Survivor Fiji is over, and Earl won.  Yeah, yeah.  Earl wasn’t an outstanding player.  He didn’t win any challenges or do anything noteworthy - except vote against the man who he had a pact with.  The only reason he won is because he was the least unworthy of the three remaining contestants.  Dreamz was a liar and a cheat, Cassandra was such a non-competitor that she only made it to the final three by hooking up with others.  Then she voted against the ones who helped her get that far.  As I said, Earl was the least offensive of the final three.

The thing that bothers me, though, is Dreamz going back on his word to Yao-Man.  It’s one thing to lie in the heat of the game - when your neck is on the chopping block.  It’s another thing to shake hands on a deal, swear in front of all the other players and Jeff Probst - on camera - that you are giving your word on something in exchange for a new truck - and then to totally go back on that word.   Dreamz should have known that one act guaranteed that he would not get a single vote from the jury of former contestants.  There was no gain for him in lying.  His lie also guaranteed that the one man who had GIVEN him a truck in exchange for his promise would not win the million dollars.  Yao-Man is really the only person who deserved to win the prize. 

Dreamz can declare all he wants that it was his strategy from the start to lie to Yao-Man.  It wasn’t.  He talked of showing his son that he was a man of his word.  When he went back on his promise, he cried as he sat at tribal council.  He was feeling the guilt of what he had done.  Then he had time to rationalize to himself about it - and the next time he was on camera he was cocky and sure of himself and telling everyone he had planned to not stick to his deal from the beginning.  So he’s a double liar.   He had a pattern of not keeping people’s trust throughout the game, though.  He spilled the secret of who had the immunity idol.  He is an untrustworthy person.

The thing that bothers me the most is wondering how he could live with himself after that.  Is that something that a person can justify to the point that it doesn’t bother him?  And he has at least one child.  I wonder what his behavior shows his child about character and integrity.  I just wonder about that.

I learned as a child a very long time ago that trust is a valuable asset.  It takes very little to lose someone’s trust, and it’s almost impossible to win it back.  Dreamz has displayed his lack of integrity and honor to millions via television.  If he were someone in my life, I would never trust him.

Integrity and honor are worth far more than any amount of prize money.  And he had no chance of winning the million.  So he lied for nothing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Television/Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.