Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 12:12pm
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Column: Interesting Times
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Horrible things have happened this week—Myanmar, China and hundreds of women screaming and crying and yelling because Oprah gave them each a Weber grill on her summer Favorite Things show. Unbearable. There are hundreds of thousands dying, starving, homeless while the audience is weeping and hugging over collecting ‘freebies” from Oprah.
“Mineral make-up rocks”, Oprah says. Myanmar oppressed and reeling. Oprah and her friend Gayle like Cover Girl mascara. Both Oprah and Gayle are excited about a seven-dollar nail polish stick one can keep in their purse. And storms are battering Myanmar again. Avon Products, Inc. reported this week that first-quarter 2008 total revenue grew 14% year over year (6% in local currency) to $2.5 billion. This Oprah show is an updated version of Queen for a Day while in Somalia, villagers say hundreds of people are dying of hunger and thirst amid soaring global food prices, skimpy rainfall and escalating violence.
The two hundred dollar gift card to Marriott Hotels had the audience jumping up and down in the aisles. In the meantime in any given year 3.5 million in the US are homeless and millions more worldwide can never ever, ever think of spending even one night in a hotel. There is a lot of excited hooting and hollering over Oprah’s recipe for a Pomegranate Daiquiri and I can’t count how many people in the world don’t have drinking water today. Everyone in the audience gets flip-flops, which everyone in the world could use, and hundreds of millions wear as a necessity, not a summer fashion fun item.
Oprah’s audience gets her favorite CD of the summer—Growing Pains by Mary. J. Blige while the earth is groaning in torment suffering from one disaster after another. The final Oprah gift: The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Now is the accepted time, said Jesus, and Tolle does have a way of borrowing or incorporating great truths into his books.
I am not against fun. I am not against gifts. I love to get gifts and more, I love to give them. I am against screaming, jumping up and down, weeping and hugging over flip-flops as if it were the Word of God. I am against public displays of greed when there is so much quiet and active support needed for our fellow citizens of the world. Don’t even get me started on President Bush saying he gave up golf for the duration of the Iraq war.
Horrible things have happened this week—Myanmar, China and hundreds of women screaming and crying and yelling because Oprah gave them each a Weber grill on her summer Favorite Things show. Unbearable. There are hundreds of thousands dying, starving, homeless while the audience is weeping and hugging over collecting ‘freebies” from Oprah.
“Mineral make-up rocks”, Oprah says. Myanmar oppressed and reeling. Oprah and her friend Gayle like Cover Girl mascara. Both Oprah and Gayle are excited about a seven-dollar nail polish stick one can keep in their purse. And storms are battering Myanmar again. Avon Products, Inc. reported this week that first-quarter 2008 total revenue grew 14% year over year (6% in local currency) to $2.5 billion. This Oprah show is an updated version of Queen for a Day while in Somalia, villagers say hundreds of people are dying of hunger and thirst amid soaring global food prices, skimpy rainfall and escalating violence.
The two hundred dollar gift card to Marriott Hotels had the audience jumping up and down in the aisles. In the meantime in any given year 3.5 million in the US are homeless and millions more worldwide can never ever, ever think of spending even one night in a hotel. There is a lot of excited hooting and hollering over Oprah’s recipe for a Pomegranate Daiquiri and I can’t count how many people in the world don’t have drinking water today. Everyone in the audience gets flip-flops, which everyone in the world could use, and hundreds of millions wear as a necessity, not a summer fashion fun item.
Oprah’s audience gets her favorite CD of the summer—Growing Pains by Mary. J. Blige while the earth is groaning in torment suffering from one disaster after another. The final Oprah gift: The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Now is the accepted time, said Jesus, and Tolle does have a way of borrowing or incorporating great truths into his books.
I am not against fun. I am not against gifts. I love to get gifts and more, I love to give them. I am against screaming, jumping up and down, weeping and hugging over flip-flops as if it were the Word of God. I am against public displays of greed when there is so much quiet and active support needed for our fellow citizens of the world. Don’t even get me started on President Bush saying he gave up golf for the duration of the Iraq war.