American Idol/Blood Diamonds

This weekend, I accompanied two of my closest friends to American Idol auditions in Philadelphia. The road trip part was really fun, reminiscing about school days and old memories really made for a good time.

The American Idol auditions, however were a different story. They were held in Wachovia Center (aka, seats 20,000 people) and the arena was nearly full. We got to Philly at 10:00 pm on Sunday night, registered, and went to our hotel. My friend Robert and I went exploring around Independence Square, visiting the Real World Philadelphia house, and walked around the city till the wee hours of the morning.

We got up in the morning and went back to the auditions. I can't describe the scene there-so many people, all of them hoping to become America's next big thing.

Being in that center, with all those people for over 12 hours gave me some time to think about a lot of things. I watched "Blood Diamond" on my friends laptop to pass some time. I had heard about this movie, but honestly had no real desire to see it. Ironically, watching that movie radically changed me and my way of thinking. Blood Diamond is a movie of epic proportion. It's as anti- happy-cliche-mainstream-Hollywood as movies come. Solomon Vandy is a poor fisherman from the country of Sierra Leone, a country in turmoil over the sale of "blood diamonds" or diamonds that are illegally exported at the cost of hundreds of lives in Sierra Leone.

My heart broke as I watched Solomon's family be torn apart and tortured because of these diamonds. His own son is made to join RUF- an infantry made up of small African boys. These boys ravage their own country after being brainwashed my RUF leaders. They kill their own family members, drink and carouse and become hardened by their way of life. Sitting there in that arena, watching this movie made me almost sick to my stomach.

It's just funny what we as people, as Americans count as important. Things like clothing, jewelry, cars, status-it matters so much to us. When there are people all over the world, countries suffering through civil wars and holocaust-so we can obtain the things we hold so dearly. I was challenged to think past all that-it's amazing how a movie can do that.

I don't know exactly where this blog is going, I only wanted to share how sad it was when I realized that things like American Idol and the amount of money and time spent on driving product (Coke, Ford any one?) through shows like that- all the consumerism and fake importance. It's so miniscule after seeing what goes on all over the world. We're worried about what star gained a few pounds, or cut their hair--and little kids in other countries are worried about what they'll eat for their next meal, if they'll survive their walk to school, if they even have a school. It seems so grossly distorted.

One of my favorite songs in the world called "Adding to the Noise" talks about these issues:

Steppin' out of those convenient stores
What could we want but more more more
From the third world to the corporate core
We are the symphony of modern humanity

Basically what is motivating us? Why do we want the things we want, and buy the things we buy? Living in a bubble caring only about our "issues" here in America when there are people all over the world in real life traumas.

If we're adding to the noise, we should turn off this song.