The Big O and why I’m glad she’s here

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So Oprah is in Australia at the moment. Never before have I heard such a hubbub about a celebrity visiting this country. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of her but I do enjoy watching her show whenever the opportunity presents itself (ie. sick from work). When I heard that she was coming to Australia I thought “Oh that’s cool” and didn’t think much of it until she was actually due to arrive and BOOM the media circus really took off.

There seems to be a lot of negativity coming from the general public about her coming here. People complaining that our taxes are footing the bill for the security and police presence she’ll inevitably need, the fact her visit will be disruptive, that she’s not important enough to warrant so much attention and so on. Then there was that McDonalds ad which I admit was pretty stupid and misleading (um so only guys have business meeting while women do nothing but “catch up with friends”, please). Oh and the terrible scandal of how there was a quiz on her site with some tough questions testing peoples knowledge of Australia. Oh come on, while wasn’t the best quiz I’ve ever witnessed, it was actually kind of interesting and the fact a bunch of boon’s didn’t even know about the Dingo fence, it goes to show it may have actually helped some Aussie’s learn something about our country. Everyday there’s something new in the news, almost always with a bunch of nasty, whiny comments from disgruntled Aussie’s who just don’t get it.

Love her or hate her, she’s a HUGE influence on a lot of Americans. While we’ve had to spend a lot to impress her and keep her safe, the amount of money our country will make when all of her generally clueless American fans suddenly find out what Australia is all about and start coming here to holidays will be countless. The amount of knowledge the average American has about our country could barely fill a matchbox. And now they will not only get to see all of what we have to offer, but also get a first hand account of how great Australia from Oprah, who we all know can sway millions of people to buy anything that she says is good. Having her here is way better publicity for us than it would for Obama to come, because he wouldn’t be making a bunch of shows to document his trip like Oprah is. And let’s not forget, she’s about to retire and this will be her big finale which just makes it all that more important and exciting.

So if you’re one of those “Oprah go home” types, have a think about the bigger picture. It’s not about her, it’s about how many of her American fans will soon be pumping their US dollars into our economy and how soon we will have less people out there who think we all ride kangaroos to the shops and wear green khakis everyday after wrestling crocodiles while shouting “crikey” (no offense to Steve Irwin, of course).

Originally published at rubyvelour.com