THE GOSSIPY SIDE OF WORLD POLITICS
One Big Soap Opera: An Appreciation for the Gossipy Side of World Politics
By Jayran Mansouri 
World politics. For my friends, the mere mention of the word conjures up images of old people sitting around an official-looking table with pieces of paper, discussing completely random things in what seems to be a foreign language.
As a 13-year-old politics enthusiast, I feel the need to explain what draws my interest to what at first glance seems like the reserve of important-looking geriatrics.
Whenever people ask me what I find so interesting about politics, I have to say, “It’s like one big soap opera”
Politics is, indeed, “The science of government; that part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace, and prosperity, the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals”, (Online Dictionary) but it is also rife with scandals, rumors, rivalry and the whole “who said what to who about whom” element that lends it to the drama reminiscent of a soap opera.
Take, for instance, US President George W Bush’s recent use of the ‘S-Word’ at a private luncheon. “See the irony is that what they [the United Nations need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (s-word) and it’s over,” Bush said to Tony Blair. What he didn’t know was that the microphone was on, and everything he said could be picked up. I might also add he was chewing in a most unbecoming manner.
Or what about Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who is currently in hospital after contracting a tropical disease in Malaysia while at the ASEAN Regional Forum?
Or the infamous “Dick Cheney Hunting Incident”? US Vice President Dick Cheney was out hunting for quails with Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old lawyer, when he accidentally shot Whittington! Since then, people have speculated on whether or not it was really an accident.
Was George Bush really democratically elected? Why did Winston Peters re-ignite the controversy of his trip to Washington, ignoring Helen Clark’s call for him to end his media feud? And who will be the next nuclear state? These questions constitute political folklore.
My point is, once you get past the whole boring-old-people-discussing-boring-old-things idea, politics has a gossipy, soap opera element that endears it to so many young people like myself.
