Watching the English tv show, Yes, Prime Minister, filmed in 1986, I cannot stop seeing connections with nowadays politics and world events. In the last episode I’ve seen, a British nurse was arrested in Qumran for possession of a bottle of whisky. On the very same week it was news in Spain that two Spaniards had been arrested “accused of making homosexual advances to taxi drivers“. Last time I was in Spain, we were not that stupid… Anyway, according to the Gambian president they would have got their head cut off!!! The fictional nurse would have only got imprisoned for ten years and forty lashes.
This time, Spanish ministers started diplomatic talks to get them released, and luckily they were succesful. I can just wonder what would have happen if Gambia happened to have oil to distribute as in the case of fictional country Qumran.
These thoughts and the news of Saudi crown prince visiting Spain brought me some more connections with the past. Kapuściński’s Shah of Shahs narrates the events surrounding the history of the last Shah of Iran. It tells how the rise of oil prices back then made of the Shah’s living room one important place to visit for Western governors. At that time, no one cared about the state of human rights in Iran, as long as oil was flowing in the right direction. Today … history repeats.