rantshoutwhisper

I suspect a lot of us are going to remember where we were on 4th November. For my part, I'd woken up at 3 o'clock in the morning, wondering why I couldn't sleep. I then went to the computer and remembered why.

I watched it online, eight tabs on Opera with stats aplenty, but then settled onto BBC's coverage. At four, California came home and I leapt out of my seat. I did a gig the next day with Cleveland Watkiss, who hosted it as a tribute to Barack Obama, saying "Doesn't the world feel a better place right now?" And y'know, it does: it really does.

I'm extremely happy that the U.S. decided to pick a relatively young, intelligent man who is part of a party that isn't keen on blowing away large chunks of the world willy-nilly. He seems to want people to live. That kind of thing sways my preferences.

But I don't live over there; I live here. And I still have to cope with the negative aspects of U.S. cultural imperialism that spread through the black community like a wildfire. Sadly, another innocent is dead in Derby.

Now, I've written about this before and it was quite a bit closer to home for me that time. But it doesn't affect what I said last time - it still holds. Everybody's been shouting about the example Obama has set for the African and Caribbean diaspora over here - and all I can see is that the examples of change really have to come from over here, and fast.

But if we're going to appropriate North American culture from now, let's not celebrate that there's a black guy in the White House; let's rejoice in the fact that there's a chap there that prefers dialogue to fighting and WANTS PEOPLE TO LIVE.

I have no idea what's needed. All the role models, special songs, youth schemes &c. don't seem to have helped these people. They seem to be keen on blowing away large chunks of our world willy-nilly and wanting people to die. To me there seems to be a lack of respect for self and others, and a lack of knowledge* about the world and society that is almost insurmountable.


But as I've said before, these people are in the minority; why are we allowing them to be the main reflection of who we are through the media? Blaming the media doesn't help, since they are there to report the news; if these idiots didn't give them the news in the first place then there'd be nothing to report.

And again, all the families suffer. And we suffer. Because of five people with nothing better to do than ruining our world.

*Speaking of which, I'd heard there's a lot of fuss about Jeremy Paxman giving Dizzee Rascal a verbal kicking on Newsnight over Obama winning. I started watching it on YouTube. And what I saw was:

1. Paxman asks a question


2. Dizzee attempts to answer the question


3. Dizzee can't really answer the question and starts talking about something else


4. Paxman helps Dizzee kick himself repeatedly

I then stopped watching.