Excellent observations, Mervyn. I appreciated each + every one. On Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 10:11 AM Mervyn Lobo <[email protected]> wrote:
> VM, > I like your article but here are a few observations. > > 1) I always thought that Canada would have an ethnic Indian PM before > Britain. > > 2) In six short weeks, the UK has shown us the lofty heights of a system > that allows a party to remove its own leader and the depths of the same > system that replaces the inept leader with something worse. > > 3) The Tory party in GB today is nothing less than a pit of vipers. While > I have no doubts about how street wise Sunak is, he has to deal with much > more than meets the eye. I wish him luck - but I do not see longevity. > > 4) The problem Britain faces today is that of its own making. The locals > there were force fed the idea that they would prosper if they kept away > from trade agreements with their neighbours. The opposite usually happens. > Britain and the people who live there are now paying the price for exiting > from the EU. Things are going to get a lot worse and this winter is going > to be horrendous for households there. > > 5) Personally, I would like Boris back - if only for the entertainment > value he provides. > > 6) Sunak's wife entered into the marriage with her own wealth. That wealth > is not Sunak's. To make this easy for the British to understand, Sunak is > like a Prince Phillip. His wife controls the wealth. > > 7) In 2022, I have no problems with a leader of one country holding rights > to reside in another. About a decade ago, someone in contention for the PM > of Canada admitted he was a French citizen. > > 8) The paramount expectation from your leader is the ability to navigate > the road to economic advancement. > > > Mervyn > > > > > > On Sunday, October 30, 2022 at 02:25:16 a.m. CDT, V M <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Reading-about-Rishi/195919 > > The elfin 42-year-old is a walking trigger warning. The first UK Prime > Minister since Disraeli whose ethnic roots lie outside the British Isles, > and the youngest in 200 years, Rishi Sunak is also an observant Hindu who > made his first official appearances wearing the distinctive *kautuka* > around his wrist. It’s impossible to ignore the historical symbolism of > someone like him taking residence in 10 Downing Street, where Winston > Churchill told his India Secretary that “I hate Indians. They’re a beastly > people, with a beastly religion.” > > Given this context, we can spare – indeed ignore – the jubilation amongst > many Indians that Sunak now leads the erstwhile colonizer. Never mind that > it never would have happened as the result of any general election, and > even his own Conservative Party membership preferred to scrape the bottom > of their barrel to proffer Truss. The new prime minister knows that given > another chance they’ll go for Braverman, which is why the extraordinarily > polarizing daughter of Assagao is back as Home Secretary. It’s interesting > to see how close to the bone her most recent jibe about “tofu-eating > wokerati” strikes her boss as well. At this point, it’s not quite clear > which of these limitlessly ambitious young British Indians will wind up > with the winning hand. > > I really liked how Rana Dasgupta cut to the core of what’s happening on his > Facebook account. The award-winning author – his upcoming *After Nations* > “considers the future of global political organization” – wrote that “we > have reached a point where the people who are capable of winning elections > are, for that very reason, incapable of running the country - and vice > versa. So it is almost impossible to create a plausible union between the > nation-state - which increasingly obeys inhuman purposes directly at odds > with those of its citizens - and a human "leader". This is a situation of > sheer panic. All our political capacities are invested in the nation-state, > and if that monopoly crumbles, we are left with nothing.” > > At the juncture Dasgupta was writing, just one week ago, there was an > increasing clamour to “Bring Back Boris” and reinvest the recently > disgraced and deposed former prime minister. He noted that, “We call out > for a patriarch. All the better if he is corrupt - because this is no > moment for legality and restraint! We need him to lie and cheat and murder > on our behalf. We need him to trample every nicety, every law, every female > spirit standing in our way. That is the unhinged nature of our present > political arrangements. It is not that people are stupid. A good system > does not collapse because of people's varying intellectual powers. It is > that people are so squeezed out of history, that they are no longer guided > by anything save their existential terror.” > > In the end, of course, Boris didn’t make it back. And so Sunak, in an > unprecedented *Balle Balle *ballyhoo including lots of ludicrous > American-style breast-beating about the superior workings of British > multculturalism. Here’s Sajid Javid – the Conservative Party MP who has > previously served as both Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer – > with a typical tweet: “Britain is the most successful multiracial democracy > on earth and proud of this historic achievement.” It’s an odd claim to make > about the very same country that just went through public paroxysms about > the death of its hereditary monarch, along with the shocking suppression of > all dissent about her legacy. > > ““Diversity” is a meaningless term unless it heralds real change”, wrote > Priyamvada Gopal in *Al Jazeera*. “Even Mahatma Gandhi noted that his > patriotism did not mean people could ‘be crushed under the heel of Indian > princes, if only the English retire’. Sunak is very much a British Indian > prince, not just privately educated and extremely wealthy but an > ideologically committed activist for the riches and privileges of Britain’s > small oligarch class to be bolstered at the expense of the many. Britain is > reeling under a crushing dozen years of Tory rule during which wealth has > been concentrated in the hands of a record number of billionaires. Sunak > only promises more of the same if not worse.” > > Gopal is on the faculty at Cambridge University, and among the > clearest-eyed analysts of the UK today, which is why she’s often > caricatured in that country’s deeply disgraceful, openly ethno-nationalist > right-wing media. As she points out, “Sunak represents the triumph of a > carefully managed and trivialised diversity that serves to conceal the > reality of the unvarying oligarchy that Britain has become,” What is more, > “it is bizarre to invite people to set aside a politician’s politics to > celebrate their ethnicity. It’s like asking people to set aside a fashion > designer’s style or a chef’s ability to cook in judging their work. But we > must also reject the racist notion that the content of what a Black or > Asian leader offers is not relevant to questions of social change. What a > Britain utterly broken by Tory rule desperately needs are not diverse > shades of exploitation and inequality but the welcome multiplicity of > shared wellbeing. That is a long way off.” > > I also appreciated Pankaj Mishra’s scathing, no-holds-barred commentary in > *The > Guardian*: “Sunak’s carefully trimmed career pathways to plutocratic chic > make him resemble a human pinstripe rather more than the devout Hindu in > loincloth – Mahatma Gandhi – who helped the sun set on the British empire. > Sunak’s deeper pieties are revealed by his professional choices: > credential-stockpiling and network-formation at Winchester, Oxford (PPE) > and Stanford (MBA), stints at Goldman Sachs, and then bank-raiding and > tax-dodging hedge fund firms, directorship of his billionaire > father-in-law’s investment company, a US green card and eager membership of > a traditionally nasty political party.” > > Mishra refers to Braverman and Sunak devastatingly appropriately as > “overpromoted Tories”, noting that “winning was always easier for a people > who spoke English relatively well and avoided political conflict while > pursuing their obsessions with educational achievement and social > mobility.” And, “in particular, twice-migrants, such as Patel’s and Sunak’s > [and Braverman’s] families, have been much better placed than any diasporic > community to benefit from three decades of neoliberal globalisation under > American and British auspices…Sunak, now married to a Indian citizen richer > than King Charles, shares his glossy biography with many men (and some > women) of Indian ancestry who today own the world’s biggest industries and > run major banks, hedge funds and Silicon Valley companies.” > > The bottom line, according to Mishra: “What’s truly unprecedented about the > new occupant of 10 Downing Street – who held on to his green card while > living next door with his then-non-dom wife to Boris Johnson, and who owns > a penthouse in Santa Monica, and may soon jet off to sunny California – is > not his showy Hinduism or brown skin, but his multiple identities as a > ferociously networked transnational that allow him to operate > simultaneously in several countries. That this “citizen of everywhere”, a > devout Hindu in a tie and cashmere hoodie, should now be chosen to mollify > financial markets and caress the Brexit fantasy of absolute sovereignty > says a great deal about the ideological dementia of the Tory party… But we > should be in no doubt about what an immoral and inept political class wants > us to celebrate: “Asian representation” leading a cruel Tory programme of > mass impoverishment.” > -- #2, Second Floor, Navelkar Trade Centre, Panjim, Goa Cellphone 9326140754
