Not the ‘greatest country in the world’ after all.
This is the scariest US president ever. I so very much hope for my dear American friends that this doesn’t turn into another civil war just because of an ignorant, racist, ‘patriotic’, selfish, corrupt and greedy narcissist. Maybe I’m too late in hoping that, it somewhat feels like a civil war already… Can this still be stopped?
I’m a little late to this, even though I did see mentions of it crossing my Twitter timeline here and there this past week. Recently, on Britain’s Got Talent, a dance group called Diversity performed a Black Lives Matter dance and apparently that dance has received a record amount of complaints for being too political. I only just now watched that dance for the first time and it is a stunning performance.
I had a visceral reaction to this performance and I am still in tears while typing this.
Speaking of that performance, it also made me think of this performance at the BRIT awards earlier this year by a British rapper, whom I don’t know, called Dave. He too addressed Black Lives Matter in a very personal way…
I had a similar visceral reaction to that performance as well when I first saw it a few months ago and again just now as I re-watched it for this post. In fact, that performance sparked a whole discussion on the topic with my son a few months back, which was very valuable to me, and since then Black Lives Matter has come up in conversations with my kids regularly. I am so proud to hear them speak with such disgust of intolerance and how natural it is for them that black lives really do matter (and how much they hate the #alllivesmatter hashtags).
One of the things art is about is that it interprets reality to highlight an issue or feeling and make us as viewers understand and talk about it. These performances do that so achingly well. The pain of what it can feel like to be black in our society really hits home in these performances and I think everyone should just take a moment to stop and listen and then do better.
Thankfully I am just now reading that British media regulator Ofcom will not further investigate Diversity’s performance. They say: “Diversity’s performance referred to challenging and potentially controversial subjects, and in our view, its central message was a call for social cohesion and unity. Any depictions of violence by the performers were highly stylised and symbolic of recent global events, and there was no explicit reference to any particular political organisation – but rather a message that the lives of black people matter.”
Bravo to Diversity and Dave for their heartfelt and stunning performances and may it help effect change!
It’s 19 years ago today since the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened in New York. I think everyone knew where they were when they became aware of what was happening. I was still on maternity leave, visiting my parents with my two month old baby son. My mother and I had entered a shop with junior asleep in his stroller and we heard the breaking news on the radio there. We thought they were talking about a movie plot at first, but the shop attendant said that he thought this was really happening. We rushed back to my parents’ flat where my father was glued to CNN, telling us in complete shock (I can still see him sitting there in my mind’s eye) that a second plane had just hit. The rest of the day was very surreal and we were glued to the TV screen. Even now, when I see images again, it still feels shocking to me. It was an event that had a huge impact on the world.
In October 2001 there was a charity concert for New York City after these horrible terrorist attacks. David Bowie opened the concert with two songs, the first a touching cover of the Simon & Garfunkel song America and the second his awesome own song Heroes. I came across his performance again today and I found especially the America song still very touching, so I decided to share here…
My hope remains that love will always win out over hatred.
I probably shouldn’t post this – this is not a political blog after all and I am not an American (nor would I ever wish to be) – but oh my goodness, I can’t keep quiet! What is happening in the US affects the world and it affects me and I just need to let it out. So, look away now if you are sick of (left wing) politics and here goes…
From my perspective the US is completely falling apart under the current ‘leadership’ and my heart breaks. It’s one drama after the other coming from the US. This past week alone it’s been voter suppression, lying speeches at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that the Trump base will just lap up as truth and now the shooting of Jacob Blake and the inadequate response to that (#BlackLivesMatter people!)… I just can’t handle it anymore.
Here at home, we already call that man in the White House a wannabe dictator and if that man isn’t checked or, best yet, thrown out (how hasn’t that happened yet?!?), he will turn into one and that will be the end of US democracy. It is so painful to watch what has become of a country that the world, and my kids, used to look up to; the admiration has gone, my kids are disillusioned and stunned at the lies and the nationalist arrogance on display. We now feel disbelief and horror when we look at the US and the way in which this president and his cronies can not show any adequate leadership and, worst of all, are unable to show human decency. Well, First Lady Melania tried in her RNC speech, but her words sounded completely hollow, knowing to what a diseased administration she belongs.
I came across this the other evening: Charlie Chaplin in 1940 from the movie The Great Dictator and his attack on Hitler and Nazism. For a while there, after the Second World War, it seemed like we as a Western society were working towards the ideals he mentioned but we seem to be sliding away again…
It’s time that man in the White House is voted out with a very clear majority in November… I fear it won’t happen (I just can’t understand that Trump still has an over 40% approval rating!) but I so very fervently hope it will. The world, and my family, will be grateful.
This really cracked me up this morning!
Wikipedia also mentions this. Oh man, I’m just trying to visualize this in my mind and it ain’t good as my ass is pretty wide… 😂
I’m also still smiling at Paul Campbells’s homophobe takedowns over on his Twitter feed. He rightfully got really angry the other day at a homophobic slur (the tweeter has I think gone private since then, her message is no longer visible to me)…
I still sit down with a cup of tea every day to see what his latest replies are and they’re still good…
I already liked Paul Campbell but for that alone, I am so going to watch this movie.
And this morning as I scrolled through my BBC news app, the picture that accompanied the headline on Trump wanting other shower rules made me laugh and then the fact that he even mentioned this as an issue had me shake my head in disbelief. Miranda Hart worded that very nicely…
I so hope Biden/Harris can put us out of the misery of this Trump presidency in the upcoming US elections in November.
This fervent hope I feel when thinking about #BidenHarris2020 makes me smile a little bit as well. Fingers crossed for US voters showing some sense!
