Cultural+Factors

From: Kati Morris, Gateway Charter High School I'm an avid fan of the show in this email's title. So far, two of the shows this season would be wonderful to show in part during an APES class. The first is on Haiti. Along with the cuisine, Mr. Bourdain tours the city and is affected by the extreme conditions there. He tries to help a little by paying for everyone's food at a local eatery, only to have it overrun with desperate, hungry folks. Tonight's show is in Nicaragua. There is five full minutes of footage of the trashpickers converging on a garbage truck dumping its load in an open landfill. The pickers, from ages three to adult, are shown finding clothes to wear, eating the food they just scavenged, and playing with empty plastic beverage bottles. I'm still watching, so I cannot comment on the entire content of the show, but this footage was pretty powerful. Be warned - Mr. Bourdain is a salty dog with his language. It's bleeped, but it's not hard to read his lips. However, the footage that he takes of the country he visits, wherever he's gone (everywhere from Vietnam to Saudi Arabia) lets you see the "real" country. What can I say, I love it. If you're interested, you can **find his entire catalog of episodes, including this season's Haiti show, on iTunes**.
 * Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations**