This is a re-edited version of a show already posted. I wasn't able to login to my account to change the first show, so I set up a new account to repost this. Hope that's okay with y'all.
Author Neil Daniel immigrated to the USA from Trinidad-Tobago, searching for what he thought would be a better life. At first, living in the US seemed like a dream, but eventually, he discovered that the US is extremely adept at public appearances, presenting itself to the outside world as the "land of the free" and of "opportunity" for all, where racism, sexism and social injustice rarely exist, where anyone can become successful, if he/she works hard enough to make it, while implementing policies and practices that result in just the opposite.
Now here's an interesting question: If the US is no longer the land of the free, is there such a place when so much of the world has chosen to be influenced by American culture? In a sense, the entire world has become or is striving to become the USA all over again.
Neil Daniel is an author based in Buffalo, NY. Mr. Jay is an activist and writer. Buffy Lo is the host/producer of the show. She also created the music used in the credits. She is an actress, guitarist, writer and filmmaker who was forced to leave Hollywood due to her inability to sleep her way to the top. (Well, we cant all be sluts, yall...) So she now produces her own videos and audiopodcasts for an Internet audience that is few and far between though perhaps more selective (or bored) than the rest... :)
Writer Neil Daniel (Buffalo, NY) discusses growing up in Trinidad-Tobago and watching the island gradually become taken over by US corporations. Beaches are too polluted for swimming. Jobs are scarce, wages low, working conditions poor. And everywhere is the loss of what was once a rich, diverse culture replaced by the homogenized American corporate culture of money, material things and getting one's "piece of the pie."