Wed, 04 May 2011 2:04p.m.
With the NZ International Comedy Festival up and running, I’m in my usual place of trying to keep my show topical without sacrificing the overall flow of it, and can I allow myself a small gripe here, the news cycle isn’t making it easy.
First it was ACT and Hone, all falling over themselves to grab headlines in the week leading up to my opening night, then I have one night off and the US finally catches up with Bin Laden, and now a tornado? Give me a break, there’s only so much re-writing I can do!
The Bin Laden story has been a windfall, though. In the juxtaposition of the dignity, quiet sense of achievement and, yes, pride that came through in President Obama’s press statement, and the immediate sheer crass American-ness of the impromptu street parties which followed it we saw the two sides to the coin of patriotism.
There is something appalling about celebrating a violent death as if it were an overtime sporting win, even when the death in question is that of an equally appalling individual. The scenes were reminiscent of those in the Middle East which caused such understandable outrage, when certain groups celebrated on 9/11.
And really, when the world’s most advanced military intelligence apparatus takes nearly a decade to track down the most recognizable face on the planet, it’s not quite what I’d consider an achievement worth partying over.
As with any big night, though, you always have to face the hangover in the light of the morning. The faked death mask photo that circulated widely on TV and the web, the questions around the hasty burial at sea and the constant murmurings of conspiracy theorists are just the tip of the iceberg; more serious concerns are, and should be, being raised about possible retaliation and who knew what, when. Bin Laden’s death does not mark the end of the War on Terror, just as 9/11 did not mark the start of it, but those two events do bookend a particular chapter in world history.
Perhaps now, we can move on in some ways? Perhaps now that the single man who shouldered so much of the blame for what is, in reality, a much wider, deeper issue has been removed from the equation, the world in general and the US in particular might be able to take a harder, more balanced look at the causes and effects of terrorism and our response to it.
Jeremy Elwood’s new standup show (Un)Common Sense is on in Auckland and Wellington this month as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival.