I can honestly say I've watched a few minutes of that popular soap the Young and the Restless – and I hated it. Personally, I can’t get into the slow pace, back and forth bickering and a never-ending story. The continuous dialogue between the characters on top of the terrible acting has kept me away from television soaps. They're too unreal for my liking. Au contraire, I do enjoy following the news. To me the news is a form of soaps, but realistic to the bone. I call it "real life soap".
I was off work the entire week, a short break that I enjoyed very much. I had just completed the winter semester in school hence I was looking forward to kicking back and taking it easy. When I wasn't sleeping, I made use of my Netflicks account. (The selection sucks in Canada) I have a high regard for French cinema, thrillers, drama, or action. I recommend that you Google Luc Besson, and you can thank me later. When I wasn’t watching movies I was streaming live news broadcast from AL Jazeera. On May 9th, it felt as if I was watching soap while following the news. The news made for great entertainment, cheers to the U.S., Pakistan, and India.
The story line goes a little like this: On May 1st, the U.S. president addressed the nation and confirmed that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed by U.S. Special Forces, in Pakistan (If you haven't heard the news now you know). I was fascinated by this piece of information so I dogged deeper. Understand this; Osama's hideout was a 1 million dollars compound located in Abbottabad. “Abbottabad is home to three Pakistan army regiments and thousands of military personnel and is dotted with military buildings. BBC News described the army site as the country's equivalent to West Point”. To add to the drama, the U.S. government has dispensed billions of dollars in aid to the Pakistani government to fight terrorism. How could the most wanted man on the face of the planet
get under their nose? Was Pakistan aware of Bin Laden's hiding place? As the entire world scrutinized Pakistan, India seized the opening to throw jabs at their neighbour. Here’s an excerpt from an article.
"India, too, has said that Osama's presence in Pakistan showed that Pakistan provided shelter to terrorists. India has been saying for a long time that terrorists who cause problems for India are easily able to take shelter in Pakistan. Pakistan of course, has always denied (said no) to this, but with Osama being discovered so close to its capital city, it will be hard for Pakistan to convince other countries that it has done no wrong." This right here is a classic case of kicking someone when they're down. You know that saying: “politics as usual"?
The best is yet to come, I kept telling myself. At this point, the drama was great but I was still anticipating Pakistan’s reaction to the finding of Bin Laden in their backyard. What happened next didn’t disappoint. Pakistan denied the allegations without taking any kind of responsibility. Did the world expect the Pakistani government to come out and blatantly say: “yes we hid Osama, he’s been living here for the past 6 years?” of course not, I didn’t expect it. The PM’s rhetoric made me laugh a little; now I really couldn’t take him seriously. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his first address stated: "It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or state institutions of Pakistan,
including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in cahoots with al-Qaida,". You know what PM Yousuf Raza? Time will tell, and I cannot wait to see how it ends.
I am still not quite ready to watch daytime soap operas i.e. Days of our Lives. However I’ve found a great alternative in the news. They offer the same elements: drama, terrible acting, but at least its real life.
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