Parting Shot: Is it ‘Survivor’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’?
People get mugged, robbed, have their peace destroyed by those never-ending park parties - while our version of getting through a test to earn immunity is dodging potholes in McKenzie Street.
A local sage, while carrying a 20-litre container of water he had fetched from a non-existent water tank, was heard muttering, “Living here is like playing ‘Survivor’ without the $1 million prize money at the end…”
With no water (noisy pumps, small reservoirs and too much rain); no electricity (no Eskom); no roads (no tar); no streetlights (no globes); and numerous other no’s, I am beginning to think that our local sage is onto something.
However, with this ‘Survivor’, people are actually clamouring to get voted off.
Not sure where they will go because, unlike the American version, our ‘Survivor’ does not have a comfy Holiday Inn just a stone’s throw away from the game.
Yes, just like the show, people are mean to each other.
People get mugged, robbed, have their peace destroyed by those never-ending park parties – while our version of getting through a test to earn immunity is dodging potholes in McKenzie Street.
But who is our version of Jeff Probst – the guy who is the host of the real show.
Jeff is a kind of smooth, smug fellow who can manipulate contestants as per the script.
We cannot say it’s the mayor, as that wouldn’t be really fair, as Jeff does not even have a bodyguard.
In any event, because there are no prizes in the Endumeni show, there is a school of thought that the name of the game should be changed to ‘Lord of the Flies’…
You know the one – the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by the rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands and value the good of the group; against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires and act violently to obtain supremacy.
Jeff, the tribe has voted. Goodbye.
