The World is watching us

It is a little unsettling to be sitting in the house of a Malawian Pastor while an American courtroom show is on in the background.  CNN, I get.  MTV, I get.  But Judge Joe Brown?!

The eyes of the World are on us.  News of the BP oil spill and the Russian spies are readily available in Malawi.  Many of the homes I was in had news feeds from CNN and the BBC.

Africans are acutely aware of the sporting landscape as well.  Wimbledon, Tour de France; yes they are watching those. But soccer reigns supreme and they follow the Premiership with fervor.  They know what club team every World Cup players plays for and they have strong opinions on the new Liverpool coaching hire. 

You can get an idea of how risqué Vixens is

And then there is MTV, VH1, and E; and I wince.  It is strange to be sitting in a home that suffers from frequent power outages while Malawians watch the Hollywood lifestyle of the Khardacians or the sickening South African show "Vixens".  All these types of shows are so popular here.  As I watch them, I feel the need to qualify that most of America is not like this.  My hometown of Inverness, FL is just as foreign to Orange County.  Why must they see this?

Yes, the World is watching us.  And what do they see?  They see the U.S. financial reform debate and they know the latest American unemployment report.  They see Eclipse and the lastest Gaga video.  This is why people either love or hate us.  Yet it is such a skewed picture of us; I wish we could show them more of what they can't see.