That's Either Lazy or Stupid

So we're all used to getting those emails from people purporting to be our bank (or some other bank that we might be a member of) telling us that we need to confirm our online account IDs, or install their security software. It's the laziest type of phishing scam, but I can see how some people might, conceivably, still fall for it. After all, we're used to getting random mail from our banks that doesn't make a great deal of sense.

Today I received an email from a new bank: the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America.

I don't know what's more depressing, the idea that someone actually thought that people would believe that they had an account at the Federal Reserve, or the fact that it implies that some people, somewhere, are foolish enough to actually believe that they have a Fed account. Either way I'm not starting this morning too optimistic about humanity.

WHUT

It's long been assumed that Americans had a strong lead on really weird reality television. I mean, think about it, we had shows where people basically got married because the producers decided to do so.

Well, it turns out we may be beat. Zambia also has a show where 18 women compete in order to win the prize of $9000 for their marriage. But the show has a twist, all the contestants are prostitutes recruited from the streets of Zambia. Apparently they get voted off by the viewers, one by one, until the last one gets the grand marital prize.

Now, I can see how this show claims to do some good. The losers get hefty consolation prizes, and everyone apparently gets personal counseling and vocational skill training. In theory all of them will be offered full-time jobs, and the show seems to indicate that their goal is to show that prostitution is not a glamorous business in Zambia.

But as Wronging Rights points out, there's something that just seems really wrong about this show (already in its third season). And I can't help but think that if you really wanted to help prostitutes out there had to be a better way then turn them into a spectacle on TV and making them engage in cooking and housekeeping competitions on a show with the cringe-inducing title Ready for Marriage. Isn't there some other way you can show how bad prostitution is in Zambia, and how the people who are trapped in that field are real people who are willing to fight their way out if just given the chance, without forcing them to go through housecleaning competitions? Why not show them learning skills, getting jobs, building careers, and starting businesses instead?

It seems that even in Zambia, the only way television will let prostitutes leave their job is through the altar or the grave.