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Sunday, October 19, 2003
what a wonderful world :(
lots of interesting things happened lately. well interesting to me would be boring to u, but i'm gonna tell u anyway, my fellow readers. coz... that's the whole purpose of what this blog is all about... right?! *wink wink* shall we begin... (warning: i have a feeling that this will be a looooong entry).
 starting with the movie i saw on friday night: "bowling for columbine". this is a brillian documentary where michael moore - the film maker - explores the big question: why america produces such a greatest number of violence and deaths resulting from fireguns. the country is also known for another specialty: mass murders that are often committed by very young people.
it begins with moore opening an account at a bank where there's an incentive program: u open an account and u get a gun. *no fooling* the bank is also a licensed gun dealer! this film is insprired a part by the columbine high school massacre in colorado where 2 students opened fire on their friends before turning the weapons against themselves. 15 died: 14 students and 1 teacher. and before the shooting the boys went to a BOWLING class (moore sarcastically questioned whether bowling should be blamed of this killing). it was also the same morning when bill clinton dropped extensive boms in kosovo. moore then wondered about the reasons behind this violence. is it the rock music (rocker mr.marlyn manson), violent films, or history? i agree with the rocker manson's saying when moore interviewed him. he said..."maybe it wasn't the media or music, maybe it was the actions of the u.s. while we were dropping bombs, so were they. what's the difference?"
moore also interviewed the author of "the culture of fear". he's talking about the 'making money oriented' tv news programs. if it bleeds, it leads. the whole idea is to capture the audience with shocking and provocative stories to keep them watching. tv news is full of murders, rapes and fires, and it surely drives a lot of FEAR. we're living in a culture of fear - he said. fear of violence. fear of disease. fear of war. fear of our neighbors. fear of black men. it is FEAR that makes american kills each other. the author said, while the real nation's murder rate declined, the number of murder stories on tv increased much much more. how can u stop this culture of fear from entering your own home? what can we do? not watching tv??
 the statistic fact is powerful by the way. the movie notes that u.s. have a highest records of firearm homicides. it's more than 10.000 a year (compared with only 100s in canada). (moore also traveled to canada interviewing the residents and city officials and he found that the canadian doesn't even lock their doors!) the ironic american policy history is also cited: america trained osama bin laden and his army to kill soviets, america gave $ to saddam husein to defeat iranians, america secretly financed iran to defeat iraqis, and so on until the sept 11 disaster planned by osama and his cia trained armies, plus several "helps" u.s. did on solving government problems all over the world.
one of special interviews was made with the nra president who is also a pride actor. the nra (national riffle association) does not believe in any forms of gun control and supports the right of gun owner to purchase and sell any forms of guns. the actor was speechless and even walked away when moore questioned him regarding the highest statistic of america's firearm violence. moore also shamed him for showing at one nra campaigns immediately following the columbine massacre. moore has such a talent of interviewing people that this nra president came close enough to unmasking himself as an uncaring racist. in animated history of america, moores links the nra with the ku klux klan.
oh, and there's also a highlight scene when 2 columbine survivors, accompanied by moore, ask k-mart not to sell any more bullets. they finally get promise from k-mart's management of a total withdrawal of bullets from the store within 3 months. too bad the massacre had to be happen first.
well, it's definetely a movie all americans should see.
stelly @ 11:33 PM
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