This is America!

We were at the halal meat store the other day. And while we were patiently waiting for the ever-taking-his-own-sweet-time owner to prepare our poultry, a fiery red two door undiscernable brand sportscar pulled up at the front of the shop. Out came a young man who came into the shop and asked the grocery owner for phonecards. They made their exchanges in Arabic.

So this fine modern young main in fiery red two door sportscar is of middle eastern descent, got the phone card and a bottled juice, paid money and left. I thought of making small talk with this grocery owner in order to pass the time waiting for our poultry. "He must be rich." I commented. Muslim Arab grocery owner who is a migrant himself said "No, no, no. This is America. You got plastic (ie. credit card) you can have anything."

That statement was something both my husband and I did not quite expected somehow. We both smiled widely, and just agreed with him. "This is America, land of opportunity", the ever-so-often tagline that you hear. Talking about this is America, I ever saw a granny on the news. She made the news because she invented something. A very inventive entrepreneurial granny! She came up with her invention because everytime her grandchildren go to the bathroom and pull the toilet paper, it will just roll out continuosly and that really bugs her. So granny came up with this ingenius invention that will somehow prevent the toilet paper from rolling and rolling. It will just stop at perhaps two sets of sheets and there you go, no wastage, and no horrors in the toilet. So this is America, the land of opportunity.

This is America, the land of freedom of speech. You certainly can have the luxury of speaking your mind unlike in Singapore, where a reporter dubbed it as the "Land of Nos". The strange thing about this freedom of speech is that you are able to get away even if you are a suspected or pro-terrorist as long as you say it on American soil, eventhough your very speech may threaten the security of Americans. It will be unconstitutional to condemn the person because every one has the right of freedom of speech.

The right and the freedom of speech has made many newsreaders and journalists to make their own opinions and judgements even before the person on trial is proven guilty. A case in time is Michael Jackson. A particular anchorwoman is just so full of negative opinions of MJ, that she convicted him everyday on her show. When MJ was finally acquitted, she said "I need my therapist tonight!" That was how it was for her.

It will be tough if you are one of those that does not have a mind of your own because these anchor persons are much more powerful than the political leaders because they are on air like 5 days a week on primetime.

So this is America, you can say anything and you can have everything. Of course everything will not come on your lap if you don't work hard for it. But sometimes, all it takes is a bit of luck. Take for instance, William Hung. As long as you get your well-deserved airtime and I mean you don't even have to be the winner, in fact, in his case, be a total reject. But if lady luck shines on you, contracts and deals may come your way. Take part in a reality show, be it American Idol, The Next American Top Model, Survivor, Amazing Race, The Apprentice etc and somehow or rather, you might just get noticed and the money will just start rolling in.

This is America! If you have an idea or just plain lucky, seize the moment!!!

Perhaps I should get my brain cracking and come up with something ingenius because who knows that success may come so sweet eventhough if it's just a little something for the toilet. :)