One of the most memorable characters in Michael Crichton’s climate-thriller State of Fear is the pompous, egotistical actor-activist Ted Bradley. Bradley, who serves as both the avatar of Hollywood’s ignorant self-importance and as a foil for the book’s skeptic-heroes, comes to a hilariously bad end. As the crew are held captive by cannibals in New Guinea, Bradley insists that their peaceful village life is the acme of human contentment. He keeps insisting it, right up till the moment they club him over the head and butcher him.
But Ted Bradley’s fictional ignorance is as nothing compared to the dangerously blind foolishness of Western Pollyannas who insist that the world’s shitholes are just, like, misunderstood. Then come a cropper when they travel there to prove it.
Two Australians detained in a notorious Tehran prison have been identified as travel bloggers from Perth who were reportedly arrested for flying a drone without a licence.
Jolie King and Mark Firkin have been globetrotting since June 2017, and documenting their travels on Instagram and Youtube.
They started their blog to “inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad rap in the media”.
At least they’ve got off lightly, compared to poor Pippa Bracca. The Italian feminist and artist set off to hitch-hike through the Middle East in a wedding dress, “to give a message of peace and of trust”. Her naked, strangled and decomposing body was later found hidden in bushes near Istanbul.
Ms King was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained in hope of a prisoner swap, a source told The Times…Most recently the couple had posted videos of themselves driving the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.
…“We’ll be blogging the whole trip on YouTube, documenting through pics and blogs on here, Facey and our website,” they wrote on an Instagram post in April.
Will they be posting Instagram pics of the prison food, a breathless world wonders? How many stars will their Yelp review give Iran’s secret police?
A female academic who holds Australian and British citizenship is also being detained and has reportedly been sentenced to 10 years in prison for an unspecified offence.
Another woman, dual Australian-Iranian citizen and Melbourne University demographer Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, was arrested in Iran in December, charged with trying to “infiltrate” Iranian institutions.
theaustralian.com.au/world/aussie-bloggers-jolie-king-mark-firkin-detained-for-flying-drone
Gosh, it’s almost like these idiot bloggers should have known that Iran gets a “bad rap” for a reason.
The Australian government even has a whole website for this stuff:
Reconsider your need to travel to Iran due to the risk that foreigners, including Australians, could be arbitrarily detained or arrested. Dual nationals are also at risk. We can’t guarantee access to consular services or legal representation if you’re detained or arrested.
smartraveller.gov.au/Countries/middle-east/Pages/iran