The BBC weather update is quite more than that. One can look at it as a continuous update on the connectedness of the world as well. In their tour around the world map to comment on the weather the BBC also indicates where its audience might be interested in knowing the weather conditions; i. e., where they might receive the BBC programmes, or just happen to be or go. Two or three years ago they would gloss over the middle east by a very short report on Saudi Arabia while giving a noticeably longer report on India. The southern part of the Iranian map would be just visible and of course my unjustified hopes to hear about the homeland's colourful weather were always dashed.

It is now about a few months that the BBC weather people have a regular stop over Iraq, explaining how it is going to be dazzlingly sunny in Baghdad. This now reveals a bit of the western part of the Iranian map, but leaves it still hopelessly unnoticed!