Oh Baabbby!

I was chatting with a friend updating him with my latest knowledge about US politics. I have some grad students who are forced to listen to me, unlike my husband who walks away nowadays, and its not even a year, dammit!

This is what we were talking about. Ya, the same Baaabbby guy. See, I know I'm a huge fan of Obama. And I do not deny it. But then he is good, admit it. The charisma is outstanding, and his oratory skills are beyond compare. I just do not understand how it was good politics to send in our very own Baabbby to respond to Obama. One, Baabbby belongs to a party that literally ruined the economy, two, he is SUCH a bad orator! And he is from Louisiana, a prominently Republican state which was neglected during the Hurricane Katrina so bad that it should not even be spoken about in the annals of Republican history. Yes, I'm not a Republican supporter and yes, I'm not all that informed about it. But then this post is not about making informed, intellectual, pseudo American remarks about MY views on American politics. Frankly, I'm interested only because I'm without a job and I did not even come here with the American dream or anything. My problem with this is just that his speech was outrageously stupid, condescending and frankly, put my country in bad light. Call me sensitive, tell me I'm making a big issue of nothing. I do not care.

The truth is that I will not stand for my country to be portrayed as a poor country ALL the f***ing time. We deserve better than this. Yes, I agree we have poverty, but then, hey, why doesn't anyone want to talk about skinheads, or poverty in the US, and now the latest, poverty thanks to stupidity, or just because you elected an African-American President doesn't mean you are all talking about race openly. Dammit, at least we are not hypocritical about caste issues in my country! Please know I'm not defending caste riots or even casteism for that matter. Its so much simpler to address it directly than assuming that atrocities against minorities don't happen!

Baabbby ends every paragraph in his speech with : We ARE Americans, and Americans can do anything. I can imitate him now. Fairly well. I'm unable to produce what I think is pseudo Southern twang in my voice though. Yes, Americans can do anything. I do not have an issue with this statement, really. Every country says it, I think. But then, I have an issue when Baabbby talks of being a son of immigrants ala the latest immigrant, Obama and talks of his dad taking him to the grocery store where very obviously there were SO MANY things and his dad told him: Baabbby, Americans can do anything. Now, if this is the life lesson he remembers receiving from his parents, then, I do not know what to say.

He talks in the same vein and he goes on to say that his dad had seen extreme poverty in India. His words NOT quote unquote: Coming from India, he'd seen extreme poverty. WTF! I'm sorry. What he doesn't realize he mentioned earlier in the speech was that his family was poor even in America for a long time. So, why say poverty and India? We do have other stuff to show, you know? I'm quite tired of being associated with poverty. To be very arrogant, I, as an individual was quite well-off. And I'm educated. I'm fairly independent. Or should I say, was? We do have poverty, we do have a lot of things we aren't proud of. But then, that is not the only thing we are about. That is my complaint about SDM as well. I'm not saying, don't show reality, but then there are other realities that we seem to miss. Consistently.

Coming back to Baabby, he also spoke of Hurricane Katrina and how Government wasn't much of a help then and that we as Americans should not depend on the Government, because again, remember, we can do anything? Seriously, does he realize which Government was ruling then? And how much of Govt. help we do need now? After taking HIS Govt's help for all these years?
As an uninformed immigrant who was rich in a poor country but who is soon going to be poor in a rich country, I know that this was a bad example. What kind of a politician or a leader is he?

And of course, everyone criticized him for being condescending, and so I do not want to go in there. I felt foolish listening to him. Strangely enough, I felt that, he or the Republicans he was representing, were throwing the crisis back to the people and saying: you can do anything, we can't. So, its your responsibility. Contrast this with : Yes, we can. It is the same message, but such a huge difference. There's a message about unity, doing things together, a spirit that Baabbby lacked inspite of remaining true to Sr.Jindal's advice. I still get goosebumps when I hear: Yes, we can.

Yes, Baabbby, Americans can do anything. And I believe if you lead us, Americans HAVE to do anything and everything.

I thought I should have some fun and record my imitation of his "Baabbby, Americans can do anything." But then, my mic on the computer is not working and I couldn't do it!