Ordinary Gweilo

On Sky News tonight they seem to have replaced the news bulletins with wall-to-wall coverage of a rich old woman walking around Windsor and being given flowers.  Apparently she got 20,000 birthday cards and 17,000 emails (unfortunately 16,999 of them were actually offers of V/I/A/G/R/A from the likes of Osvaldo Blackmon and Mireria Goggin).  What I want to know is how the reporters can keep a straight face whilst talking so seriously about something that is so totally inconsequential.

I suppose Thursday’s meeting at the White House was slightly more important, but not all that much so.  At least Hu Jintao managed to stand looking dignified whilst Bush gave his speech, but when it was turn to speak, Bush did his usual act of looking bored and/or smirking.  ATV News provided what I was told was a bumbling attempt at simultaneous translation into Cantonese, thus preventing the audience from hearing the official English and Putonghua versions – which surely would have been good enough for 95% of the population (though apparently the official Putonghua translation of whatever nonsense Bush was talking was not all that good).