BS: New Entertainment

Subject: BS: New Entertainment
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 12:44 AM

One of several articles (#3) at MSNBC Commentary by Brian Tracy

[quote]
Do roller coasters bore you? Well, a new theme park ride is giving thrill-seekers the ability to imitate desperate Mexicans trying to illegally cross the border to the U.S.
Visitors to the Parque EcoAlberto in the Mexican state of Hildalgo are put in the position of workers struggling to escape across the boundary between the two countries.

They must hike through dense brush, run down steep hills, swim across rivers, and slip under barbed-wire fences, according to the Ananova Web portal.

Also, they must stay out of the "crossfire" of watchful border guards during the four-hour nighttime ordeal.

Each visitor pays about $20 for the privilege at the theme park, which is actually about 700 miles from the U.S. border. More than 3,000 people have tried out the "ride" already.

Some groups have criticized the theme park for profiting the plight of those trying to escape to the U.S.

But Alfonso Martinez, who plays a people-smuggler in the game, was quoted as saying the mock-escapes "let people get a glimpse of the suffering that migrants endure."

[end quote]



And what about those Taliban training camps we keep trying to blow up? You mean they're just amusement parks?

John

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 06:11 AM

I'm a roller coaster fan but this idea does not appeal to me at all. I would find it a very stressful experience, certainly not anentertaining, relaxing or enjoyable experience. I wouldn't do it if it was free. I have quite a vivid imagination and feel that I probably can come close to imagining the suffering of migrants without this.

I'm sure the excitement will appeal to a lot of people but maybe they could have linked it to something else (like being chased by bandits or something) rather than the position of workers struggling to escape across the boundary between two countries.

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Peace
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 06:12 AM

Sounds like a new Blackwater a la Mexicana.

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 09:57 AM

I did something similar when I crawled the Infiltration Course in Basic Training: barbed wire, crawling over rocks and thorns and into holes, machine gun bullets overhead, explosions....

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:09 AM

The tear gas shack in Navy boot camp was enough "reality show" for me.
For the unfamiliar, we had to go in with masks on, then take off the masks and circle around in there for awhile before they let us out. I would rather do that again than trade experiences with Rapaire, though.       Dean

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:51 AM

Are you sure they are not in fact border-crossing training courses?

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: RangerSteve
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:48 PM

All of boot camp was enough for me, but I ended up on assigned to a destroyer, which was enough for me. Then there was the police academy. Now I'm retired, and I also wouldn't do the immigrant thing for free, or even if they paid me. The whole idea seems pretty tasteless.

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:57 PM

Yeah, I did the tear gas thing too. Chlorine also, only there you walked in unmasked and had to put it on.

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 11:10 PM

What El Grecko said...training course? Or a bunch of sick o people with too much money and time.

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Bert
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 12:38 AM

...Are you sure they are not in fact border-crossing training courses?..

I think that they get enough practise crossing the real border George. *GRIN*

Subject: RE: BS: New Entertainment
From: Peace
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 12:44 AM

"I did something similar when I crawled the Infiltration Course in Basic Training: barbed wire, crawling over rocks and thorns and into holes, machine gun bullets overhead, explosions...."

Deja vu all over again.