Thank You, J.J. Cale.

Pop Culture; is the single story. As a Colombian, there have been countless time where the mainstreams of society have targeted, and banned any positive ideas serving from Colombians.

Living eleven years in a very privileged NorthShore suburb of Chicago, my eyes opened to a new kind of "single story." My first encounters with discrimination for being Colombian date back to kindergarden, first grade, basically since I can remember. But these first years of discrimination affected a great deal, I would take questions like: "Is your Dad a landscaper?" or "Is your Dad in the import, export, business (if you know what I mean)?" to heart. But as years passed, I realized that this single story of Colombia does not give birth in the minds of my friends, but from the mainstreams of American Culture. I realized very similarly to Adichie that even your "roommates" would express such stereotypes not in the way of an insult but a question, a sign that they don't know better. A sign in which their family doesn't even know better. This tone may seem condescending or disrespectful, but the ideas in my friends possessed were spoon fed. Their parents, amazing people, grew up in a time where Harrison Ford  starred in "Clear and Present Danger" and where J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton were singing; "If you day is done, and you want to ride on... Cocaine!" Both amazing pieces of art, but a prime example of the cause of a single story.

Don´t get me wrong, eleven years assimilating to the stereotypes of American society will leave anyone guilty of the single story. I too have committed the same expressions that once left me questioning my pride as a Colombian. Even in Colombia the single story of the Typical American exists; the "fat bastard."

T.I.A.

Although hard to digest, Kurtz loses the battle between Africa and himself. The continent that made him untouchable also brought  his demise. With the fall of Kurtz, Conrad imposes the ultimate expression of irony, in which, humans participate their whole lives. A similar message is depicted by Ridley Scott´s Blood Diamond. 

Blood Diamond illustrates the turmoil that have been casued by the white man´s quest to satisfy himself, a goal that has proven impossible to accomplish. The movie takes place in the mining fields of Sierra Leone and the the story of a family,  nation, continent, ripped apart by the "White Man´s Burden." A whiteman who rose to power, wealth, and women by taking the most of Africa, the continent who gave it all to him. But as it was once said "what goes up must come down" the same story goes with the mercenary in Blood Diamond. The same goes with HOD, Kurtz became a "someday" thanks to Africa, and that "somebody" was extinguished "with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too. . . " The ironic circle of life that has been so highly critzced by the philopsohers of the 20th century is clearly present in Conrad´s ideology. A lifetime of sweat, cruelty, and sacrifice gives man the allusion of someday of becoming something, but when death calls,which is much swifter than the rising to power,  the man isn't ready because at no point in time did he ever realize what he became..."The horror! The Horror!"(130) As Marlow states "I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless peer, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair." Not even the best, most knowledgeable men die with the comfort of fulfilling their goal of dying with a clear conscience in leaving a successful legacy. So much work for no reward? Is that what; Ridley Scott and Joesph Conrad try to express?

Whether a battle of "principles" or the direct pursuit of wealth, there is no thesis on the "effective way" of how to leave a successful legacy. Many die in vain, discomfort, and others like the existentialists just "accept." Di Caprio just accepts and says: "T.I.A" "This is Africa."