Wondertrash®

It seems that there's fresh scandal involving the Oprah Winfrey Academy for Leadership in Johannesburg South Africa. Oprah's pet project, called the "Dream School" made headlines last year with allegations of sexual abuse. It seems a middle aged matron was getting friendly with some of the girls (you see it's not just a Catholic problem!). One girl was expelled in a cover up. The gutter press, ie. the National Enquirer caught wind of it, and soon Oprah was in full image repair mode, and on her way to South Africa. Well it seems as if Oprah may need to make another booking with her travel agent!

This time the problem is a rash of suicide attempts. Not to blow the situation out of proportion, there have only been three suicide attempts. One girl attempted to jump off of a building, while another tried to cut her wrists. Oprah's reps insist that the talk show maven is not to blame, at least in the case of the cutter. That girl started going mental shortly after she enrolled, and Oprah can hardly be blamed for that, can she? In any case, that girl has escaped the Dream School, and is now back with her parents. That was after a trip to Johannesburg's Tara Hospital, where she was diagnosed with epilepsy - normally not directly associated with suicidal tendencies.

The girl's unsuccessful suicide attempt did bring to light two other cases, which were previously being kept secret. The secrecy stemmed from the school's strict privacy laws. Whether these laws are to protect the students, or Ms Winfrey from bad publicity is uncertain. Nobody blames Oprah, openly, but the fact that this needs to be stated means that Winfrey is already starting to look bad. It's also important to note that Ms Winfrey started the Dream Academy with only the best of intentions. Plunking down $40 million was probably the only way she was ever going to get a school named after her.

The school has an enrollment of about 152, give or take a few discharged for 'freakouts' - at least 3 or 4 that we know of. It's still not certain to what extent the school's privacy policy has shielded Oprah from bad press. Still 3 attempted suicides and a sex abuse case are bad enough, giving the school a 5% 'problem rate'. It seems that the girls were unprepared to dream big American Style. Oprah's attempt to inflict the American Dream to South Africa is working out about as well as George Bush's attempt to inflict democracy on Iraq. Still, Oprah's was a mistake that any true believing American might have made. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Montreal is still recovering from their hockey team's advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs. After the Habs beat the Bruins, it seems that the old town went wild. Their were reports of people setting fire to police cars, wanton vandalism, and general mayhem. News reports referred to smoke rising from the city.

I can't help thinking that destroying your own city is a strange way to celebrate. What is the idea behind it: "We've knocked our home town flatter than Baghdad. That'll show you, Boston!"? It's hard to say which side is better off: the winners or the losers. Then again sports fandom, like human emotion, can be highly illogical. I will say this: I don't think that Montreal could survive a Stanley Cup win. Not without Prime Minister Steven Harper on stand by to declare a state of emergency anyway.

If you must hold on to your dreams, then don't let the stars get in your eyes.

Wondertrash thoughts of the day:

You can come up with 1000 reason why you were right, but you still have to live with the consequences.

Violence is an attempt to establish identity; the weaker the identity, the greater the tendency to violence.

Movies are 'canned drama'.

Politics is the art of the possible, and art is whatever you can get away with!

Wondertrash quote of the day:

Don't do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Their tastes may be different.
- George Bernard Shaw

When Oprah opened her Dream School, she was trying to give others what she wanted for herself, the American Dream. The proof of the pudding indicates that she wasn't aware or concerned with what the students themselves might need. In fact I'm reminded, though this is on a much smaller scale, of the North American residential schools. Well meaning missionaries tried to inflict their ideas and goals on the native population. They believed that they were doing the right thing, but the result was alcoholism, sex abuse, and mental illness. We were sharing Christianity with our Red brothers, although we had carefully extracted the Gospel from it first.

The fact that Oprah tried to inflict the American Dream on South African school girls, with seemingly tragic results, indicates to what extent Afro Americans have been assimilated by white middle class America. They've bought into the dream, they just haven't been fully accepted by it. Meanwhile the Big Mac cultural imperative (ours is a peaceful mission) continues on it's juggernaut path. Perhaps Ms Winfrey should have remembered the Prime Directive.

Wondertrash entertainment trivia:

In an interview with Gene Roddenberry in a 1991 edition of 'The Humanist' magazine, he implied that Starfleet General Order No 1 had its roots in his belief that Christian Missionaries were interfering with other cultures. In fact it could be said that missionaries were actually practicing 'cultural indoctrination', rather than spreading the Christian Gospel.