Television Last Night

Two spectacular shows aired last night.

First, on a not so serious note... The West Wing on NBC

This fictional account of a presidency has been on the air for six years. The President, Jeb Bartlett, is on his way out of office, and that means an election is looming. Last night the show was a live television "Presidential Debate". The pretend Republican candidate Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) surprised the audience, along with his fictional Democratic rival, Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), by saying at the start of the show that their rules of the debate be thrown out.

"When the greatest hero in the history of my party, Abraham Lincoln, debated, he didn't need any rules, we could junk the rules." He said. His opponent agreed. It made for one of the best political debates ever televised.

Makes you wonder why the real candidates won't ever debate this way?

And the second show last night...

Much more real. CBC Newsworld aired the 2005 Best Documentary Feature winner Born Into Brothels. If you haven't seen it yet, find it and watch it. A graphic account of children living in one of the poorest areas of the world. Zana Briski is the woman who is teaching a photography course in the red-light district of Sonagchi, Calcutta to the children of the prostitutes and drug dealers who live and work there. She gives each of them a camera and an unlimited supply of film. Then after each roll she develops, they gather and discuss the photos.

The children have amazing insight into their situations. Kochi, one of the girls says to Zana "One has to accept life as painful and that's it." The photos that the children take are breathtaking. There are self portraits, shots of the neighborhood, and the people who live there. One of the most disturbing images (and there are indeed a few) was of a small boy, only 2 or 3 years old chained by his ankle to a steel bar. Why he was chained, and by whom, is never revealed.

Avajit, another one of the child photographers said it best : "People here live in Chaos"