I came across this article on Reuters about a reality show in Mexico.
Four Mexican politicians completed a three-night stay in a spider- and scorpion-infested shack on Wednesday as part of a campaign to raise awareness about poverty dubbed
This would seem a great idea in India and something that would hit the roof with the ratings. I can see advertisers scrambling to sign up.
Who would you chose to be the four politicos….
My favorite would be Laloo Prasad Yadav, Jayalalitha, Amar Singh and Narendra Modi for season. Let me know yours.
Read on for the full story.
Politicians slum it on “Vile Brother”
Thu Aug 25, 2005 11:21 AM ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Four Mexican politicians completed a three-night stay in a spider- and scorpion-infested shack on Wednesday as part of a campaign to raise awareness about poverty dubbed “Vile Brother.”
In contrast to the typical house on the reality television show “Big Brother,” the shack was made of sticks, tin and plastic sacks, lacked a sewage system and had a dirt floor.
The group tore down the shack as they left, after buying a new concrete house for the seven-member family that had lived there, Mexican television news reported.
The family lived in the cramped shelter, located in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes, for five years, struggling to survive on $12 a day by selling doughnuts and washing buses.
“I’d just warn them to be careful of the animals. There are snakes, scorpions and spiders in here,” said Ursula Martinez, who used to live in the house, when the campaign started on Sunday.
The campaign by the politicians, all from Aguascalientes, was not a reality TV show. But it has been featured on television news programs throughout the week.
Just as in the show, the politicians, who have been joined by a trade union leader and a radio personality, had to complete various tasks, sell food on the streets like the family and survive off the income.
Some of the participants called for one houseguest, a legislator from Mexico’s ruling PAN party, to be evicted for not completing the tasks assigned to him.
“Vile Brother” was thought up by a popular Aguascalientes radio host angry that the state government builds houses for the poor that measure just 30 square meters (320 square feet).
He challenged the politicians to survive for a week in the same conditions as many of their constituents.
“We knew that poverty existed, but not like this,” trade union leader Alfredo Gonzalez, who joined the politicians in the house, told Mexican television.
Mexico has the highest living costs in Latin America, but more than half of its 105 million residents live on less than $10 a day.
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