Random thoughts as I am forced to sit at home, watching non-stop squalling for the past 24 hours.
Buffeted by Cyclone Nilam in Chennai, I watch in wonder media images of 'Frankenstorm' Sandy. Hitting the coastline near New York, almost 180 degrees away on the globe, with so much fury and force. I also read President Obama's statement, cancelling his election campaign so that he can effectively monitor the state's response to the calamity. Contender Mitt Romney has also cancelled his campaign meetings, presumably because that is the right thing to do.
The right thing to do - this is a short phrase with so much power. So much short in supply in our country, but in such abundance in the United States of America. In Indian polity, there are no right things to do - only things that benefit individuals, often at the cost of the country. Sometimes I wonder, are we really so venal a people? Has all our goodness and decency really been stripped away? I see overwhelming evidence to support this unfortunate thought. In my youth, I used to think that this was because of our colonial history - scarcity and want had made us greedy. But I have been assured by various sensible people that public polity in much poorer nations is much better than in ours. Civic sense, politeness, honesty - one can find all of these in much greater proportions in some of the poorest countries in the world, but are so uncommon here.
But this is a post about the greatest nation on the planet.
Recent history is full of examples where the US has done things because they are the right things to do. Launching a war halfway across the globe in Afghanistan, because a menace to their country arose from there. Printing more dollars and debasing the currency, because that is the only thing going to help the unemployed in that country. Being at the forefront of innovation, be it Apple with the iPhone / iPad, Microsoft with its buggy operating systems, Intel with its chips or Facebook with its website. Samsung, Foxconn and all the others are just footnotes in the saga of American enterprise and innovation.
I do not have the least doubt that the economic crisis encircling the globe today will end with the re-emergence of the US as a moral, economic and cultural superpower, and the decimation of Europe, along with the decline of China. India? India will hobble along in mediocrity, an outcome destined by its citizens' pettiness and selfishness.
Buffeted by Cyclone Nilam in Chennai, I watch in wonder media images of 'Frankenstorm' Sandy. Hitting the coastline near New York, almost 180 degrees away on the globe, with so much fury and force. I also read President Obama's statement, cancelling his election campaign so that he can effectively monitor the state's response to the calamity. Contender Mitt Romney has also cancelled his campaign meetings, presumably because that is the right thing to do.
The right thing to do - this is a short phrase with so much power. So much short in supply in our country, but in such abundance in the United States of America. In Indian polity, there are no right things to do - only things that benefit individuals, often at the cost of the country. Sometimes I wonder, are we really so venal a people? Has all our goodness and decency really been stripped away? I see overwhelming evidence to support this unfortunate thought. In my youth, I used to think that this was because of our colonial history - scarcity and want had made us greedy. But I have been assured by various sensible people that public polity in much poorer nations is much better than in ours. Civic sense, politeness, honesty - one can find all of these in much greater proportions in some of the poorest countries in the world, but are so uncommon here.
But this is a post about the greatest nation on the planet.
Recent history is full of examples where the US has done things because they are the right things to do. Launching a war halfway across the globe in Afghanistan, because a menace to their country arose from there. Printing more dollars and debasing the currency, because that is the only thing going to help the unemployed in that country. Being at the forefront of innovation, be it Apple with the iPhone / iPad, Microsoft with its buggy operating systems, Intel with its chips or Facebook with its website. Samsung, Foxconn and all the others are just footnotes in the saga of American enterprise and innovation.
I do not have the least doubt that the economic crisis encircling the globe today will end with the re-emergence of the US as a moral, economic and cultural superpower, and the decimation of Europe, along with the decline of China. India? India will hobble along in mediocrity, an outcome destined by its citizens' pettiness and selfishness.
1 comment:
cant help but agree especially with your assessment of the general Indian attitude.
the wave of scams coming out in the open no longer shocks or disgusts but makes me despair as to what can be the future of a country where even the powerful and elite behave with pettiness n mediocrity. and the middle class continues to pretend playing a helpless victim while engaging freely in their own scale of corruption and rowdiness.
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