And they call themselves Secular !!!!

Here's an interesting article written by TJS George for newindpress:


WE live in a racist world. At immigration counters, we accept this as routine. But at the higher levels of international finance and business, manifestations of racism do cause surprise in this age of globalisation.

The world saw a nasty example of colour-culture discrimination when L.N. Mittal tried to take over Arcelor in Europe. He was already the ‘steel king of the world’, yet an executive of Arcelor refused to deal with ‘monkey money’. That was a crude reminder of Europe’s white football hooligans who put on monkey imitations when black players score goals. That the executive had to eat his words and watch Arcelor becoming Arcelor-Mittal is another story.

Perhaps more significant is the mentality that made the US-listed luxury hotel chain Orient Express ridicule Tata’s suggestion of a tie-up. The CEO of that company, appropriately named Paul White, explained that ‘any association of our luxury brands with your brands would result in a reduction in value of our brands’. White Saheb took umbrage that, despite an earlier rebuff by Orient Express, Tatas dared to write again expressing an interest in the alliance. Hence his expression of contempt for
`your predominantly domestic Indian’ chain.

A week earlier an American automobile chief had scorned Tata Motors’ bid for Ford’s luxury models. ‘I don’t believe’ he said, ‘that the US public is ready for ownership out of India for a luxury-car brand such as Jaguar’. He said ‘there are unique image issues’ with Tatas and Mahindras that the third bidder, a white American, did not have.

All of which is of course asinine white rubbish. For one thing, Tata is a globally respected brand. For another, the US public last week was ready for Vikram Pandit as the boss of Citigroup, America’s largest financial conglomerate, just as it was ready for Indra Nooyi as head of Pepsi, a symbol of American nationalism. Before them Rajiv Gupta was GM of Hewlett-Packard, Arun Netravalli was President of AT&T, Rajat Gupta headed McKensey, Rana Talwar led Stanchart, not to mention Vinod Dahm who created the Pentium chip, and Sabeer Bhatia who founded Hotmail.

Clearly, when it comes to brainpower, the White man wants what the Brown man has, and there is no image issue there. But when it comes to simple racial arrogance, even bureaucratic factotums in American consulates show their colours. Not long ago scientist Kesavan, duly called for visa interview in Chennai, was made to wait an hour in the midday sun, then two more hours inside, before he was given a questionnaire and told, ‘fill it up or you won’t be interviewed’. Scientist Govardhan Mehta was told that he was lying about his research; visa denied.

Perhaps the fault is ours. Finance Minister Chidambaram recently complained that America discriminated against Indian banks that wanted to open branches there. Instead of complaining, would he make American banks run from pillar to post when they come to do business in India? Remembering how Defence Minister George Fernandes was body-searched in Washington, will our Sarkar subject Condoleezza Rice to a frisking in Delhi?

The way to get respect in this mixed-up world is to do unto others what others do unto us.

Articles on Mangalore

Here's an article on Mangalore in the Time Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060619/mangalore.html