Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Comic relief for students who know something about Nigeria

On a cool, rainy Saturday morning, I obviously have too much time on my hands.

If you're familiar with The Onion, you can probably predict what video clips you'll find on the Onion News Network, or ONN.

As I was looking at "clips" from the ONN series In the Know, I found "Situation in Nigeria Seems Pretty Complex".

It's a satire of Sunday morning panel discussion shows where the panelists who have no idea what's going on in Nigeria, are expected to carry on a discussion anyway. One of the panelists quickly looks up Niger on his Blackberry and proceeds to describe Nigeria as a country whose economy is dependent on cattle exports. Later, panelists begin to argue about the merits of Nigerian leaders they've never heard of. (The moderator isn't always much more knowledgeable than the panelists.)

Your students might enjoy the humor and understand that they are more knowledgeable than most Americans -- at least about one topic.

(This one's safe to show in class -- not all the others are. There is an advertisement at the end of the clip that you can easily skip.)


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