By Debbie Schlussel
“Big Brother,” the moronic reality show about several boring, annoying people in a house, doesn’t usually merit a mention–especially by me. The most momentous event was when the U.S. version of the show (now boring America for a sixth season of zero ratings on CBS) chose a right-hand man to late Farrakhanite Khalid Abdul Muhammad as a participant in its first season.
But the Dutch version of “Big Brother” is interesting for one reason, and one reason only. A pregnant participant on the show has sparked the concern of the real “Big Brother”–the hypocritical Dutch government. The Netherlands–which is too laissez-faire on the four Ps (pot, pornography, pregnancy/abortion, and prostitution) and assisted suicide–is too intrusive here. The Dutch Social Affairs ministry will decide, this week, whether to grant a work permit for the yet unborn child of “Tanja”–to allow her to have her baby on the show. The Dutch government doesn’t care, though, that Tanja smokes cigarettes while pregnant.
With all of the people being euthanized in the Netherlands and all of the other problems the country has, it is worried about whether to let a woman have her own baby appear on a dumb reality show. And it–government–gets to decide, not the mother of the child. Yet another reason why government–even in the Netherlands–is the real “Big Brother.”