Novelty Items

The new millennium brought with it a new type of prison that proved so popular across the globe that people enter of their own volition despite the strict rules that apply. No contact is allowed with the outside world. Neither newspapers nor television, radio and Internet access is permitted. The inmates are forbidden from exiting the house while their lives are filmed and broadcast to the world. The aim of the game, for this is a game, (or rather a game show), is to be the last person remaining in the prison (sorry, house) where the inmates (sorry, contestants) are locked up. And why do people do this? Because sacrificing privacy and freedom gives you a chance to win a princely sum of money. For those who fail, there are various booby prizes – a lucrative tell-all book deal or advertising contract or, at least, fifteen minutes of fame.
Unless you've been as shut off from the world as the contestants in this game (Big Brother for those who haven't guessed), this phenomenon cannot have escaped your notice. We, the general public at large, are the audience to this real-life soap opera and we hold the contestants' fate in our hands. We can vote on who should be evicted and who should remain. Open a newspaper and you will be confronted with details of various people and this – spending our leisure observing the mundane daily activities of a group of strangers – would seem to be the height of entertainment.
As you sit watching Big Brother, do be aware that Big Brother may also be watching you. Your employer is legally entitled to read your supposedly private e-mails. Your weekend visit to the cinema or shopping mall is probably being recorded on closed circuit television. Even in the supposed privacy of your own home, you are not necessarily safe from a Peeping Tom. Thanks to new technology, now you can even subscribe to a personal satellite system that will enable you to spy on whomsoever you choose. From the privacy of your own home, you can have an eagle-eye view of your next-door neighbours or a basketball game half way across the world.
So, in this age of 24/7 surveillance, we should envy the humble Ethiopian hedgehog who has his own minute of fame at the Dubai Museum. Sixty seconds of footage show him scurrying hither and thither on remarkably long legs in a vain attempt to avoid the prying camera. At last, realising that he cannot outrun his persecutor, he comes to a standstill and drops his face flat to the ground. His fat neck (reminiscent of Mike Tyson) slowly rolls down to cover his head completely as he huddles into a prickly ball and then there is nothing more to see. That's it folks! The show is over. And, what can the camera do but stop filming, leaving the hedgehog to thank his lucky stars that evolution blessed him with the ability to defend his privacy at any time from intrusive eyes.