Is the change really welcome?

A few months ago I posted on my Facebook wondering aloud whether the the presentation of the award to Lupita Nyongo was deserved. 

(http://intas8n.blogspot.com/2013/11/san-quentins-narrative-on-slavery.html)

(http://intas8n.blogspot.com/2014/01/not-so-funny-after-all-dynamics-of-good.html)

There are several layers to this complex puzzle. The first has to do with her emergence from obscurity. But as it turned out she is the daughter of a famous opposition politician in Kenya-Anyang Nyongo. The truth though is that opposition politicians belong in a class of their own.

The second was a concern about her schooling. The press made a big deal about her time at an Ivy league. Perhaps the suggestion was that a young person from Africa could only rise in the ranks of 

Hollywood via the expected route of good schooling. Later on though it emerged that she was one amongst many. The list of incredible possibilities I wrote was endless given the work of groups like the Phoenix Players in Kenya that groomed many more...not to mention the endless school productions that helped create an incredible group of personalities. 

The Third concern was about the director of the film and his background. A few months prior to the award show I had written extensively about some of Mr. Tarantino's work and commented about his skill in getting you to think by making you laugh. I was wondering why an Englishman had to win an award while there were so many amazing works by Americans on a story more familiar to them. 

In response to this third issue, what I did was to attempt to link the above ideas to the existence of the Black Entertainment Television Awards and the Hispanic awards to a lesser extent. 

Perhaps it was driven by the idea that black frustration in the system as it stands means that often it becomes a little simpler to create exclusive systems which celebrate personal and group achievements as opposed to waiting for acceptance from others. 

A deeper look in the idea led me to think again about the election of Mr. Hope and what it meant in African American Circles. Without downplaying the man's amazing oratory skills and his ability to awaken the spirit of the founding fathers, I wondered aloud why all the contenders resident in the U.S...and black had to be by-passed for an African. 

Maybe your victory is my victory and your daughters are my daughters. But a four hundred year separation should have certainly produced a leadership core...and the not from the content of Origin. 

Maybe the deeper question is whether the drive for change will continue in earnest or if it will be stifled. Will the next manifestation of this change bring a woman to the fore in Casablanca?

Will we see the emergence of a Hispanic? Or even an Italian? Does Kerry still have hoop dreams or will our feisty friend from Jersey manage to make his way into the coveted office. 

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Robot and Frank

It's been months since I watched this movie. At first I was a little concerned for the actor for seeming to always get this end of the stick (cast directors seems to frequently pick him to play the role of crooks!). 

But the movie is well done and handles several broad themes from aging to robotics to artificial intelligence to ethics, to parenting. 

There are interesting suggestions about what a future library could look, Iike as well as some notes on the possibilities of what role robots might have in the future care of the aging. 

It is great to watch the relationship between a machine and an aging man and the idea behind what it means to be human. There is a sense in which this movie has borrowed greatly from I-Robot (which I watched on a flight back to Africa-after an extended stay in the U.S.A). 

The similarity lies in the idea that both machines seem to have an awakening. 

Although in this case, this robot leaves you rather wounded and convicted and perhaps a little affected about what you think and how you act. 

I was left rather troubled because in my view the line between robot and human has really gotten blurred. Read up of the definition of an automaton if you need a little more convincing. 

Robots and other machines are built to do those tasks which humans would rather not do or that are too risky for humans to do. This is the standard definition. Think about how many things we have often left to 'lesser' creatures or even to 'workers' who in some way we view as less important than ourselves. 

In short, this one takes the Intersection Award for A.I related projects that deal with the subject of change, transition and Radial Thinking. 

Change for helping to present some ideas on what it means to grow older, transition for attempting to show us how certain aspects of our lives are likely to affect the way in which we think and function and radical in the presentation of options (even if these have been explored extensively in Japan-as she grapples with an aging population).