"Only in America...?
Last night I saw Spike Lee slide into the CNN camera zone, wearing the hip-hoppest possible shades, and declare with his mouse-like glibness and mock authenticity that Barack's triumph was possible, "only In America!!!..."
I guess the gushy-mushy, wishy-washy season is here again after several months of relentless, near hysteric tension provided by the gutter vibes from the McCain side and the spuriously clean, rock and roll show from the Obama side. And I love rock and roll!
Then there was the CNN wall-to-wall "best political team's" nerve-racking war-like intensity. So enthralled was we, the people, with the I-phone like magic board of the CNN, the swivelling and zooming camera and the swishy boom-box missile strike sounds that accompanied every few words of wisdom, that we thought we were gearing up for an inevitable civil strife. My sister in DC called up to say that some vile night riders were stealing her precious Obama signs and so she was coddling them and bringing them home every night and putting them out next morning again, dutifully. The line had been drawn. You were with us or with them! Intense, man!
But Lee! Muh main hip dude and black intellect who asked us all to Get on the Bus ! And even made a film about Malcolm--let me ask you a question.. Did you not hear of Evo Morales? Leader of the Aymara Amerindian people, a cane field worker at the age of six, lived and grew up in an adobe hut 6X6 square , and got 54% of his country's vote (with an 85% turnout) to become the President of his country, Bolivia, despite a rigorous and hostile campaign by your America? And he is holding fast, despite all the threats of subversion and the nasty attitudes from the rich and America-deprived folks in his country. Did any famous hippity filmmakers of Bolivia say "Only in Bolivia!" ?
Spike, my man! Bolivia has a mix of 55% Amerindian ethnicities (who have traditionally never united together for a cause), with 15% whites and 30% mestizos. Morales has won repeated affirmations of his Democratic Socialist movement since his first victory. He did not hide behind generalities like Change and Reform. He made no bones about using the S word!
My question to you, Mister Lee, is "Was America ready for a Black woman president? Was America ready for a Native American?" I don't think so! Never mind the mysogyny that spilled out when Hillary tried getting elected, irrespective of her half-brilliant notions, compared to Barack...America was not ready for a woman. Never mind Black women. And never mind a Navajo or a Sioux.
Barack was a perfect candidate. Half Black. Half white. Even though everyone insists he is the first African-American President. Whatever happened to his mama? Huh? Suddenly, she don't count? When it comes to his upbringing, his white grandmother gets all the kudos. But when it comes to his identity, he is Black, outright?
Remember the old polarization in US society'? Between the die-hard right wing-nuts and the isolated , disparate left wingers, there was the foggy-bottom variety called the "liberals" composed of Pelosi-Kennedy Democrats, Independents and some Republicans, who gave a rat's arse for the poor of America. America has changed for sure. Whats' changed is the diversity. There is now a huge and semi-well-to do middle class buffer zone, which is intensely inter-racial and diversified and loving consumer life madly (just like in many other parts of the world). They are children of the soixante-huitards. More Asians, more Hispanics, more people of mixed race, all kind of good-hearts, out of liberal colleges and into the post-web business milieu, doing so much better. Better than the 100 million Americans who are officially classified as poor. Notice Barack never talked about the poor ! Of course he knows about them. But his agenda was pre-set and pre-calculated. He was going to mobilize the millions of the new "middle-class"" children of the old liberals, children of first generation immigrants, succesful post X, Y, Z gen-ers who love nebulous stuff like CHANGE, HOPE and Yes, We can! And of course are righteously disgusted by the neocon thugs of the past eight years and where it has taken America.
Spike, my man! I want to talk to you about another Michelle...not Obama. Michelle Bachelet of Chile, President !. Also from a Socialist background. A woman. Did Michelle say "Only in Chile!"? Did any of Chile's famous filmmakers utter the same? No!When you say "Only in America", you spit on the rest of the world's people and their intelligent ability to select their own leaders, independent of race, colour or creed.
Here is a list of Fifty-seven WOMEN who were elected democratically ( with much larger voter participation than in the US) when Barack Hussein Obama was but a toddler. Read on! Dude! Did the hippity hop filmmakers of these 57 countries (including dour old Canada) say "önly in our country!!" ?? I dont think so. America has done well, this election. America has hopefully pulled out of these last 8 years of neo-con hell (definitely not out of the Reagonomic immiserisation of the poor.) So, here is the list for you. I think it is time, y'áll stopped, pondered and thought twice, before you put down the other nations of the world, so easily.
CountryPrime Minister or President
Argentina President Maria Estella "Isabel" Martínez Cartas de Perón 1974-76
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 2007-present
BangladeshPrime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia 1991-1996, 2001-2006
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed 1996-2001
Bolivia President Lidia Gueiler Tejada 1979-1980
BulgariaPrime Minister Reneta Indjova 1994 -1995
BurundiPrime Minister Sylvie Kinigi 1993-1994
Canada Prime Minister Kim Campbell 1993
Central African Rep.Prime Minister Elizabeth Domitien 1975-1976
ChilePresident Michelle Bachelet Jeria 2006-present
Dominica Prime Minister Mary Eugenia Charles 1980-1995
Finland President Tarja Halonen 2000-present
Prime Minister Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki 2003
France Prime Minister Edith Cresson 1991-1992
GermanyChancellor Angela Merkel 2005-present
Guyana President Janet Jagan 1997-1999
HaitiPrime Minister Claudette Werleigh 1995-1996
President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot 1990-1991
Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis 2008-present
Iceland President Vigdis Finnbogadóttir 1980-1996
India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 1966-1977, 1980-1984
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil 2007-present
Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri 2001-2004
Ireland President Mary Robinson 1990-1997
President Mary McAleese 1997-present
Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir 1969-1974
JamaicaPrime Minister Portia Miller Simpson 2006-2007
Latvia President Vaira Vike-Freiberga 1999-2007
LiberiaInterim President Ruth Sando Perry 1996-1997
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 2006-present
Lithuania Prime Minister Kazimicra Prunskiene 1990-1991
Malta President Agatha Barbara 1982-1987
MoldovaPrime Minister Zinaida Grecianii 2008-present
MozambiquePrime Minister Luísa Dias Diogo 2004-present
New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley 1997-1999
Prime Minister Helen Elizabeth Clark 1999-present
Nicaragua President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro 1990-1997
Norway Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland 1981, 1986-89, 1990-96
Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto 1988-1990, 1993-1996
Panama President Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez 1999-2004
Peru Prime Minister Beatriz Merino Lucero 2003
Philippines President Maria Corazon Aquino 1986-1992
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo 2001-present
Poland Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka 1992-1993
Portugal Prime Minister Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo 1979-1980
Rwanda Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana 1993-1994
Sao Tome & Principe Prime Minister Maria das Neves Ceita Baptista de Sousa 2002-04
Prime Minister Maria do Carmo Silveira 2005-2006
Senegal Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye 2001-2002
South KoreaPrime Minister Han Myeong-sook 2006-2007
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike 1960-65, 1970-77, 1994-00
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga 1994-2005
SwitzerlandPresident Ruth Dreifuss 1999
President Micheline Calmy-Rey 2007
Turkey Prime Minister Tansu Çiller 1993-1996
UkrainePrime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko 2005, 2007-present
United KingdomPrime Minister Margaret Thatcher 1979-1990
Yugoslavia Prime Minister Milka Planinc 1982-1986
2 comments:
It's amazing the picture that the American people and media have been painting of Barrack Obama as President elect. Quick and get the shots of the African Americans in the crowd and get that one African American who works for the station in front of the camera. Awkward...
It reminds me of that example from when I first joined Serai about the portrayal in the media of a Black Opera Singer.
Also Barrck Obama a Socialist??? The U.S. (...and Canada these days) should be so lucky. Maybe after when California or Colorado have there referendum to seperate. ;)
Subir Los Angeles
Just a little spin on Spike's mindset... yesterday he showed up with Lebron James' branded shoes on at a Knicks game at MSG (in an attempt to recruit the NBA's premier free agent to be). Desparation turns to pimpin yourself out (pls note the Knicks are horrendous, akin to the state of govt'l affairs in the US :))
Hmmmmm Do The Right Thing, not talking bout a rich or poor thing.
That said if you gotta choose a leader in this place Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Kucinich, Guiliani.... really can y'all say we wanna be brutally critical of the Bam'eister from the get go.. :)
Babla
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