Sir Edmund Hillary

Welcome back to the blog for 2008.

Today Sir Edmund Hillary died aged 88. It was in 1953 that he and Sherpa Tenzing scaled Mt Everest. That got me thinking. How often have we seen Sir Ed on the TV in the past 50 years?

Not being 50 I can’t speak for earlier times but it seems to me that we have seen him often in the last 20 years that I remember. He like many other high-profile New Zealanders is often asked for his opinion on a variety of issues in NZ.

Have you ever wondered whether they have any expertise in the areas they are being asked about?

Have you noticed that as soon as someone ‘makes it’ in one area of life that they are miraculously elevated to the rank of expert commentator in all areas of life.

I suspect that tonight on the news we will be subjected to a plethora of NZ celebrities talking about Sir Ed and how he was such a great bloke. Now I don’t have an issue with them saying that but I wonder if they knew him anymore than you or I may have.

The American election is a great example of this phenomenon with high profile celebrities lining up on either side of the political divide to support their chosen candidate – suddenly they have become experts on economic policy and foreign relations!

I guess the more worrying thing is that we as the viewer don’t even stop to question whether or not Richie McCaw is the most qualified person to speak about global warming; we just take their word as gospel.

I remember as a 15 year old being asked by the local paper whether or not I thought the drivers of Thames would cope with the new (and first) roundabout that had been put in. Being opinionated I gave my views which were duly published in the next day’s edition. Of course no one stopped to ask me whether I even had a car (which I didn’t) or even if I knew how roundabouts worked.

I wonder how many ‘celebrities’ will look back at the things they said and realised they were little more than uneducated soundbites made for tv viewing and wish they had never said them…I wonder…?