Politics: In Defence of George Bush Jr.

I expect this to be a deeply unpopular blog with plenty of adverse comments. How can you defend George Bush Jr, people will ask? Look at the mess he has made, especially in Iraq. Look at his approval ratings – barely 25% of Americans approve of his presidency at the moment. He is dyslexic, clueless about foreign affairs and policy and knows very little about macro-economics. His prior experience as a businessman and owner of a baseball team show him to be a failure. So how can you defend him?

To begin my defence, let us first list the facts. All of what I have mentioned in the previous paragraph is true. George Bush made a huge mistake going into Iraq, a country that under Saddam Hussein was a tyranny. However, it was a secular, reasonably moderate country in the Middle East. Crucially, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was an important counterweight to the other key player in the region – Iran. As long as you had these two countries balancing each other out, the world was a safer place. Now that Iraq is no longer a rival, Iran has aspirations of becoming a regional superpower and there is nothing the US can do to stop them.

There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq either. I agree that Iraq was Bush’s one big mistake. Because of that expensive error of judgment, the US became deeply unpopular throughout much of the Islamic world. Dubya’s father, the far more capable and intelligent George Bush Sr., did the right thing during the first Gulf War in 1991. He bombed the hell out of Saddam Hussein, destroyed the Iraqi Army and left, having taught Saddam a lesson for invading Kuwait. That war was won in days, it was inexpensive and the body count was low.

But if you take the Iraq War out of the equation, how would George Bush Jr. fare as a president? Would his legacy be viewed more favourably? Here again, it depends on your perspective. Bush did nothing to help in managing the two big domestic economic crises that an aging America faces – Social Security and Medicare. He refused to tackle the key problem of prohibitively priced healthcare insurance - a problem that deprives tens of millions of Americans from getting access to affordable healthcare. At the beginning of his presidency, he laughed off concerns about global warming, saying these fears were exaggerated. He did not encourage American automakers to develop alternative fuels.

But George Bush Jr. also did quite a few good things. The most important among these (for countries such as India and China) was that he encouraged and supported free trade. As a result, China became the manufacturing hub of the world. Its economy grew by leaps and bounds, and millions of Chinese were pulled out of poverty. India became the services and information technology hub of the world. The explosive growth of India’s services sector in the last decade owes a lot to George Bush Jr. He made it easier for qualified foreigners to live and work in the United States, by liberalising immigration policies. During his presidency, the U economy remained robust and grew faster than it had in decades, which created jobs for Americans, Indians and Chinese alike.

George Bush Jr went out of his way to work with India on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. I do not claim to be an expert on this deal, but when people like former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Indian National Security Adviser K. Narayanan support the deal, I assume that it is in India’s best interests. He stayed out of the Kashmir issue, and said it was a bilateral matter that needed to be resolved between India and Pakistan.

It is easy (and completely wrong) to blame George Bush Jr. for the current economic recession in the US. The fact is that he had nothing to do with it. The legislation to provide supposedly “affordable housing” to those who could not afford it was one that was passed many years ago, by his opponents the Democratic Party. This legislation was a populist one designed to garner votes. Dubya in reality, tried hard to nullify this legislation. The fact is that Dubya presided over the largest global economic expansion in history – one spanning six years from 2001 to 2007. Thanks to the economic policies of his government, the U.S, China, India and many other countries prospered.

It is possible that history will be a little kinder to George Bush Jr. From an American viewpoint, Bush started the Iraq War, and did nothing to combat global warming, resolve the healthcare crisis or reduce that country’s dependence on foreign oil. But he also ensured seven years of unprecedented economic growth. From an Indian viewpoint, he was a friend of India and his policies were consistently pro-India. Therefore, his legacy for Americans will be a mixed one. His legacy for India however, will be uniformly positive.

This does not mean that I have anything against Barack Obama. I wish him well. But there are a couple of areas of concern. The first is his view on outsourcing. He has said that he will find ways to penalise American companies that are “shipping jobs overseas”. This is like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena saying that jobs in Maharashtra should be reserved for only Marathi speaking people. The fact is that all employers around the world will always find ways to reduce their costs of production. Lower costs of production means that consumers like you and me pay lower prices for goods and services. I sincerely do hope that Obama does not try and curb US outsourcing work to other countries, because this is something that is mutually beneficial.

The other warning sign is that Obama plans to appoint Bill Clinton as “envoy” to help “resolve” the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. This is being done in the mistaken belief that Pakistan will fight terrorism better if they had all their troops stationed on the Afghanistan border. Also of course, now that Hillary Clinton is no longer a candidate for US President, Bill needs something to do to keep him gainfully occupied. This desire to appoint an “envoy” to “solve” the Kashmir problem is worrisome. Kashmir is a bilateral problem between India and Pakistan.

But it is still early days. Obama is intelligent, charismatic and seems to be a unifier. He has overcome formidable obstacles to become the President-elect. He appears to be very serious about combating global warming. He has publicly stated that he will encourage research into alternative fuels and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. He appears serious about resolving America’s healthcare and social security crises.

But will he be a good friend to India? Only time will tell.

Observations: In Praise of Hybrids

Barack Obama has won the U.S. Presidential election. Plenty has already been said about his historic victory, so I am not going to give you my take on it. Suffice to say, the challenges facing him are daunting. The most important and immediate challenge he faces is finding ways to resuscitate the U.S. economy. A normal remedy would include a massive increase in public spending, which is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) did during the Great Depression, seventy years ago. However, Obama will find this difficult to do since the U.S. federal deficit is already at an all-time high. Besides, any additional public spending would probably mean an increase in taxes as well as the potential threat of higher inflation. In a time where people are losing jobs, this will be an extremely unpopular thing to do. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the global economic crisis. A silver lining will be the fact that the Democrats have gained substantially in the races for the Senate as well as the House of Representatives. This should make it easier for him to introduce any legislation he has in mind to improve the world’s economic situation. Yes, it is the world’s economic situation that will be determined by Obama’s policies, and not just America’s.

But I digress. This blog is not about Obama’s victory. Instead, it is about something that many people do not know or consider important. The media all over the world has been waxing eloquent about Obama being the first “black/African-American” person to become the U.S. President. Actually, Obama is not black. He is of mixed race. His father was an African-American, while his mother was white. The media always needs to categorise whatever they report, so it is convenient to slot Obama as a black man. Like I said a little earlier, this is not a fact.

Obama (like Yours Truly) is a hybrid. He is a racial hybrid; while I am an ethnic hybrid (my father is a Bengali, while my mother is a Kannadiga). In my own small way, I have faced similar problems. Indians I meet always ask me my ethnic background. There is no simple way to answer this question. I either say “Bengali” if I want to give them a short answer. If I am in a chatty mood, I give them the long answer, which is: “My father is a Bengali who grew up in Mumbai. My mother is a Konkani-speaking Kannadiga who grew up in Karnataka. I was born and raised in a Roman Catholic neighbourhood in Bombay, so I frequently went to church. In the impressionable years of my youth, I spent six years living and studying in America, which made me very independent-minded and shaped my identity”.

This last encyclopaedic answer effectively shuts people up. It is also the correct answer. There are many people who find it difficult to categorise me. In their minds, I am a “Bengali”. This is incorrect, but I guess it works for them. Understanding the truth sometimes requires patience, the ability to listen and the realization that every question in the world does not have a neat answer which can be put into a box. Many people aren’t interested in the truth; they only need an answer that can be easily categorised.

I can vouch for the fact that there are plenty of positives about being a hybrid. For Obama, it is being able to reach out to people across races and classes, Democrats and Republicans, to develop consensus. He can relate to blacks as well as whites. He has enough of a perspective to understand the unique challenges and advantages faced by both races. In my own small way, I can relate. I can understand the Bengali language as well as its customs, traditions and rituals. I can also understand my mother’s language and heritage. Add to that the fact that I grew up in cosmopolitan Bombay, and lived and worked across cultures and countries, and this puts me in a pretty unique position.

There are narrow-minded Indians who feel that the ethnic group they belong to is somehow superior to other ethnic groups in the country. There have been enough instances of this in the national news lately. Frankly, I find this laughable. Obviously, these individuals and groups have their heads buried in the sand.

My advice to them is simple – pull your head out of your ass and take a look around you. The world is large and diverse. India is only a small part of what the world has to offer. Take the time out to learn and understand the various cultures and ethnic groups in India. You may be astonished to learn that many of your deep-rooted beliefs are inaccurate and just plain wrong. You may be surprised to find that some of the traditions and histories of other ethnic groups are actually richer and more interesting than your own.

For my outlook on life, I have my parents to thank. They brought me up to be an Indian and a citizen of the world. They taught me to be independent minded, to search for the truth, and to refuse to settle for easy, incorrect answers. Sometimes, the search for the truth can be a frustrating and unsettling experience. It can also be lonely. It requires the searcher to constantly learn new things, and to frequently challenge cherished long-standing beliefs. Each person’s search for the truth is his or her own, and there are no prefabricated paths for you to walk on. To quote the lines of an old song by Van Morrison; “No Guru, No Method, No Teacher”.

So I wish Barack Obama all the best in his quest to rejuvenate America, the greatest country in the world. He is faced with some formidable problems – an ailing economy, an unpopular war and an empty treasury. But he also has a unique set of qualities and a diverse background. He is neither black nor white; he grew up in the American heartland of Chicago, but also in Indonesia and Kenya, he understands the problems of poor inner cities in America, but also studied at Harvard. He is a hybrid, and like all hybrids, he can understand issues that many others cannot. He may or may not succeed in his quest. But as a hybrid, I am rooting for him.

Thanks for listening!!