[lbo-talk] Britain wins fakery award

[Stephen Philion]

It was Britain, however, that pushed the taste for fake to new levels. "Her
main aim is to meet as many Nigerians as she can," the Queen's press
secretary, Penny Russell, said of the monarch's December trip to Nigeria.
But just as Bush never made it out of the airport bunker in Baghdad, the
Queen's people decided it was too dangerous for her to mingle with actual
Nigerians. So instead of the planned visit to an African village, the Queen
toured the set of a BBC soap opera in New Karu, constructed to look like an
authentic African market. During the "fake walkabout," as the Sunday
Telegraph called it, the Queen chatted with paid actors playing regular
villagers, while actual villagers watched the event on a large-screen TV
outside the security perimeter.

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