He He C-da, Can you become US president - even if you were a WASP? No? Neither can I ? You are a US citizen I am not.
Umesh In contrast, the American political system has seldom departed from the mold > of electing male White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) to the aptly-named > White House. John F Kennedy's election in 1960 was considered a minor > exception (he was a Catholic), while Bill Clinton is nominally considered by > some as the "first Black president" because of his empathy for > African-Americans. But it was not until 1984 that a woman came anywhere near > presidency (when Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic vice-presidential > nominee) and it was not until 2004 that a Jew (Joe Liebermann, > Democrat-now-turned Republican-leaning Independent) was on the ticket. > > Of course, Americans are fed plenty of arresting presidential trivia to > suggest that a great variety have occupied the White House. The US has > elected a range of presidents, from one who was completely polio-stricken > (Franklin Roosevelt) to another who was a fashion model (Gerald Ford) and > another who was an actor (Ronald Reagan). There have been large presidents > (at 332 lbs, President Taft once got stuck in a bathtub) and small presidents > (James Madison was a Shastri-esque 5' 4" and weighed only 100 lbs). There > have been Presidents who were loquacious (none more than Bill Clinton) and > Presidents who were taciturn (a woman once bet President Coolidge she could > get more than two words out of him. "You lose," he responded.) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I did not find anything to disagree with. But couldn't help wondering how it is relevant, if we take a moment to ponder on what India's superior diversity has resulted in so far. I won't even go into the details of the diversity of Indian leadership as represented by Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv/Sanjiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, A Kashmiri Pandit and the Half Parsi-Half Brahmin one. What did you find interesting? That a subcontinent full of people of myriads of cultures, languages and histories are all equal as demonstrated by the diversity of PMs or high govt. officialdom ? That would be a real streeeetch, wouldn't you think? ---- Dilip/Dil Deka wrote: > You may not agree with everything in the following article but it makes > interesting reading. > //configuration OAS_url > ='http://adstil.indiatimes.com/RealMedia/ads/'; OAS_listpos = > 'Position1'; OAS_query = '?'; OAS_sitepage = > 'www.timesofindia.com/Innovation/index.html'; //end of > configuration OAS_version = 10; OAS_rn = > '001234567890'; OAS_rns = '1234567890'; OAS_rn = new String > (Math.random()); OAS_rns = OAS_rn.substring (2, 11); function > OAS_NORMAL(pos) { document.write(''); > document.write(''); } OAS_version = > 11; if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Mozilla/3') != -1) > OAS_version = 10; if (OAS_version >= 11) > document.write(''); document.write(''); > function OAS_AD(pos) { if (OAS_version >= 11 & > typeof(OAS_RICH)!='undefined') OAS_RICH(pos); else > > OAS_NORMAL(pos); } > OAS_AD('Position1'); var ACE_AR = {Site: '738071', Size: > '468060'}; Dim adsVB,po adsVB=0 If ScriptEngineMajorVersion >=2 > then adsVB=1 Function adsAX(aX) on error resume next If adsVB=1 then > adsAX=False set po=CreateObject(aX) adsAX=IsObject(po) If (err) then > adsAX=False Else adsAX=False End If End Function The writer spent > considerable amount of time in researching the information. However, the > article says there was/is a PM from Assam. Who is he? MM Singh? > ============================================================= > > From the TOI > > US can learn diversity from India > 10 Feb 2008, 0039 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN > > doweshowbellyad=0; > > Be it Obama or Hillary, either way, a Democrat Prez this year will > truly break the mold (TOI Photo) > > For a man who was once dubbed "the best President the United States never > had," Adlai Stevenson came up with one of the most deliciously ironic quotes > about the highest office in the United States. "In America anyone can be > President; that's one of the risks you take," he once said in mock > self-deprecation. A twice Democratic nominee for the Presidency in the 1950s, > Stevenson's intellectual vim and sparkling wit won him a legion of admirers, > but not the ultimate prize in US politics. > > At a public meeting during his campaign, Stevenson was once greeted with a > cry from a man in the audience who said he would get the vote of every > thinking man in America. "Thank you, but I need a majority," Stevenson > responded dryly. Mocked by the media and his opponents for wearing a worn-out > shoe with a hole in it during the campaign, he sardonically said, "Rather a > hole in the shoe than a hole in head." In 1952, Richard Nixon called him as > an "egghead," a sobriquet he carried with quiet pride and dignity as he paled > into the political twilight as the US envoy to UN. > > Decades later, the myth that "anyone can be the president of the United > States" continues to be perpetuated ("That's the problem," the comic George > Carlin quipped, adding to the make-believe). The truth is, there has been a > pattern to the US Presidency going back 232 years. You have to be white, > male, and wealthy to make it to the White House, going by the metronomic > regularity with which the world's "greatest" democracy has elected 43 > presidents of similar pedigree. > > Stevenson, despite being arguably the brightest man to run for presidency > till Al Gore went for it, would have also fitted the mold. Any other type of > candidate, until now, would have been in the realm of fiction. Indeed, the > writer Irving Wallace did fictionalize the scenario in his 1960s book The > Man, in which Douglass Dilman, a young black politician, is accidentally > pitched into the Presidency. But more of that, and how it has come to > near-realisation, a little later. > > In contrast to the political monoculture that has given the United States 43 > white, male presidents in 232 years, it is in India, one of the world's > younger democracies, that the truth of the statement anyone can go on to the > highest office in the land is being realized all the time. Consider this: in > only 60 years and with 14 Prime Ministers, India has already elected a > staggering variety of chief executives - from a Kashmiri Pandit to a Punjabi > Sikh, India has seen a UP Thakur and Jat, an Andhra Brahmin, a Punjabi > Khatri, a Karnataka Gowda, and a half-Parsi, half-Brahmin pilot, among others > at the helm. > > It has even elected a widow, a widower, and a bachelor among its 14 PMs (the > US in contrast, counts only one bachelor among 43 presidents). Counting both > domicile and birthplace, India's 14 PMs span nine of India's now 28 states - > Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra (Rajiv Gandhi was born > in Mumbai), Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam - including two > who were born in what is now Pakistan's West Punjab (I K Gujral in Jhelum and > Manmohan Singh in Gah). > > What's more, this dharma of diversity is set to expand wider in the coming > years with the prospect of a single Dalit woman from UP, a young modernist > Indian who's half-Italian, and an ultranationalistic Gujarati bachelor among > others lining up for the highest office in the land. Truly, it is in India > that anyone can go on to be the Prime Minister. > > In contrast, the American political system has seldom departed from the mold > of electing male White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) to the aptly-named > White House. John F Kennedy's election in 1960 was considered a minor > exception (he was a Catholic), while Bill Clinton is nominally considered by > some as the "first Black president" because of his empathy for > African-Americans. But it was not until 1984 that a woman came anywhere near > presidency (when Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic vice-presidential > nominee) and it was not until 2004 that a Jew (Joe Liebermann, > Democrat-now-turned Republican-leaning Independent) was on the ticket. > > Of course, Americans are fed plenty of arresting presidential trivia to > suggest that a great variety have occupied the White House. The US has > elected a range of presidents, from one who was completely polio-stricken > (Franklin Roosevelt) to another who was a fashion model (Gerald Ford) and > another who was an actor (Ronald Reagan). There have been large presidents > (at 332 lbs, President Taft once got stuck in a bathtub) and small presidents > (James Madison was a Shastri-esque 5' 4" and weighed only 100 lbs). There > have been Presidents who were loquacious (none more than Bill Clinton) and > Presidents who were taciturn (a woman once bet President Coolidge she could > get more than two words out of him. "You lose," he responded.) > > But in the end, they all responded to the same basic description - White > Male. > > Now, after 232 years, the United States - at least one political half of it - > has come within sniffing distance of truly breaking the mold. Whether the > Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as their candidate for the > White House, history will be made, and even greater history (getting to the > White House itself) attempted. If anything, fact will follow fiction, and > it's not just by way of Irving Wallace's The Man, a book written in the 1960s > when the idea of a black president was truly in the realm of the fantastic. > In recent years, there have been a number of films and TV serials that has > portrayed black presidents - Chris Rock in Head of State, Morgan Freeman in > Deep Impact, Tommy Lister in The Fifth Element and a couple of actors in the > TV series '24'. They have been fewer showing women in the presidential role - > Meryl Streep is set to play a President in a forthcoming comedy with Robert > DeNiro playing "First Man." > > But if and when it happens in real life, the US would still be behind the > curve with regard to India in at least one aspect - diversity in high office. > > > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > [email protected] > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/ http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
