Ms Holden you’ve got real sense.  I thouroughly agree with her statement, specially with the "underdog" factor.  From  the first time I saw (& heard!!!) the video & specially for her choice of song, I felt that this lady, somehow, was translating into music the pathos of this particular zeitgeist.  It is good for the soul to meditate on the lyrics of it, that’s why we all wept along.

Amidst chaos, very similar to the one upon which Les Miz was based, we are all underdogs, we feel beaten, but, still, we can soar above……

I understand you so well.  Poverty is a fact of life, but poverty in a rich country is downright immoral,

I live in Argentina & in December 2001 we had a financial crack + political turmoil so devastating that at first, people were just paralyzed.  There was no money in the banks, credit cards were not acceptable in most places. just hard cash would buy you food or medicines. This used to be a very rich country, the urban middle classes had no idea how misery looks like.

For the first time in our lives we saw thousands of people searching the garbage bags every night, I am sad to report that even now in 2009 we still see them, day in, day out. There  has never been a contingency plan to support these poor, just periodical hand-outs when election time arrives.  How they survive you may wonder.  Just plain solidarity, there are many organized NGO & religious centers doing this job but the secret is that most of us are helping one or more families out of our own pockets.  It is good for the soul, as you give and receive at the same time & it also makes you more responsible in the use of your resources.  I guess you people are going to live through  the same kind of experience.  It’s very scary at the beginning but you’ll be surprised how powerful you’ll become when the outer trappings of wealth just fall off & the joy of a good deed done makes your day & discover blessings in places you never saw before.  Toughen up & be of good cheer as my Grandma used to say.

I’m glad you reminded us of La Doña, there has never been such a beautiful woman on screen.  Her first mexican movies made in the forties, in the stark, realistic style of those years, when there was no photo-shop or any other "improving" technique, still show us a woman so sensuous, magnetic and at the same time so free, that her powerful image was that of a cougar or in this case, a jaguar.  Her appeal was not restricted to younger men.  Male specimens of all ages went mad for her.  Probably, only "la Dietrich" was in her category, but Marlene was an ice queen & Maria was like white heat.  She died almost seven years ago on her birthday, in her bed surrounded by her favourite things, in her exotic mexican home.  She is still missed, at least south of the Rio Grande & in France.  A unique woman.