Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

I happened to watch this film on Netflix channel at a hotel room while staying in Okinawa. 

As a matter of fact, I was shocked and could understand why J.D. Vance made a very peculiar and derogatory comment that childless cat ladies such as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttiigieg are miserable and making the rest of the country miserable although he graduated from Yale Law School.

Recently along with his running mate, he spoke racially aggressive comments against Haitian immigrants in his state of Ohio, which was not based on the fact. 

He and his family’s life was very miserable due to the poverty and his mother had mental disorder and could be emotionally unstable. He had to go through domestic violence just like his mother experienced. 

They lacked ethics so his grand mother told him to do urinalysis for his mother who was drug-addicted but wanted to get back to nursing job, for which she was fired due to her misbehaving at a hospital.   

I know one of siblings who was raised in such family and became a surgeon but acted like a child due to mistreatment in his family. I cut off relationship with him and his wife because I was offended by him. 

It is very difficult to remove bad effects mounted in childhood. 

Scary thing is he’s been supported by such people because they can feel mutual with him. 

Sorry to tell, America is sickened. (I’m not saying Japan is not.) 

I just happened to know good advices to such people. 

1. Don’t look back on the past. The past is in the past. The best things are never in the past but in the future.

2. Family members are people you cannot choose to relate to. If you think that is the cause of your agony in life. Just cut them off. 

He seems to be dragged by his past although he made himself such a big person. 

So sad. 

I happen to watch this show while staying at a hotel in Okinawa. The hotel subscribed to Netflix so I could watch this American show on the hotel room TV. The TV show was remake of 1980’s popular soap opera of the same name. I watched that show while I was attending a university in the US. It was 1990’s so I watched the already re-runs of the show. I was addicted to the show, which helped me improve my English ability. The plot was not very much changed from the original version. A woman named Cristal was married to an oil tycoon Blake Carrington and joined his rich family but some people in the family such as her husband’s daughter and ex-wife were hostile to her and had quarrels with them. 

But there were some drastic changes in the drama, especially casting and setting of the characters due to the time difference. 

1. Normailised portrayal of gay characters; A son of the rich family, Steven was gay. In the original version, Steven and his family struggled with his sexuality and Blake even tried to cut off relationship with his son and removed him from successors of his family business. Cristal, his new wife dissuaded him from doing so because of her gentle character. Steven was married to a woman and had a child to another woman, Cristal’s niece, Sammy Jo. But Steven later got a love affairs with men and his family finally approved of his lifestyle. Although he was a gay character but no kissing scene of two men. 

In the new version, nobody questioned Steven’s lifestyle and he and his lover, Sam, Cristal’s nephew were happily married.

2. More characters of colors; in the original version, Cristal was a white woman but new Cristal was a Hispanic woman from Venezuela. Blake’s spoiled and flapper daughter, Fallon had a love affair with a chauffeur who was a white man but in this new version, the chauffeur was a Black man and had relationship with another Black man. Cristal’s nephew Sam who later became Steven’s husband is Hispanic as well. 

Sounds good but what is bothersome is these characters or their siblings had some criminal records due to the reality? 

In fact, even today, it is unrealistic that a rich conservative white parents would be happy to know their daughter had a love affair with a man of color. 

One more thing to note is more independent working female character setting than the original. In the new version, Cristal met Blake on the board meeting of his company as a board member, PR director. Fallon was a board member and later tried to take over her father’s CEO position. In the original Cristal was just Mrs. Blake Carrington and Fallon was just a spoiled child. 

Steven was not actively involved in his family’s oil business unlike the original version due to his liberal environmentalist thought. 

The new version indeed reflects the trend of 21st century such as more accepting of gay lifestyle and racially diverse demography. It was a good history and social study material for me who enjoyed watching the original. 

I watched the film on my flight to Paris from Tokyo last week. The film helped me to kill time during the very long flight hours. 

It was a biography of the king of rock, Elvis Presley. He was born in southern state where seggregation was very common. But he grew up in a Black community so he had no prejudice against Black people but rather appreciate his experience with Black people who inspired him to sing in a new style. That is why he sang the requiam song for Dr. Martin Luther King "If I Can Dream" in 1968.

That may be a reason why he played a protagonist in the musical film "Blue Hawaii (1961)" in which he marries a native Hawaiian woman." 

His life was not always glorious nor very happy one because of his parents' treatment of him. He was mama's boy and his father was weak so he and his family were manipulated by a conman who managed his showbiz activities. The conman did not have a US citizenship so that is why he could not hold the world tour. I felt very sorry because if the conman did not stop him to go to the world tour, he could visit Japan and sing at Japanese audience. He said he wanted to do that. That was more profitable for him and his family but very bad for the conman. His life was shortened due to the hardwork imposed by the conman. 

His singing style such as waving his waist was affected by Black singers he was acquianted with. In fact, his singing is Black singers' style. That is why conservatives tried to stop him from singing in public. Black culture had been considered vulgar culture but created a very unique American culture. None the less, Black people have been oppressed in America. America took them to his land forcibly depriving of their human rights and treated them as slaves and second class citizens while gaining cultural advantage from them. 

Elvis Presley was a byproduct of America's cruelty. I felt very saddened to know such history. 

Entertaiment industry is grotesque everywhere in the world. In Japan, recently it was found boys being sexually abused by a big boss of the most influential entertainment agency. 

As I get older and learn more about such stories, I am losing interests and admiration to showbiz industry. I don't enjoy such shows any longer. I rather read books than films. 

I am hoping we will no longer need human singers or actors but Artificial Intelligence creates such super stars. 

I just saw the film at a small theatre in Tokyo. 

It was a biopic about the French politician who lived through holocaust and after the war became a lawyer and the minister of French government and became the first female president of European Union assembly. 

She helped promote women's rights by legalisation of abortion in France, 1970's. She contributed to improvement of prisoners' condition. Why was she so enthusiastic about human rights issues? 

The film started with her childhood in Nice with her family living in a happy condition before the second world war. Her family were Jews and believed France would never betray them. 

But later her family were arrested by German Gestapo. She, 16-year-old, her sister and mother were deported to Auschwitz. Her brother and father were thought to be executed. The three survived in Auschwitz but they were deported again, and then her mother died in other concentration camp.  

After the war, Simone married a man and gave birth to three children studying at a law school in Paris. But she had been traumatized by her experience in the holocaust and couldn't sleep on a bed. Even after the war, she could not tell others about her horrible experience during the war. 

But such experiences motivated her to help others in the world. In her old age, she came back to Auschwitz on 60th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz. She spoke and wrote all about her experience. She insisted that Europe should get united so no more war happens. Surprisingly she had lived in Germany after the war. 

The film taught us it is the responsibility of living people to make the world better place and right the wrongs. Indeed, we are living in a better world, at least much better than what she experienced. 

I, myself have visited Auschwitz in Poland, and learnt what happened there. 

Such history should never be repeated. I felt it is MY responsibility not to let such horrible events happen again.  

Sadly, it is happening and very hard to stop that.