I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it seems to me a strange anomaly that by far the majority of the rich and famous are, by the nature of their "jobs", unnecessary. Actors, film stars, footballers...we don't actually need any of them. I enjoy the theatre, but I don't really need it. But we all need, for example doctors. Which brings me to the point of the post
I know (or have met. He is better known to members of my family) a doctor. He is in his early seventies, and worked all his life tirelessly for the health service, refusing to take private patients. Now, in his retirement, he is in Africa, caring for Ebola patients. I can't mention his name, but in any case, you almost certainly haven't heard of him. But isn't he the kind of person we all should know about?
I've been thinking about him particularly recently. He's the kind of person our kids should emulate; he's one of the real heroes. But I'm sure he'd hate ay kind of celebrity status, even if he were given it. Such is the nature of the man.
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Some people simply do good, knowing that it is the right thing to do. They ask no reward or fame, knowing that others have benefitted from their actions. Others, however, search for wealth and fame simply because that is what is important to them. One lot deserves our respect, the others NOT.
ReplyDeleteMy point exactly, Cro.
DeleteHe is to be admired. It is people like him who should receive honours.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally they do, Adrian, if enough people campaign.,otherwise they seem to go unnoticed.
DeleteYou are right, this man is a real hero. A friend of my husband used to work as a civil servant for many years but was never happy at this job. He really, really wanted to take care of people. So, after his divorce came through, he found it was time to completely change his life. He went to Hallam University in Sheffield and became a qualified nurse. He does all the things I'd never be able to (nor want to) do with/for people; you are a nurse as well and know what I mean. Nurses and doctors, yes, these are true heroes for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you agree, Meike.
DeleteHe certainly sounds like a real hero, Frances, working away quietly for the sake of others. And while I agree that arts people are not 'heroic' as such, I do think film, art, music and writing etc have a very important part to play in people's well being. Even footballers must bring huge pleasure to many people (although not to me!) as do lots of sports men and women. But I do take your point.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the arts, Rosemary, it just seems that somehow we've got things wrong.
DeleteI do agree with you, but the celebrity status of actors, footballers, singers etc doesn't really bother me. These people have some kind of talent and have to put in some kind of effort to earn their rewards (although often the two are very dosproportinate). The people we, or at least I, could most easily do without are those who're famous just for being famous, or for sleeping with someone famous.
ReplyDeleteThey're certainly the worst, Patsy. I've just discovered that the I'm a celebrity people are paid £120,000. And most are people I've never heard of.
DeleteOn the other hand I've just seen the new band aid song organised by Bob Geldof on Simon Cowell's X-Factor live show. They are raising money for the Ebola crisis. That has to be good.
ReplyDeleteIt is good. There's no denying it
Delete"But isn't he the kind of person we all should know about?"
ReplyDeleteThat's precisely the dilemma - how can we be enabled to know about him without thereby turning him into some kind of 'celebrity'?
It's a tricky one, Tim. I don't have the answer.
DeleteJust spotted on BBC1 tonight at 10.35. Ebola Frontline - Panorama showing the work of a British born doctor Javid Abdelmoneim at the Ebola treatment centre in Sierrra Leone. People like this are the real celebrities.
ReplyDeleteMost actors and footballers who are famous have become so because they are skilled at what they do. Without cinema, sport, music, art etc the world would be a very sad, dull place. These people probably didn't choose to become celebrities and I wouldn't want to begrudge them. Like Patsy, though, the people who have become famous through reality TV etc or are hangers on of others with talent are the people I would not want my children/grandchildren to emulate.
ReplyDeleteWendy, I totally agree with what you say, and have no objection to high-achievers in any field receiving due praise. It's just that in certain areas of life, outstanding acheivers seem to pass unnoticed; and they are so often those without whom we really couldn't live as well or as healthily as we do. Sadly, it's the so-called celebrities whom the kids now want to emulate. One small grandson, whose parents are both doctors, wants to be "a professoinal footballer or a hedge fund manager" (not that the latter willl ever feature in Hello magazine)!
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