Friday, November 7, 2008

Obamania

Finally, the United States sees an interracial president - something that seemed utterly impossible decades ago. And he's not just interracial, part of his name is Hussein! Next, it'll be time for the first ever woman president of the United States and then all taboo will have been lifted.

In one of his speeches, Barack Obama said that he would never forget one particular voter for obvious reasons - she was a 105 year old African American woman. After having lived through a terrifying abduction from her homeland, slavery, racism and every other by product of being a coloured person in the United States, voting Obama to presidency must have been the day she had been waiting for in a very long time. This simply took me back to Alex Haley's "Roots" which I thoroughly enjoyed reading several years back.

There is a multitude of races in the US - Mexicans, African Americans, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, Native Americans... while most of them made it to this "land of opportunities" out of their own will, two races were put through tremendous trauma. In my opinion, when a Native American or an African American ranks the most powerful, it is indeed an achievement worth gloating about.

We recently heard from some American friends that the cops in Illinois were levying heavy tickets on people speeding by over a 5 mile per hour limit. Five hundred dollars for a speed that's five over the posted limit! Atrocious! Then we were told that they were running out of monetary resources and were therefore trying to replenish themselves. Sounds just like India, only, it's all made to look legal here, huh! Now why wouldn't this happen if this country spent so much on troops in Afghanistan and Iraq! Hopefully, when Obama retrieves his troops and backs off the war, we will pay less taxes and spend less on gas.

Either ways, we miss India and the dirty politics, dirty roads, bribery, pot bellied cops, expensive vegetables, smelly public toilets... it amazes me how the same Indian man can stand and pee on a compound wall in Chennai, while act dignified here... some things never change.

3 comments:

Abishek Ravi said...

IRONY : A lot of people ( voters incl. ) claim US of A is coming to terms with anti-racism by voting an African-American ( Legal, nice-wording phrase for what is otherwise "Black(s)" , My Bad Nigga !!! ) as the President. Ironically, all the anti-racists, idealists, ethnologists still want to classify him as the first African-American president. You claim you are an anti-racist and you still want to term him an African-American.

CONSOLATION : I was under the impression that voters were not being prudent only in India, where hypocrisy runs high. One side of the coin preaches unity at a national level and the same side of the coin banks on a vote bank ridden with caste, regionalism and language ( dialects too ). The other side of the coin, is simply indifferent and disinterested.
Same happened to be the case in the recent American Presidential elections. Hence the consolation. Millions fell for one subjective term without pondering on the objectivity -> "Change".

As for my blogging, i have taken a temporary break. I felt i was shooting targets in the dark. Trying to find sometime and discover the thin line, that divides pragmatism and idealism, to tread on.

Rajesh Rajoo said...

Ha! Somethings never change indeed. I was in Hyderabad over the weekend, my first time there as a tourist and the first thing that struck me wa the fact that people just peed wherever they liked! I mean, they just did it whenever the rain Gods beckoned. Now how funny is that! Nevertheless, I oved it there.

Rums said...

Abhi - Very valid point. It could apply to Rice, but Obama is literally half African and half American, so I guess they can get away with this one.

Truth is, politics is a global language and can be not very different. It's all made to look legal and people-sought in some places.

As for your blogging, I hope you get back to blogosphere asap! :)

RDX - Woo hoo, Hyd huh... hope the Andhra Biryani didn't do too much to your tums. You know, we jokingly call Telugu as one of the national languages of the US as there is a flocking number of golts here... they don't piss on the roads but I'm sure they did in Hyderabad :)