New Acquisition

p31_x_en918_x_large, originally uploaded by Bella the Cat.

Naomi

It is over
She is finished
She has gone, gone, gone
And now she is one
We pour scorn upon
Once we adored her
Now we abhor her
There is nothing left
When beauty fades
She is degenerating
We are regenerating
We tore off her disguise
And, like vultures,
We gorge on her demise.

Will Somebody Please Get Me Out of This Rabbit Hole?

And this one, I think, will run and run. The Jade Goody/Big Brother story is still occupying column inches, still causing mass hysteria. Ms. Shetty is being interviewed around the clock and people are still comparing her favourably to Ms. Goody. Much has been made of Jade Goody's lack of intellectual prowess in comparison with that of the 'college educated' Ms. Shetty. Apparently she has appeared in fifty Bollywood films and speaks ten languages. Which begs the question: why on earth was she appearing on Big Brother at all. The programme is named after the manipulative, omnipotent dictator of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I'm surprised Ms. Shetty was unaware of this. Big Brother is also renowned for the bullying and vulgarity of many of its housemates. Surely Ms. Shetty viewed footage of past shows before she agreed to compete.

Media luminaries are lining up to inform Ms. Goody that she is not exactly the brightest star in the sky. Well, guess what, people, Ms. Shetty sounds as though she has had a better education than Ms. Goody because she has. There is a deeper issue here, one that the media is steadfastly refusing to confront. Is is right to gloat over the fact that a damaged young woman has been so poorly served by our education system?

I don't adhere to the concept of collective guilt so I don't believe Ms. Goody's conduct represents me. It has been suggested that we, as a nation, should be ashamed and embarrassed by Ms. Goody's behaviour. I disagree. Any embarrassment we feel should not be a result of what happened in the Big Brother House but by the way in which a minority of the population reacted: screaming for lynch mob 'justice' (an oxymoron if ever there was one) whilst being cheered on from the sidelines by our so-called intelligentsia. I'm surprised I didn't hear calls of 'Burn the witches.' Now, where is Matthew Hopkins when you need him?

I am the Witch

I am the witch
You all want to burn
For it is in me
You see your impurity
I am the mirror
That reflects you
You smash me to pieces
Into inconsequential parts
You tell me I have no soul
You tell me I have no heart

Once the stars were just eyes
Blinking in the blackest of skies
I revered those magnificent
Celestial bodies. Their positions fixed
So rigidly and, like the magpie
I was drawn to glittering things
They gazed upon me so smugly
Yet still I yearned to be
One of them, part of that posse
Partying up there in space

Among those two-dimensional
Paper-thin women, sneering
Rouged lips curving upwards
Dressed in fox-fur stoles
And silently, they mocked me
Until earthly gurus transformed me
Into a most alluring commodity
I became a supernova, untouchable
Slaying those silver stars
I became one of the higher angels

But I was only a puppet
They tugged on my strings
I did not feel those threads unravelling
Until I was falling, falling
This was my spectacular death
'The Diva is dead,' they said
As they danced on my remains
The hierarchy reasserts itself
'We nuked her. Didn't we, didn't we?
She is gone, Hasn't she, hasn't she?

I did not ask for this
But once I had it I could not
Relinquish it. I am their enemy
And they annihilate me
But I only played the role
Assigned to me. I am lost
Devoid of energy. I am eclipsed
I cannot recreate myself
They strip me of the skin I'm in
And I am truly untouchable now.