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Jackie O

Ms. Frozen in the North and I enjoy two reality shows: The Amazing Race and Survivor, the first where contestant race around the world the other where they are left stranded on an Island, a-la-Robinson-Crusoe mold.

Last Sunday while watching the Amazing race the ignorance of the average American amazed both my wife and I, the contestants were given a picture of a women waving from an official car, and they had to figure out where this picture was taken. Immediately, my wife and I recognized Jackie Kennedy -- wife of JFK, but none of the contestants recognized her! Not one, not even the "old guy" on the show. The contestants were in Burma (there virtually every cab driver could identify Jackie and could also tell the hapless Americans that the picture was taken in front of a famous hotel in the capital).

Later on the contestants were told the head to the tallest building in the Persian Gulf, one contestant actually asked for a flight to a country called the "Persian Gulf", eventually everybody figured out that they needed to fly to Dubai. America is fighting two wars in the area, and whereas Afghanistan is rather far, Iraq actually has a small beachhead on the Persian Gulf and tried to create a bigger one by annexing Kuwait in the 90s.

Thinking about the entire episode I guess the educational system is to blame, there is no more room for general knowedge in the curriculum. The I realized that if the media are incompetent with regards to geography so should the population.

As an aside years ago we lived in Singapore, the city state is globaly considered #1 or #2 in education, a great point of pride for the the country. The local TV station introduced a local version of Who wants to be a millionaire, but clearly little vetting had been done of the contestants, who not only were cloths challenged (some men were wearing singlet vests..) but when asked the most mindless general knowledge questions were unable to answer. One even called a friend who was categoric that a large ice and snow formation in the water was a glacier and not an Iceberg.

My point, even in advance education systems there is no room left for general knowledge, if I cannot make money from it, there is no need to know it. As an undergrad student I was always surprised when a fellow student would ask from the professor: Will this be in the Test? As if this information could not be of any other use in the future. Thankfully most teachers reply was a stern direct look at the student and a silence -- still there was always one or two who would ask!

P.S. After two embarrassing airings, the Singapore version of Who wants to be a millionaire was put on hiatus and a new version was shot where better contestant vetting was done.


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