Is There A Doctor In The Country?
So, I got to thinking during "The Last King of Scotland", what is it about us in the West that we assume the role of saviour when the evidence of our effects on the planet is so much to the contrary?
I mean, in "Blood Diamonds" we're responsible for the murders of thousands of people due to our lust for diamonds and in "Last King" we're responsible for the health and well being of Idi Amin, while HE kills thousands of people.
But why did we ever think Africa needed us to send over our doctors, anyway? Surely Africa has always had its own healthcare practitioners (including doctors with a lot more experience in the field than anybody from this part of the world would have) who are better able to treat their fellow Africans - whether it's by our standards or not. I mean, it's not like we don't have such enormous fallout from our own drug-centric way of practicing medicine in the West that we shouldn't be concentrating all our efforts on mitigating them, instead of proselytising throughout the world about our fabulous "new" way of practicing medicine.
Anyway, it struck me that I've just accepted as a good thing that we spread our medical ways throughout the world and now I realize that assumption was just based on the usual propaganda about how much better'n everybody else we are at doing things.
Of course, I could just stop watching Hollywood movies about how heroic we are even when we're cads and rogues and how we're so good now at getting the word out about what's REALLY going on that it redeems us for continuing to inflict our way of life on other countries not our own.
None of which would be quite so gross if Hollywood didn't have an over the top awards ceremony every year to celebrate its movies that's so sickeningly self-congratulatory it defies all logic, especially since it's chock-a-block with Harry Winston diamonds being worn by starving actresses who show up wearing less and less every year while their male counterparts pack it on and move into the man's world of directing and producing.
Gee, I just thought of something else - no wonder Black Americans are so pissed off. They don't even get to star in Hollywood movies about Africa. Even if they're playing Idi Amin, they're second fiddle to the role of the white doctor - even when they get the Oscar for Best Actor.
