Head of State–the real life

A lazy Saturday, a black Sunday, a Mon-day-off (for Saturday’s holiday) and an Id-Al Fatir that never seems to fall on the day you wanted it to (even for my Muslim friends), and what have you got? An extended weekend darker than “yer boot”.

So me and my best bud, Al Jazeera English, had plenty of time to bond. There was, lemme see, “101 East”, “Witness”, “In Depth” and a cranky old man whose words you need to strain the ear to hear named Snow or Frost “on the World”. The biggest coverage, however, was of the presidential debate between democratic norminee Barack Obama and Republican Jhon McCain, whose uncanny resemblance to Mays Gilliam and Brian Lewis’ debate strikes one as more than accidental. I’m talking about Chris Rocks’ movie Head of State in which the older, uglier, vice-president nominee Lewis did nothing but shake the head and smile superiorly every time his younger opponent spoke, while counting his years of experience (being a war hero and “Sharon Stone’s Cousin”) as a big pro.

Chewatan chewata yanesawaal endilu, is there any relation between the uglier a presidential nominee, the bad his regime seems to be? I’m not trying to be a meany here. Abesheet isn’t exactly the Mona Lisa herself. But both you and I know we can give many an example that would show the wisdom in that amharic expression “Seeyayut yaLamaare sibelut yaQiral”. Take the last American presidential election, for example. There they were: Al Gore and Bush Dagmawi. Open & shut, you might say, and you’d have been right. But naaaawww. Nothing is ever as simple as it looks with them Yankees. Instead of picking the handsome Democrat, they went for the homely Republican. Now, they are paying dearly for it! JFK, Che Guvera, Bill Clinton and Benazir Buto, on the other hand, went down in history with a record neater than they appeared. Margaret Tatcher & the Queen mother are exceptions to this golden rule, by virtue of them being British. Which is an entirely different cup of tea. Anywho, thought i might touch upon that. You must admit, it’s a matter worth probing into.

So.. anywho .. when I came to the office this morning the first thing I did was check out details on Head of State to help me write the post. But, ofcourse, somebody has gotten there first. The only point they haven’t got to seems how bad the real life America is in need of a man such as Bernie Mac’s character in the movie. Mitch Gilliam, a bail bondsman by trade, says this when explaining why he is the right man for the job of running mate his younger bro picked him to be.

“In my job” says he, “When people are in trouble, we bail them out. Now America is in trouble, we bail [it] out”.

Chris Rock: a stand-up comedian/writer/director/actor and prophet?! You decide 🙂 . Here is what others said on the subject:

– From Rock to Obama: Will electoral life imitate Hollywood art?
– Head of State Movie (2003) Has Eerie Similarities to 2008 Elections
– Has Hollywood Helped Pave Way for Obama?
– Etcetera