Last Friday, I was unwinding and watching TV Patrol when the newscasters featured a YouTube video posted just last July 17, 2007 by Byron Garcia, prison supervisor of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRV), Cebu, Philippines. Byron Garcia himself was interviewed by TV Patrol as he explained that he simply posted this video on YouTube to share his innovation with the rest of the penal community, not expecting the international hit that it would become.
You may ask — what’s so unusual about this YouTube video?
* It features about 1,000 neon orange-clad prisoners from CPDRC doing their morning exercise
* These inmates all dance, without missing a beat, to the song of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in amazing choreographed moves
* As of this posting, this video has had over 2.3 million views (talk of a video epidemic!)
The video got its share of positive and negative reactions from viewers and media around the world.