes can get on your nerves! I still remember when I used to watch a Nepali program just to criticize how ugly it was. I don’t know they still show that program “Hijo aajaka kuraa” literally “the talks of yesterday and today”. I hated that program but did watch it sometimes coz the next day I had to tell my friends how bad it was!

Here, the Belgian TVs are just crazy about the reality shows! Every channels has reality shows running! The Big brothers or Toast Kannibaal, Lost in Tokyo, Peking express or Temptation Island or Boer zoekt vrouw! (Farmer searches woman)

Ok, back to the point, I wanna talk about the “Celebrity Shock”. It’s a reality show at a Belgian TV (VTM) where popular Flemish celebrities go to different destinations to feel the different aspects of live. Well, they are supposed to feel the shocks. There are 4 duos who depart to 4 different destinations of the world.

Interestingly, a duo is actually now in Nepal. 48 years old Flemish actress and authoress Pascale Platel and 29 years old Flemish actor, also very popular as Simon van Wyck from TV series “Sara” are facing Shocks everyday in a sort of Buddhist monastery institution.

Well, Pascale and Gert are now in Nepal for Celebrety Shock. They are placed in a Buddhist monastery somewhere nearby Bouddhanath ( I reckon), in north east of KTM. They will be there separated from the outer world and will live like a monk and nun.

This is now the second episode on air and actually I’m watching it now and writing this.

I’m not against the reality shows. That’s something I’m very sure of. But the overload of commerciality’s in the program makes it so ugly that I just can’t stand it. Its not that I’m inspired to write about it coz they are now showing Nepal but the whole idea they create about the third world is so ridiculous.
And it doesn’t only go about the problems of a selected location. Its about the way how they show it at TV.

Like the reality show, “The Temptation Island” where 8 young couples were severely tested for their faith to each other. Of course, even though they knew there was always a camera watching them, they ended of being messy with each other’s partners and so! These sort of reality shows just make fun of the whole human life aspects...Love, sentiment and relationship. Moreover, people seem to like it. They think that it should be like this in reality and I guess some people do even try to live through the reality show!

Is it impact of materialism? The developed mentality? The independency? An answer seems to be deeper than we think!

Back to “Celebrity Shock” again! Ok, so there is a duo (Pascale and Gert) living in a Buddhist Monastery. They have to adopt the life of a Nun and Monk there, learn to meditate, eat in a mess, and sleep with 100s other people in the same small hall… of course, the shocks!

Ok, here are now my concerns; I don’t think it actually shows the real picture of Nepal. Im not saying that they should show the “real Nepal” but the nature of the program seems more suitable for a country where Buddhism has so many influences in life. How many Nepali do live like a monk where 88% of the people actually are Hindu and where Buddhism and Hinduism live together in a perfect harmony. A separation between these two religions in Nepal is very hard coz they are so much mixed up with each other. It pictures Nepal as a real Buddhist country but in fact it’s not fully true.

Our duo (Pascale and Gert) is having lot of of shocks there! The duos who signed up for a program chose to go to receive the shocks themselves. I thought that they would somehow be prepared to discover a new world, cultures, location and circumstances. But our duo isn't seem to be prepared. They miss their Belgium so much. I, obviously, understand that they miss home, (who doesn’t…) but the way they express it is so ridiculous. They say whatever they like just coz those monks don't understand Dutch. Why is it so difficult for you to take it as the way it is when you chose to go there yourself? You could have always lived in your “luxurious clean apartment” and wouldn’t have had a single word to complain about but now you have chosen to discover something new but not to impose your lifestyles there or not to make any stupid comment about it. It’s the way people live there, and they like it and they appreciate it regardless you like it or not. They didn’t ask you to come there so you can’t play the boss! Why don’t you care that there is camera filming you and whatever you say for anything will be shown to millions of people later.

You are not at your home, you at least have to realise that. Our Simon (Gert) desperately misses his cigarettes. I don’t smoke so I don’t know how bad it is to be away from cigarettes but our Simon’s comments were just too funny! He has to sleep with other children at same hall and what he says when he wakes up the next morning is something to smile but not to appreciate!!!

Other duos are in Mumbai India, Greenland, Guyana and their stories aren’t less interesting too.

I’m personally not against the reality shows filmed in third world. They can be interesting as it gives you a chance to discover and see a different world. Adventurous shows let you test your horizons and talents too. “Expeditie Robinson” can be a good example of that where people are tested with nature.

To be precise, I’m against the makers of those reality shows which laughs at and contempt the culture, human who live there in particular way and their traditions. Dear western program makers, it’s not bad what they do there, it just different than the way you are used to. Just because you learnt to eat with fork and knife doesn’t mean that eating with hands is bad. People who eat with hand aren’t doing anything wrong but they are just doing it differently than you are used to. I know it’s a very simple example to prove a big theory but sometimes things can be so simple as long as you can have a look it from their eyes. If you can laugh about their styles they can laugh about yours too. It’s not about civilization. You can’t just pop up into a culture and say “they are not civilized”. And I don’t think Civilization has anything to do with Modernism or Scientification.

Well, this is the world we live in these days where the night life of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears is more important than the dying people in Iraq. It doesn’t become a news when people have nothing to eat in Africa but we spend hours watching how to be slim.

I know complaining isn't a solution...

Peace,
Raj