Baby Mama is the story of a workaholic career woman who suddenly finds out she can't have kids: a ginormous cliché if there ever was one. The thing is, clichés exist for a reason; there are plenty of us girls who ache to be mommies. I could totally identify with the scene in which Tina Fey's character surreptitiously sniffs the head of a stranger's baby. Many of us have that same hunger, which is why, I suppose, stories like this tend to find their market.
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There's always something new to be angry about. To be honest, there are times when I feel like throwing my hands in the air and giving up on humanity.
I've seen a lot of documentaries in the last year about the Iraq war, Afghanistan, torture, our broken health care system... all depressing issues having to do with the current state of American politics. All those issues have one thing in common, though: there is an apparent solution.
The HBO documentary I watched the other night was a different story altogether. As I watched The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, I was overcome by a feeling of helplessness, and hopelessness. The problem is evident; the solution, not so much.
Here's the situation:
This woman is Maria Namafu. She is 70 years old. As she was raped, the soldiers told her, "You're not too old for us." How does that not make you angry?
I first became aware of this situation a few weeks ago when Ann Curry did a story on NBC's Today show. It's easy to say to yourself, Oh, that sucks. But there's crappy stuff happening all over the world. What can I do about it?
Honestly, I don't really know what can be done about it. There are UN Peacekeepers, but the country is so huge that their efforts barely make a dent. There is a Congolese "Special Victims Unit"... of one officer in a ramshackle wooden hut. There is one hospital, the Panzi Hospital, for treating the victims of sexual violence... but most never make it there. There are vast resources in that country... but they are used to line the pockets of criminals instead of to save the women of Congo.
It's a shit situation.
The only thing I can think of is to raise awareness. So I guess that's what I'm trying to do. Watch the doc if you get HBO... if you don't, research the problem, and donate if you can to the Panzi Hospital or other nonprofits that try to help in the region. This is as good a place to start as any.
I'm not an activist by any stretch, and I'm certainly not a Congolese. But I'm a woman, and I'm a human being, and I'm a citizen of this planet. And those are my brothers and sisters. I'm not sure what can be done...we've just got to do something.
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Capt Crash outside Mickey's 
Nayana perusing Mickey's greasy offerings
Our food
So maybe now I understand it a bit better... and of course I love Alfred Hitchcock. He's a master. But I have to admit I still squirmed a bit last night.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.Last week I posted the IMDB Top 250, and I listed the ones I'd seen in bold. I had only seen 91 out of 250 at the time of that post, but since then I've added three more. Subsequently, we all pretty much came to the conclusion that lists like this are meaningless... especially the IMDB list, which is chosen by popular votes from ordinary yokels. (If you have any illusions that the masses are capable of choosing the best movies, just look at the weekly top grosses so far in 2008).
In spite of all that, I thought I'd waste a bit more time, and post the AFI 100. This list was published in 2007, and was chosen, of course, by the American Film Institute. The main glaring flaw of this list, in my opinion, is that it fully ignores foreign language films (which include many of my favorites). So, whatever. If my count is correct, I've seen 39 of these.
Well, that's it. I think it might also be fun to do a list of all the Academy Awards for Best Picture (it's always fun to count along during the Oscar montage), and maybe the top-grossing films of all time. But eventually I'll do the perfect list... which, of course, will be my own Top 100. Because my list will be flawless, naturally.
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