From Powerline blog:
At yesterday’s recognition ceremony for newly minted Columbia Business School MBAs, we had the president/CFO of PepsiCo as our distinguished guest speaker. After beginning her speech with words of praise and recognition for the graduates and their families, Ms. Indra Nooyi began to make the political statement du jour. After talking of her childhood back in India, Ms. Nooyi began to compare the world and its five major continents (excl. Antarctica and Australia) to the human hand. First was Africa - the pinky finger - small and somewhat insignificant but when hurt, the entire hand hurt with it. Next was Asia - the thumb - strong and powerful, yearning to become a bigger player on the world stage. Third was Europe - the index finger - pointing the way. Fourth was South America - the ring finger - the finger which symbolizes love and sensualness. Finally, the US (not Canada mind you) - yes, you guessed it - the middle finger. She then launched into a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees us as an overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful nation that gives the middle finger to the rest of the world. According to Ms. Nooyi, we cause the other finger nations to cower under our presence. But it is our responsibility, she continues, to change the current state of world opinion of the US. It is our responsibility to make the other fingers rise in unison with us as we move forward. She then goes on to give a personal anecdote about some disrespectful US business women in an Asian country and how that is typical of Americans overseas. No talk of what the US has done for the world throughout its history. No discussion about the ills that have been cured and the rights that have been wronged by the US. Just how wrong we are for the way we are perceived and how right they are in their own perceptions of the United States.
I honestly won’t totally disagree with Ms. Nooyi’s assessment. If all the fingers were exactly the same, the hand wouldn’t function that well now would it? That "pointer" Ms. Nooyi refers to is actually the nose picker, it usually stinks. The pinkie never hurts because it’s almost never used. The ring finger is the finger that signals to the world you’re beholden to someone else. We prefer freedom. The thumb is the one that gets hurt the most. It dangles aimlessly off to the side and doesn’t function quite the way the rest of the fingers do. I’m fine being the middle finger. It gets all the pussy while the other fingers just sit and watch.
Technorati Tags: International Politics
Tags: International Politics
4 Comments »
on 17 May 2005 at 9:35 pm 1.--H
said …
“…. The rest of the world sees us as an overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful nation that gives the middle finger to the rest of the world …..”
====
To hell we do give the middle finger to the rest of the world!
And we should, why should we not?
If there is rumors like the Newsweek-gate, some were very quick to burn our flags - based on news. And what do we do? we are expected to apologize. How come I have NOT read even a piece of news where people who burnt our flags or murdered others because of the rumors? NOT even a single f&cking news.
F*ck the other 4 fingers or continents, if you ask me, we have to start giving out middle finger more often!
I’m not a jingoistic American, like Ms. Nooyi, I’m also an immigrant from Asia. I don’t like everything about our country BUT I am really fed up to listen to others complaining only about our negatives without any slight attempt to balance them with our positives.
Am pretty sure one gotta be ’smart’ to be able to become the CEO of PepsiCo but “smart” does not necessarily mean anything.
This kind of diatribe is tiring already. Looks like it is a trend that “smart” people have to criticize the US and those who defend them are “stupid” or “redneck”. Call me a “fed up stupid redneck” then.
on 18 May 2005 at 3:28 pm 2.Moonage
said …
Well, glad to see you back –H!
I really don’t consider you a “fed up or stupid redneck”. No offense, but living in San Francisco kinda hurts the image.
I really didn’t take offense to Ms. Nooyi’s comments quite the way I probably should have. We’re mostly big boys in the US. We beg for media exposure all over the planet via our commerce oriented society. As such, taking pot-shots at Aruba would appear to be picking on someone. Taking pot-shots on the big boys isn’t that big a deal. We can handle it. By taking all those pot-shots, the “rest of the world” is just simply re-iterating that we are indeed the big boys.
Secondly, taking pot-shots in many other countries in the world will get you killed or at the very best jailed forever. So, the fact you can do it here is a good thing.
Thirdly, the way I look at things, if the Ms. Nooyi’s of “the rest of the world” don’t like the US, she can leave and be where she would be happier. Even if she is still living in India, she’s Americanized in that her lifestyle is paid for by primarily US income. If that makes her uncomfortable, being a part of the middle finger, she can always leave the hand and return to “the rest of the world”. She won’t be missed in the US.
And lastly, of course, if Ms. Nooyi made better use of the middle finger, she would realize that it’s the best finger there is. For that matter, if those that were so offended by her speech did the same, I doubt they would care quite as much what she had to say. That’s truly what “the rest of the world” needs to be spending more time doing and a lot less time concerning themselves with the US.
on 18 May 2005 at 11:19 pm 3.--H
said …
That’s truly what “the rest of the world” needs to be spending more time doing and a lot less time concerning themselves with the US ….
=====
That’s what I also think. If they actually work more than 35 hours/week and increase their productivity, they probably won’t have time to keep finding faults about the US. And that goes the same to “Americans who love America thus (keep) criticizing America”.
on 22 May 2005 at 4:54 pm 4.Bryan Kerwick
said …
So this is the best the Liberal, Bush hating, military bashers have to offer?
The only logical reply is the middle finger.
I don’t think we should waste our precious time with these people. We should concern ourselves with our anglophone brethren and let the rest fend for themselves.
We should seriously consider moving our service based jobs from India to Liberia. The Liberians are well versed in English as it is the national language and even the liberals couldn’t complain about jobs going to an African country that after all is from the direct descendants of American slaves.
So long as the rest of the world causes us no harm, we should be happy to ignore them and let them fend for themselves. Better still, let the Colonialist country fix the problem for them. Seems like Chirac should be required to fix the mess France made out of places like Syria, Lebanon and of course Viet Nam. Maybe that’s too much reality for those folks to handle though.