The inane party planner

At present I am travelling, having been to Victoria on Vancouver Island and now in Vancouver. Both places are wonderful and it is not often I visit cities where I can envision myself living without having to give up the sense of security that I associate with my home base of Iceland.


Often in hotel rooms I watch TV - something that I do not do much of at home. This time around I was unlucky enough to see a program called the Party Planner which was appalling on so many levels that I need to vent. IT was one of those reality programs, revolving around parties being planned for the very rich - and very stupid.

I only managed to watch two parties, I could take no more. One was a birthday celebration for a five year old girl where the main event of the party involved giving the little guests attending pedicures and manicures. There is something so wrong about small girls undergoing something so ridiculous as entertainment, as wrong was a big hoopla involving a Santa Clause that refused to wear a pink Santa suit to match the party's theme colour and stamping out. It was supposed to be dramatic and shocking - dear god! What will the party planner do now? Instead it was simply pathetic.

The second party was worse than the first because then you could see what happens to little girls that get pedicures and manicures at five and argue with Santa Clause about the colour of his suit. It was again a birthday party but now for a sixteen year old girl that was so spoiled rotten that she had begun to ferment. The party theme was Eurotrash - something that coming from Europe I had a hard time connecting with as it seemed to involve hiring transvestites and next to naked trapese artist to entertain. The girl was interviewed and she told the world boldly that she her only craft was shopping and that her best friend was her credit card. She proudly added that there was no limit on the card.

This poor girl's idiotic parents bought her a racehorse for her birthday. This was the drama of this particular party as it was A) unclear if the horse could be transported to the party in time and B) the girl wanted a Mercedes Benz as a present despite not having a driver's licence, something that had not stopped her parents from already have given her an Audi which she hated. The race horse was said to cost over five times more than a new Benz but no one seemed fazed over this.

The highlight of this Eurotrash party was when the twohundred or so teenaged guests invited were all paraded out of the party to see birthday girl receive her present. For me this was the lowest point of a show already scraping the very bottom. Why would anyone want to force other children that probably did not come from the same wealth to watch such an exaggerated gift giving moment is to me completely inexplicable. But what I really wanted to know was how did these idiots become wealthy? It cannpot have been because of any samrts. Did they win the lottery?

But there were other things on the TV that had more merit. I saw a documentary about Marion Jones, the track and field star that fell from grace. Now that is a remarkable woman, rising up to the very top, falling down and yet keeping her spirit intact. The program left me with a feeling of sadness, of greatness being purposely marred in a vindictive way. None of the sportsmen who did exactly what she did and lied to the same committee that she did were ever made pay or saw the inside of any jail cell - as she did.

Completely unfair - as is the distribution of wealth in the world.

Yrsa - Wednesday