Oscar Controversy - What A Joke

Irina Sendler

What a joke, all this hoohaw about the lack of diversity at the Oscars. What a pathetic joke. It would matter if the Oscars meant anything, but they don’t. Well they do. They achieve their purpose magnificently: It’s called the Oscar Bump.

The Oscar Bump is the significant box-office surge that nominees earn by being nominated. The Bump for winners is even larger. But if you believe that the awards have anything to do with excellence, you are a fool.

Studios launch massive and expensive campaigns to influence voters. The Oscars have nothing to do with excellence. They are the product of producers, not actors; the lack of diversity is not worth protesting. Most awards are stupid — even the Nobels.

In 2007 two nominees for the Peace Prize were Al Bore Gore and Irina Sendler. You probably know who Al Bore Gore is, but you may not be familiar with the story of Irina Sendler.

Irina was a Polish nurse who obtained permission from the occupying Nazi forces to work on plumbing and sewer problems in Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto. For her work, she needed a large toolbox. She used her toolbox to smuggle Jewish infants to freedom. She put larger children into a burlap sack in the back of her truck.

Irina had a pet dog that was always with her. She taught him to bark at the uniforms  of the soldiers so that they would not look to carefully at the truck and so that the barking would cover any sound made by the children or babies.

Irina kept a record of all the kids she smuggled out. She kept the list in a jar that she buried in her yard. She kept the list so that after the war she could help her wards find any parents who survived.

Irina saved 2,500 babies and children. Irina saved almost as many people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks in the USA in 2001. The enormously privileged Al Bore Gore made a movie about global warming.  Can you guess who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize?

Every year, I love to watch the Oscars. But do I think it is about excellence? Not on your life.