The Success of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

                                                       ——When Hollywood meets Bollywood

Undeniable, Slumdog Millionaire Sweeps the 2009 Oscar Awards. It racked up eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and for its Director, Danny Boyle.

 

I just got this movie yesterday and I watched it.

 

The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, while the whole nation is watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” however, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? To prove his innocence, he tells his story to the people. Moreover, he shows that the purpose to come to the game is not for the money, but for a girl named Latika. He hopes that she could see him in front of millions of watchers. Eventually, he succeeds.

 

Some people say if a half of the world is watching Hollywood, then the other half is watching the Bollywood. To be honest, I thought the saying was a joke, or perhaps it was an ad for Bollywood. For me, Blloywood sounds like a name that plagiarized from America and all the movies in the Bollywood seems follow the style that Americans create 10 years ago. However, I was totally wrong when this time, both Hollywood and Bollywood both favor one Indian movie, a movie telling people the love, the poverty, the brotherhood and the race. Why Hollywood this time gave Slumdog Millionaire such a big compliment?

 

As I believe, the biggest reason is that this movie related to the American Dream which Americans especially treasure nowadays. In the game of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” Jamal Malik tells his sorrow story about the childhood. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. He experienced usually people don’t see in India, he knows a lot of survive skills that even the experts don’t know. He reveals a big truth when the arrogant police ask him how could he know such many detailed and trifling stuffs, answering that “maybe something is too small for you, but it is important to me, do you know the price of egg cakes in Bombay?” That desire for living and finding his love actually makes Malik choose the right answer for the final question with host’s deliberately wrong guide. The American dream, at this time, is absolutely permeate and emerge on an Indian guy.  Americans needs that kind of passion, especially when they are meeting the crisis, to support them and overcome the hard time. Overall, when Hollywood hits Bollywood,  two different cultures are blending.

 

 

Let the American Automakers Fail

 —Detroit automakers frustrate Americans, why?

 

Much has been made of the plight of General Motors and Ford sales. Japanese manufacturers are competing very strongly and in at least one sales area have surpassed U.S. models. European manufacturers are also competing strongly, and South Korea is in the process of carving out a respectable niche. Now, the Chinese are entering the U.S. market. (“First Chinese model bursts on scene in Detroit,” Money, Jan. 12).

The latest national survey indicated, only one-fourth of Americans think the government should continue lending money to Detroit automakers, even though the manufacturers say they’ll go out of business without federal help. That’s a huge, and fast, change of heart. I remembered on December, the poll found that 61% favored some kind of government help. Such a huge reversal has just made. Overall, I believed that the more people understand what’s wrong with Detroit automakers, the less willing they are to support it.

 First reason, these “Big Three”, GM, Ford, and Chrysler were paying too much attention to expand the numbers of vehicles models but not to improve the quality of the car. GM, as a perfect example, has 76 models of vehicles. Seventy-six! No other car or truck manufacturer produces such a number of “intra-competitive” models. That is such a waste and stupid sell. People include me feel like the companies do not want to win the people but to monopoly. Second reason, Interest payments on GM’s billions in debt would soak up likely profits for years to come. Chrysler probably is in the same shape. If 25 billion dollars for the “Big Three” have to be paid off after 10 or 20 years, who would like to save them? Think in this way, why don’t people use these 25 billion dollars to solve other crisis or to assist another car company? Those two reasons make people realize the bailout to the “Big Three” is worthless.

 

AT America, there is a different war in Gaza.

I hope everyone could look at the newspaper.

 

 

 

“The images of two women on the front page of an edition of The Washington Post last week illustrates how mainstream US media has been reporting Israel’s war on Gaza.”

On the left was a Palestinian mother who had lost five children. On the right was a nearly equally sized picture of an Israeli woman who was distressed by the fighting, according to the caption.

“As the Palestinian woman cradled the dead body of one child, another infant son, his face blackened and disfigured with bruises, cried beside her.”

The Israeli woman did not appear to be wounded in any way but also wept.

Think thoroughly, will you make a comparison between a lady worried about nation to a sorrow-consumed mother with her five dead kids?  No!

Moreover, when the front page photographs of the two women were published on December 30, over 350 Palestinians had reportedly been killed compared to just four Israelis.

Just for irony, if there is an article write about casualties in Gaza, will there be an editor sit in the office and write the stories side by side as if equal in news value?

The Washington Post is not alone. Like many other American mainstream media, it seems covered the fact that America has always being the biggest help to Israel in the war. Moreover, it emphasis how evil the Palestinians acted in Gaza. For instance, As New York Times correspondent Ethan Bronner put it: Hamas’ deliberate use of human shields, which makes civilian casualties inevitable; our conviction that our army nevertheless strives to avoid such casualties; Hamas’ commitment to our destruction.

What newspaper or article is going to do more “balance” but actually “partiality”?

Maybe, at this point, is what we usually called “double standard”.

Because, at America, there is a different war in Gaza.

(this article only means my own personal opinion.)

 

 

 

Person of the Year 2008—– Obama

Time magazine named US President-Elect Barack Obama its 2008 “Person of the Year”, in what must have been one of the easiest decisions that CNN editors have ever made.

Above is the cover of TIME magazine, where Obama was selected as the person of the year uncontrovertiblely.

Is there any surprise that President-elect Barack Obama is Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2008?  Maybe not, American Election of 2008 has built Obama’s undeniable place in history.

“I don’t think that Americans want hubris from their next president,” Obama told TIME for the Person of the Year issue, which appears online today and on newsstands Friday. “I do think that we received a strong mandate for change. And I know that people have said, ‘Well, what does this change mean?’ … It means a government that is not ideologically driven. It means a government that is competent. It means a government, most importantly, that is focused day in, day out on the needs and struggles, the hopes and dreams of ordinary people.”

I think, this year, of course, is especially hard to be surprising by CNN’s decisions. Since Obama started the election from a senator, he ran a smart and disciplined campaign centered on a message of hope and change. And he finally succeed, which surprised a lot of people included me.

Moreover, I believe the point beyond being a top person on the TIMES is Obama himself, a man who could still fascinate the world in 2009, 2010 and even more. How will Obama change our lives? Maybe the hope of us is the real one that pushed us select Obama as the person of the year. Obama himself also knows, the title of TIMES is not only a honor, but also a national responsibility to him. He, is the man who is expected to make more history.

 

Can United State Cope From WMD Attack?

 

 

 

This is a Youtube video I found last Wednesday, December 10, 2008.  It mostly talked about how WMD attack (weapon of mass destruction) would threaten the whole world especially America. In the video, the speak man particularly emphasize the terrorists WMD attack against America is a real and a present danger. Moreover, he said more WMD attack will emerge by year 2013, and the form of WMD will be more like a biological rather than a nuclear. In its report, called “World at Risk,” the commission cites Pakistan as the top security priority for the incoming Obama administration. Although the report notes that Pakistan is a U.S. ally, it says the next terrorist attack against the United States could originate from within the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. All these indication implies, America needs to get ready to make defense!

Fortunately, I found another source.

It was http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6378675&page=1

The article was written almost at the same time when the video (on the above) was made. It pointed out that national security experts encourage the government to send 15000 troops to stay inside the U.S to defend a domestic catastrophe which include ready chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive incidents. At this point, I have my own concerns. First, the document mentioned that those 15000 troops do not include police. That means when a emergency incidents suddenly come, the troops will come from 2000 miles away (military troops stay in rural area), and local police will come here in 3 minutes. How could we more trust troops rather than trust local police?  Second, if that incident seems like a WMD attack, I am sure both police and military troops will come to the scene to investigate this case. Let’s make a imaginary situations, when 300 troops came to the street and so did 50 policemen, they do not know each other’s face before. What if a terrorist dressed like a police, intermingled with the crowd, and carried 30 kilograms bomb in his body? That is just so terrible!

At last, I support that the large military response may be crucial to handling a potential disaster. Nevertheless, I strongly hope government could find an efficient system to coordinate both troops and police so that America would have a big defending net to cope WMD attack. to coordinate both troops and police so that America would have a big defending net to cope WMD attack.

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