I saw Slumdog Millionaire a couple of nights ago, and it is the type of movie that does not leave you... yesterday's tragic events in Mumbai have only added to my new found macabre fascination with the place...
Directer Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) did the impossible, skillfully bridging the gap from east to west, making his film palatable to our western culture without stealing its Indian soul... This film was so visceral that I could practically smell the slums of Mumbai. Boyle made you laugh, cry, smile and identify with characters that lived in such stunning poverty that there simply aren't words to describe it... 
There were scenes that made you want to recoil in horror, scenes of cruel injustice that made you furious, and scenes that made you believe in the corny improbability of true love... There were characters in this film who had literally nothing but their wits and the clothes on their backs...
And all of this made me think about the meaning of Thanksgiving Day (Ok, I realize I've just rolled the car, but work with me here...)
We in the west piss and moan about life's pitfalls and disappointments, and yet we are perhaps the luckiest people on earth. Understand that of the estimated 6.7 billion people on this planet, 2.7 billion live on less than $2 a day... add to that another 3 billion who aren't doing much better...
Since you are probably reading this at home, on your own computer, I can deduce that you are one of the 1 billion lucky ones...
How about this for some perspective?
At your lowest of lows, you are better off than 85% of the earth's population...
Tomorrow we will gorge ourselves on more food than most people on this earth will see in several months...
Enjoy...
So, now that I have you sufficiently depressed and guilt ridden, let me soothe your psyche...
Enjoy the effervescent executive transvestite comedic stylings of Eddie Izzard as he accurately describes what happened on that fateful day in October 1621...
Feeling better?
Alas, we all have much to be thankful for...
Happy Thanksgiving to all...
GO ON... LEAVE YOUR "THOUGHTS" IN THE COMMENTS SECTION...
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2 comments:
The National featured a profile of Mumbai yesterday, and the contrast between the extreme riches and the abject poverty in the same city was remarkable. They showed the fancy, happening nightclubs and said-- I am sure I will get these numbers wrong-- something about how young people there can spend 100 times more in a night than most people in the city make in a year. Seeing babies sleeping in what are essentially ditches that serve as their home... shockingly sad.
Point well taken about how lucky we are. Do you know Natalie Dee? This is one of my favourites of hers.
(Happy fake Thanksgiving. The real one was last month...)
ooooo.... dem's fightin words... at least we have some fake history backing our thanksgiving... Martin Frobisher... puh-leeze...
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