Banished

I have just watched Banished: the Taliban's War on Women. You can track it down on Sky - if you feel in need of some serious and sobering television, I recommend that you do so.

Journalist Alex Crawford returns to Afghanistan five years after the Taliban's return to power. The hideous abuse of womankind is highlighted. Nor does the documentary try to gloss over the ruinous anti-Western legacy of the American-led War on Terror. One moment stood out for me. Crawford explained how difficult it had been to get a visa to go to Afghanistan and compared this to the ease with which online influencers are issued permits. The deal appears to be that the influencers (it is so tempting to put speech marks around that word, but, what the hell, we're stuck with the modern meaning) are encouraged to report what a happy place Afghanistan is to visit - 'The things Western mainstream media don't want you to see'. Crawford politely confronts an American  travel vlogger and when asked if he thinks it seemly to be putting a cheery spin on the country, the vacuous twat actually says he thinks it important to inject a little levity into his reports. Crawford is properly gobsmacked by this disingenuous horse shit but keeps her calm. Personally I would have hit the bastard.