What a strange juxtaposition we have in the news this week. No pictures of the terrified, desperate asylum seekers who drowned when their 9m leaky wooden boat sunk on its way to Australia crammed with 70 people including many children. And a stampede of media to greet a brunette girl who first became famous because of a sex video and has since cleverly built herself into one of the most powerful and recognisable brands in the Western world.
Honestly? I’m interested in both. We are certainly not walking any high ground at Mamamia. We covered Kim Kardashian’s divorce announcement yesterday just like everyone else. We run galleries about her regularly and later today we have a terrific post from journalist Alissa Warren about the phenomenon that IS the Kardashians, trying to objectively understand how someone can be so famous…..for being famous. How that cycle is able to amplify itself so exponentially.
I’ve been watching a bit of Celebrity Apprentice and thinking a little bit about what it means to be a ‘celebrity’. As has Deni Hines and Polly from The Block who had the most absurd argument about it.
Maybe we just all need some levity. Maybe celebrities – certainly the Kardashians – are like Barbie Dolls for grown women. We like to look at them and follow the storybook narratives of their lives. It’s a form of escapism. But it’s pretty sobering when your child asks “how do you become famous?” and you don’t know how to reply.
Back to the asylum seekers who have died, I’ve almost not been able to listen to the news this morning, I cannot bear the cynical and opportunistic politicking that will go on. It’s heartless. I accidentally caught Immigration Minister Chris Bowen giving a radio interview where he spoke of ‘removing the incentives for people who come by boat. Incentives? I can only imagine how desperate you would have to be to climb onto a shitty little boat, leaving everyone you love and everything you own behind you in search of safety for yourself and your family.
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Quick post - my son is in Monash with a burst appendix. Have a quick 5 minutes before going to see him. Long wait but finally had surgery after waiting 10 hours in ED then on the ward. Staff are amazing. Feel so privileged to live in this country. To think children can die from appendicitis in other countries in unthinkable.
Good luck and big hugs! There is nothing like spending time in paediatrics with a sick but treatable child to make you feel like the luckiest parent alive! Hope your little one recovers quickly and you manage to get some sleep tonight!
Being a tired bumpkin right now. I just got asked to become permanent in my new job. I do disability support work, so basically being a carer for a number of 'clients'. So I've been doing extra training kind of work this week. I did 4 shifts over the last 3 days.. 23 hours. It's kind of tough when the work is pretty much being on your toes all the time!
So on my mind? How strange it was going into the community today. Usually, we just stay around the house after everyone gets back from their day centres and we make dinner/prepare everyone for bed. But today, I took one of the girls to the shops and as her wheelchair is broken right now, she was using a manual wheelchair and I had to push her. I wasn't expecting quite so many looks. And so many people trying to tell me stories about people they knew with disabilities. People I wasn't even near to would just come up and start talking. It's all a bit interesting. Obviously I'm not criticising, goodness knows I'm a curious kind of kid. But I did feel a bit weird and uncomfortable. Not to mention, coordinating a wheelchair is frigging hard work. They are big machines and most shops do not have aisles of an adequate width. Kind of annoying, but c'est la vie! So that's what's on my mind!