Last night CNN brought the good, the bad and the ugly right
into my home. The good was the result of Iran’s elections.
After too many years
of Ahmadinejad’s narcissistic extremism that ostracised Iran from the rest of
the world and destroyed the economy, the Iranians have finally been allowed to
have enough of a voice to elect a moderate.
And that’s what they did. There was
a lot scepticism prior to the Ayatollah’s Khomeni’s selection that there would
even be a moderate to vote for but that scepticism proved ill-founded.
Hassan Rouhani looks and speaks like a reasonable man.
Granted it’s two months before he takes office, and it remains to be seen
whether he’s allowed to do what he wants, but he has said that the days of
extremism are over. That he wants to forge a relationship with the US and the
west. The west, of course, is going to have to come to the party as well.
His requirements are that the US will not interfere in
domestic policy and that Iran will have its nuclear program. The US will
probably require total transparency regarding that. Personally, I warmed to Rouhani.
I’m tired of western media’s portrayal of Iran as the embodiment of all that’s
evil. It’s not. It’s a country with ordinary human beings who clearly aren’t
extremists and who deserve the right to forge their own destiny. I think it’s
kind of ironic that they have voted a moderate in while in the US conservatives
still control Congress and hinder true progress for that country.
Moving on, CNN’s bad was also kind of funny. Turns out the
British government spied on the G20 in 2009. Or the Guardian alleges they did. Bit
embarrassing for the British hosts this time round.
The ugly was a picture of Nigella Lawson and her husband in
a restaurant, he with his hand around her throat, his thumb pressing into her
neck. Another shot was shown of her outside the restaurant on her own, in huge
distress. As if that wasn’t enough, the bastard put out a press release saying
he wasn’t being violent; he just had his hand round her neck while they argued
about the children. As if it’s normal to partially choke somebody while you
argue. He added that she wasn’t upset afterwards because he’d hurt her, but just because they hate it
when they argue.
Well I bet she hates it. I wonder what’s been going on up
until this point. Nobody gets to that level of abuse in one leap. Why didn’t
she kick him in the shins, call out for help, scream? That she didn’t, says
more about him than anything.
He’s a pig and deserves whatever is coming to him. The
whole situation is horrendous and shocking. Not just because of his actions in
the restaurant but because we’ve believed a lie. Here we have another beautiful
woman who’s seemed like such a great role model. She’s consciously created a universally
appealing image from which she’s garnered fame and fortune. It hasn’t all been
about food. Part of it has been that she’s an independent and spirited woman
who has made a life for herself. But it’s been underpinned by being married to
an abuser. That part leaves me feeling betrayed.
Who knows when the abuse started. If she’d been able to be
truthful from the start, would she still be so famous? It’s hard to say. Can
you imagine her speaking passionately about being trapped in a marriage of
abuse, crying, angrily slamming things down, but still creating marvellous
dishes? Getting help, walking away with her children. Now that’s real role
modelling. What immense courage that would have taken, though.
