Gus In The Real Life

I don’t understand how many people have believe so blindly in Obama, he has changed his words several times and people still follow him. This is a free country and I know I can express myself, so if my comments hurt you, sorry, but I don’t trust Barack Obama as the next president of the United States at all, not because he is African but because his short political experience. That’s my reason, you can say me that nobody has experience as a President, and that’s right you will get it, but if you are going to politics you need a certain self confidence that I don’t see in this man.

I see some people in the African American community are celebrating over this triumph, but how much Obama is related to the minorities and to his fellow African brothers and sisters needs?, I don’t know as he was raised in privilege and between Caucasian individuals, so how much our President knows about the minorities needs?. I don’t know.

Ok, I have found this interesting or maybe I have find strange. I’m going to be quick. A few years ago the word nigga was an insult, today is equivalent as the word hommie, even if hip-hop subcultures say they can use this word, nigga is an overated word that even most stupid newb use it to sound cool, and from what I heard if you are a slight “white” you can’t say the word, but if you are from the minority you can say it, so can I say nigga?, I am from a minority, so that gave the power to use the word?.

Yes!, the biggest chimp of all Presidential history is going to be out of the White House, I guess I am not the only one happy about that, because he in only 8 years had made more chaos than any other one in history, and now less than a week he will leave… how his wife is proud of his job? Damn, she has to be really blind to not see all the atrocities her husband made, but I guess she had to made money with her hubby decision because she was happy with everything. Welcome Obama, welcome!.

I’ve been living far away after one year, and my perceptions about the world and I had changed, I guess I miss a few things about Cartagena but I won’t change my liberties and my taste of independence.. Probably I miss my empanadas and the attention I had back at home, probably I miss being back at home but I don’t complaint with my new found liberty.

Probably one of the best things I have found here are that civil liberties are more respected than any place else, to put it simple you will see a diversity you won’t see someplace else.

The truth I don’t know, I think it depends on the case and the person. In my case  I am was born in the North Coast and I hated almost every single dish except for the fried meals (and I was a walking cholesterol mess) but I didn’t had many options back there and at least in my case I love the offers I have here to eat and not junk fast food, I can find almost any vegetarian product or low fat product in the market and I am happy about that, because I don’t have a perfect health.

Do I miss any dish from Colombia?, Yes and no, yes because I liked a few sweets as the arequipe and no, because I was passing difficulties in my own land as my tastes differs from the mainstream. So how a Colombian how has a full pride of his food and heritage can handle the new flavors? he or she will find in the United States as the Colombian food is quite scarce around and probably that will be the biggest void any Colombian immigrant will feel, the missing of the flavors of his land.

This is going to be a short article, no more than 200 words this time. As a Colombian guy living in North America, I have found stereotyping of who I am; I know I am not alone and I know that many other people have faced prejudice as well; but one thing I found is that I have been ridicule of my accent several times, when I was little I care about this, but now as an adult I think those people who ridicule are childish and ignorant. Several times on my old job, some of my so called bosses (who were American by the way) they treated me like if I didn’t understood a word  that they were saying.

Hey! I don’t have any mental issues to be slow or I’m not an ignorant fool who have to be spoken like a baby, but I guess they thought one common stereotype “as I am Latino, I am ignorant” and I’m not ignorant, I’m a well prepared individual who can face any situation but I guess I was treated like turd those months, and I guess they didn’t understood the process of moving to one country to another, but well I leave that place without any resentment because it was only work and that’s all. I don’t care even if they read this, this is a free country.

One common stereotype of racial profiling I found at every airport, is if you are Colombian you are going to be threaded like a drug dealer or a scum, even if I am an American resident I will be seen with doubt and I know I am an honest human being, but I will be treated before in migration. Many of us Colombians we are seen with doubt, even if we have give everything to world.

I know in the dawn of the 00 decade, even with all the social advance movements, prejudice it’s still there and we have to give it all to fight it. (Wow 343 words).

I always find one aspect of the human kind that is fascinating is sense of humor; it can be so varied but yet appealing to people worldwide. I.e. Anime can be funny and appealing to many viewers because the visual gags are so easy to understand even if you are watching and un-translated version of your favorite show, American sitcoms or comedies such as the Simpsons can be quite funny even with the translations or the Chapelle Show that is quite a blast but only if you have a basic knowledge of English and American culture, I have to say is one of my favorite shows ever, so funny that I can even dare to say in the name of Dave Chapelle fans, that Dave you need to go back to comedy, you are such a genius for comedy.

Colombian television and humor is a little different from the American, humor is less from observance of culture, but it rather go with observation of daily living according to the different regions, so far the most known form of humor is the humor from Bogota that consists in two kind of jokes, lazy stereotypes gags that can be seen in television shows such as Sabados Felices (a rip off of SNL) or really dirty jokes that can said over here due the censorship.

We can’t compare of what humor is the best as the cultural incidents varies drastically, but American humor has more impact worldwide than Colombian humor as it has been propagated trough television, but Colombian humor… well, not humor but rather drama had some impact as well in TV as many Colombian shows had been adapted in different markets, just to name a case “Ugly Betty” or Betty la Fea.

It’s not a musical but rather a different version of Westside Story, a real version where we don’t sing and we tend to keep for ourselves what we left behind when we leave our home countries.

Our story, our Westside Story is a story filled with intolerance, racism because of who we are and that’s why we have fought to gain political respect in the Congress, because we are not second class citizens, we are hard working people who are trying to gain a decent life and to gain what we couldn’t in our home countries, a better standard of living.

In our Westside Story, we cry because sometimes we feel left behind and we feel disrespected but we never feel defeated as we know we are fighting for our beliefs in a brave new world, a world that opened the doors for a better future but not an easy one as we have to struggle every single day for the minimum.

In our Westside Story, we don’t “Feel Pretty” but we know “Somewhere” is a place where we can rest and breath, a place where we know we are free to live our lives as we wanted. In our Westside Story, there isn’t Marias, but an amalgam of people from around the world who came to the country of the free to breathe new airs that couldn’t be breath in our home countries.

This is another short article, no more than 100 words (this time), blogs like Facebook and Myspace can bring people together but at the same time they alienate them from the world, as the only way of interaction they have with their peers is only trough a computer screen. What happened of going out and meeting people?, I guess is not important any more if you are using a computer, the worst is that people now prefer to chat instead of going out even if they live in the same city or in the same residential block. I always think a blog is a good tool to express your opinions, not something to hang out with your friends. At the end, there is a beautiful world outside that deserves to be explored.

Have a pleasant tomorrow.

I’m not the only one who thinks that not only kills but can hurts due the cult mentality of imposing “medical” beliefs on actual of real medicine. Probably Jett is not going to be the only victim related with the ignorance of this “new era” religion that negates mental health by any means.

As many of “us” we know that Autism falls under the mental health specter and according to the dogma, Autism can be cured trough spiritual healing; how the hell autism can be cured or controlled insuch fantastic way? I find it bizarre because several cases of autism when they are left untreated can develop seizures, and anti-seizure medications don’t

work well without the proper medications that support them.

Probably Jett could have been saved, I don’t know, we never going to know the actual facts because there is going to be a classical media manipulation to avoid telling the truth with the autopsy and even if we know the truth, is going to be partial. My sincere condolence to John and Kelly, I can’t even imagine the pain of losing a child in a time of the year where happiness should be, is a nightmare come true.