Long live to art!

Who did not watch an American movie? Who did not listen to American music? Almost everybody in the World has been influenced somehow by American culture. 

What I did not know is about the painting in the US. Last class, Lucía explained how this art has change in America throughout the history. It was first influenced by Europeans and subjects were related to the Revolution and Independence. Later came other movements like modernism, expressionism, pop art, and minimalism, I find this last one a little bit strange, but after all it is art. 

Regarding the music, I admit I love the music from this country (maybe more than my own country’s music); however, I do not like all the genres, for example I would not listen to metal or punk music, I do not understand them. I think jazz is interesting since it was created by African Americans, I do not know how to explain this but I feel that nobody but black people can play this music, it just sounds better… 

Finally, cinema arrived the United States and since then the most profitable industry has growth. Many people state that films made in the Golden Age are the best ever. I would not say no because I was born in the ’80, but I watched some of these films and I can say that they are better than the new ones. I do not know if Americans ran out of ideas, but their films are still influencing the World, even though most of them have more visual effects than a real story.

The wars of the United States

After the attacks on September 11th 2001, the United States started a war against the terrorist groups based on Afghanistan. The purpose was to overthrow the Taliban regime and find Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda… Of course, that was the official version.

If we research and read information about this war (especially on Internet), we may believe that the 9/11 attacks justified the American invasion in Afghanistan (in fact, that was one of my conclusion of my research.). However, it seems that the real reasons were different from those that the media and the Government presented; and it also seems that many people do not know these reasons even after more than 10 years of war. All this is explained in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 of Michael Moore. Although it is really controversial, this movie shows a part of the history never told before.

A fact I found really terrible is that George W. Bush administration took advantage of the situation after the 9/11 attacks and passed the Patriot Act. This law allows the Government to do whatever is necessary to fight terrorism, even violating human rights. A couple of video given by the teacher proves that this law is not really helping in the war against terrorism. Actually, due to this law, many innocent people have been arrested just because they were “suspects”, and they were judged without the right to have a lawyer.

The other war started in 2003 in Iraq. This time the United States claimed that Saddam Hussein regime hid weapons of mass destruction and that he was a threat for the American security. Of course, the real reason was not that. Americans wanted to take control over the oil reserves! Fortunately, this war only lasted few years (!).

Taking into account all this information, I would say that the US has no really the intention to help the countries they invade, instead they have excuses… That is so sad!