The case of Indian-American Republicans

Dinesh D'Souza has been getting a lot of attention lately in the media for publishing his article in Forbes depicting the thought process of our commander in chief. He starts out supporting his thesis by saying that to most Americans, "anti-colonialism is an unfamiliar idea" and he starts explaining it. First off, if you have gone through high school in America, there are numerous general education requirements and among them in U.S History and World History. I distinctly remember my sophomore year in Tamalpias High School, where I was reading literature and engaging in critical thinking about the 19th century in America when slavery was rampant. When one reads that over 100 years ago, a person of color was much judged by the color of his skin than the content of his character, Americans do realize what colonialism was about. So not only was Dinesh wrong in the fact that Americans are ignorant in this topic, as a matter of fact, at the end of of WWII, one of the contributing factors for Independence in many of the third world countries was coersion from American foreign policy that gained much clout over Europe.

The content of his article is just as misguided as his opening statements. Dinesh argues that Obama's moratorium on off shore drilling while allowing the import-export bank to finance oil exploration in Brazil is another product of his anti-colonial views. Has anyone recently heard of yet another malfunction in a oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico just last week? It's not that the Obama administration is punishing the oil industry, rather taking pro active measures in checking the safety of operations as to prevent another catastrophe from happening. Brazil always had more regulations and required more strenuous back up systems in place for oil rigs than America ever proposed. In addition, none of the directors in this bank is an Obama appointee (they are still waiting to be confirmed by the senate). Lastly, when Dinesh suggests that Obama is carrying his father's dream and running the country based on his father's experiences. Excuse me? Really... now you just want to attack someone's character and their dignity without even ever meeting them? Unfortunately, these are the kinds of attacks that garner lots of cheap publicity for his new book. Columbia Journalism Review puts it best on his article, ""gross piece of innuendo -- a fact-twisting, error-laden piece of paranoia. This is the worst kind of smear journalism -- a singularly disgusting work."

Reading such derogatory nonsense has opened my eyes to even more pressing issue in American politics today. There are many first and second generation Indian Americans who have been running for elected offices lately and all of them have been on the Republican tickets. This fact alone bedazzles me because India is more diverse than Europe, yet I haven't seen any Indian Americans running on a democratic ticket. Nikki Haley running for governor of South Carolina is a descendant of Sikh immigrants and is a Christian, not a Hindu like most Indians. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana is also Indian by hereditary, but he claims that when he was growing up in the south, he has never experienced racism! These two candidates make me wonder whether if they are wearing the Indian hat just to court voters who value diversity rather than offering solutions based on their actual experiences. As a liberal advocate, I see a huge problem when new immigrants become enfranchised in America and vote against the progressive ideals that is much cherished in their home country. The median household income for Indian American families is the highest in the U.S., $60,093, nearly double the median income of all American families -- $38,885 (source, US Census Bureau). In addition to lower taxes, Indians are more biased towards the Republican party because it was George Bush who initiated the civilian nuclear accord with India that brought the country out of sidelines (although the accord had bi-partisan support in congress). So as a liberal Indian American, I am determined to fight these forces and advocate for the unprivileged, poor and the unrepresented.

America is truly unique

Well let me start of my first blog by declaring my love to the USA! There are many things in this country that doesn't seem right, for instance: how long it took the destitute and orphan adults to get basic health care, nepotism in the business world and etc... But we as Americans fail to recognize our cherished values and other tangible assets we take for granted but are deprived to the majority of humans around the world.
The fact that freedom is actually an idea that Americans talk about and promote is a novel invention and the greatest gifts to progression of human civilization. Teenagers and adults have the right to choose their own sexual partners... something in the nonsecular country would be blasphemous.
Although I am a bleeding heart liberal, I understand and support the republican philosophy of gaining social status by working hard. If I am the president of the United States, I would mandate everyone to study math at least until three dimensional calculus and would require everyone to know software engineering. This way I believe we can rid the society of brain numbing jobs and evolve our workforces faster. I am very optimistic about the future, I think technology would solve mankind's problems, a concept that everyone disagrees whom I talk to so far. You know, I am not surprised, as a matter of fact having such descent is quite natural because no one can even imagine such scenarios until such disruptive lifestyles invade civilization. Not too long ago humans thought that the Earth was flat until Galileo challenged that notion, then people thought that three laws of motion perpetuated by Newton were the fundamental facts of nature until the theory of relativity were discovered by Einstein. So using these analogies, present day imagination cannot phantom a world where AI changes our lives so dramatically that we start on a new stage of evolution.
Working back towards my thesis as to why America is great, I am going to take the example of the BP oil spill disaster and compare it with other calamities in third world countries. Without a question, this disaster is tragic in terms of human lives lost, effects to the environment and the broader economy. But the relentless reports in every media has spurred up dinner table conversation about this very topic in every informed households. Doing so, has intensified pressure on BP and the government to try to stop the spill and mitigate it's impact. In this country, there is a plan to STOP THE SPILL, create a floor compensation of $20 billion for affected victims and also scrutinize every little detail. Whereas, in Niger delta, more oil has been spilled into the waters and no one really gave it as much hype. As a matter of fact, oil is still spilling today and the multinational companies simply shit responsibility to the bandits for stealing piping equipments. India experienced the world's worst industrial catastrophe when methyl isocyanate gas leaked, killed over 2000 people and left nearly half a million people exposed to toxins and poisonous water in Bhopal. The company that was responsible, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), which is now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company walked away by measly compensating less than half a billion dollars to its victims. In addition, there was much evidence of gross negligence and safety violations by the company, but the supreme court of India sided with the culprits and reduced sentences for the company executives similar to that of reckless drivers!