Thursday, August 13, 2009

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backlog 4

I was recently reading an article on the conspiracy theory that Prez Barrak Obama is not a legitimate US President because he has not yet produced long form birth certificates and college records stating that he was born in Hawaii.

The rumor is that Obama was born in Kenya. A Kenyan ambassador and Obamas grandmom have gone on records stating the Obama was born on Kenyan soil.

However, what was particularly interesting is that in the comment section of that debate, I found quite a few Americans (atleast they claimed to be americans) being absolutely cool about the fact that their president is theoretically not one amongst them. Most of them have said that they would be more than keen to outsource all the jobs to people of different nationalities if they could match the skills and prove to be the best person for the task in question.

I hold similar views.

But then maybe this is possible in countries like America where the diversity in terms of people, religion, caste, terrain, economy and neighborhood politics is not as complex as say for a country like India.

Coming to think of it, how many Americans, unlike Indians, would care or be even bothered that their president may not have been born in US. Perhaps very few (of course, given the very infamous high IQ (ignorance quotient and not intelligence quotient), I think most of the Americans would not even know where Kenya is, so you could easily coax them into believing that its a state in United States itself, and get done with all troubles!). Jokes apart, I remember how when Mrs Sonia Gandhi opted not to become the Prime Minister of India and in turn made Mr. Manmohan Singh take the throne, was actually perceived as a great and correct political move. More because most people kind of knew how the people of India would react to having a 'foreigner' as their prime minister. Even though, Sonia Gandhi has proven herself to be just as much Indian as any other politician in India. In addition, I am convinced that she is far better than many of the other so called leaders.

I feel bad and ashamed of these acts and views of pseudo national pride which prejudiced citizens (mostly the educated lot) are proud flaunting.

Anyway, I have been told that I am narrow minded in several things as well. Whatever! (Am not dismissing the claim though ;-))