Blood Boiler

When scouring a few of my regular boards, I came across this. The US Presidential Coronation (oops, er ... Inauguration) seems to be becoming an ostentatious celebration of the elite and privileged.

Some figures that made the blood boil:

$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.

22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.

1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.

$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.

9: Percentage of D.C. residents who voted for Bush in 2004.

I find America fascinating, as a nation, as a society, as a political entity and as a people. I pepper my conversations with American pop culture references. I like milkshakes and meatloaf and cheese fries. I watch the NBA and the World Series. I read the New York Times online. More than half my Internet bookmarks are American sites. So pervasive are American cultural influences in my life, I sometimes think I understand America.

I was on a plane, enroute to LA, when the Coalition troops first invaded Iraq. In LA airport, large groups gathered in front of TV screens showing CNN's coverage. The lack of chatter in the transit lounge was surreal as people silently watched the images on the screens. I was relatively neutral then, my pacifist leanings tampered by a belief in the threat of WMDs. A number of Americans I spoke to over the next few days uniformly condemned the war. In the many months that followed, it became apparent that they had been right.

And so I watched Michael Moore and am reading Al Franken. I don't believe everything they tell me, but it has been revelatory. They have opened my eyes to the extent of spin that takes place in the media, and perhaps more shockingly, the extent of outright untruth-telling. It has taught me to read even the Singapore media with a more jaundiced eye.

Even with all the media spin, the facts were there: the cost of war, the absence of WMDs, the escalating violence. And yet, November 2nd and soon, January 20th.

I still watch American TV and movies, listen to American music, eat American food, follow American sports and read American publications. But after recent events, I must say I don't understand America after all.