Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - March 2009 - Index

Christ, Our Hope,
An Anchor for the Soul,
Firm and Secure
Whatever the problem,
there’s Hope.
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Zekveld
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HOPE CENTRE
Somewhere in South Asia
lived a teacher who claimed
to accurately “anticipate”
the direct
Toronto-
Delhi flight
the performance of his students. due to “lack
One student went to him in of steady
tears after failing the examina- business”.
tion and the teacher said, “I Indeed,
knew it! An imbecile like you Sun Life be-
can never pass”. As it turned came the only
out, the student had actually Canadian
passed the examination with company to
flying colours – the result had harvest the
a number of errors.
bumper
Upon being informed of the crop through
new result, the teacher exclaimed, partnering
S. GOPIKRISHNA
writes on issues of
relevance to the South
Asian community.
Something doesn’t smell right
“I knew it! Somebody as bright
as you can never fail!”
This fable parallels the
North American reaction to
the progress of South Asian
countries.
When a South Asian country
does well, paeans are sung about
its work ethic, culture and what
have you. When things g o
wrong, you get a smug, “I told
you so! Something about them
smells funny!”
Consider the fallout of the
recent Satyam scandal in India.
Labelled India’s Enron, the
deceit of the founder and the
results of his greed shocked
everybody.
The reaction in North
American media was predictable
– there’s something suspect
about these companies.
There is also an interesting
Canadian sideshow – while
American companies galloped
eastwards to the new gold rush,
Canadians stood on the sidelines
in a combination of
confusion and condescension.
While Americans unabashedly
hailed India, we Canadians
dithered on the sidelines.
The lack of Canadian presence
in the subcontinent was
best illustrated when one of the
major Indian firms reacted to
an interview request from the
Globe and Mail with a “The
Globe who?”
Then Air Canada suspended
with Birla Sun Life Services.
Of course, when things
went wrong, the Americans
were left licking their wounds.
In typical cowboy fashion, they
reacted to the Indian
“misadventure” as the
financial equivalent
of the Iraq fiasco,
and roundly condemned
everything Indian.
The Canadian businesses
invested nothing
and lost nothing
– well, nothing except
for the billions of
dollars that could
have been generated from the
boom.
All of which goes to prove
that neither overt racism (of
the American kind) nor polite
racism (the covert Canadian
variety) are extinct – they periodically
hibernate and come
out of the woodwork when we
least expect them to.
Racism is as tough and
indomitable as the newcomers
who continually vanquish it!
up the ANTE
• The views expressed in this column do
not necessarily reflect the editorial policy
of Desi News.
The mind is like a
parachute. It works
only when open.
CYBER WISDOM