Tag: Colombia

Maggie, I still have something to say

Saw Rod Stewart on TV, mute out sound at the gym.

Still with the spiked up hair, shiny suit and swaying.

Staying power and loyal fan base.

My daughter asked “what’s that word to mean someone who because of him/her, you model after”. I tried “influencer”, “role model“, “mentor” and hit the note with “idol”.

Those are people we project ourselves onto. They sing for us, say for us, and hopefully act on our behalf.

In this wikileaky time, it’s harder for idols to go un-dethroned.

Traffic cameras at every stop, pop up ads at after every click and commercials followed after Rod Stewart (Dr Gregory, plastic surgeon). See I remember. The demographics (middle age women with purchasing power parity).

Saw a young blond girl holding the sign “homeless and hungry”  on 95 Highway.

New economy and old wound.

Two-tier society in Colombia exhibited in two Misses Colombia, one from the slum, the other the society.

Yet we still have the one and only Rod Stewart, still with something to sing (I got a kick out of you). Boombox or I-pod, his hoarse voice still comes through, assuring us that despite our ups and downs in life, there is still room for celebrating our humanity, starting with the heart and working our way out. When the center is right, you can rest assured that everything else is alright. That’s all our parents could ask from us, and I from my children. The rest, we say a silent Serenity prayer, “grant us wisdom to know the difference between that changeable and unchangeable nature within us”.  Maggie, love is unchangeable. Just its expressions. That’s what I want to say to you.

Spent

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/477965/Lotto-winner-Callie-Rogers-reveals-hell-her-pound19m-fortune-brought.html

You can’t handle the truth!

Or blew 3 million dollars of lottery winning on booze, boobs and bags of white powder.

What a boyfriend the 16-year-old lottery winner hangs out with.

Meanwhile, another couple from Tokyo win the Tango contest, leaving the Argentinians in the dust (another couple from Colombia win Second place).

Now, that’s winning by hard work and collaboration.

I can’t help noticing the Japanese influence and presence in South America, just as I have recently about Chinese in Africa.

The East has produced a few “Columbus” of their own.

Can’t blame them for wanting to see it up close after years of Hollywood education. Meanwhile,

America still perpetuates the image of Iowa Jim (Incidentally, Clint Eastwood who directs the movie, also stars in his own Gran Torino which shows sensitivity to the plight of Asian immigrants)

even as Japan has moved on (signified by the start of a newly elected government). As of this edit, Japan has scored some shots at the Trans-Pacific Pact in the absence of President Obama, who had to stay home to resolve US Government shut-down.

We have yet to figure out the post-globalized world model.

Our lyric, liturgy and law that govern commerce and communication seem to freeze-frame at the post-WW world.

The star of Bollywood had already arrived at Newark Airport for a film premier, while  Hollywood still churns out Halloween franchise (same weekend that a Hawaii-born President delivered an Eulogy amidst an Irish white congregation.)

I admire the Tango winners ( hard work and collaboration) as much as I empathize with the 16-year-old lottery winner (luck) who has to move back in with her parents. She is learning her lesson at age 19.

To win means perseverance from within and facing challenges from without. Some passengers on United 93 made that heroic and fateful counter measure to retake the  hi-jacked aircraft. Now, that’s a challenge. In my book, they are winners.  Nature never fails to teach us the obvious: even dinosaurs couldn’t survive bio-meteorological pressures.

Size doesn’t make a difference in the scheme of things (my neighborhood bully, bigger than I then, is now dead). And certainly a whopping $3 million for a 16- year old on her spending spree won’t either. She can’t handle the truth!