On Jan 21, 2008 6:15 PM, Badri Natarajan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > What's your answer, Cheeni?
It's a pissing contest. No really, xenophobia must be one of the oldest traits we inherited from our animal ancestors. We don't as fragrantly mark our territory with urine anymore, but the intent is the same. As an aside, I wonder how the border guards and customs officers of the world would react to being called droplets of urine, but that's just for laughs. The USA is held to very high standards, and as it should be - it isn't going to get to carry the title of the "hope of the world" that easily. It is true that the USA has its faults, but show me a country that is as large and diverse that can claim to be more multi-cultural. Recent political ideology in the nation notwithstanding it is a nation built for and by immigrants. My questions about India were really to show that xenophobia style territorial jealousy exists - even towards fellow Indians, and it's fairly common. Since humans are supposedly more evolved, or at any rate at least more complex than animals we have significantly complicated territorial markings. There are many labels to these categories, religion, caste, language and so on. Unfortunately the lines aren't very clear in this modern age of jet travel and the Internet. Nowadays, the territorial lines criss-cross so much that it becomes very difficult for most people to exercise their xenophobia without causing offense. Gone are the good old days when you clearly knew friend from foe. I'd for example feel more at home in the streets of Pittsburgh than in the little lanes of old Hyderabad. I've lived in both cities. Should I take offense when a white Pittsburgher steel worker decries me as a brown immigrant, or should I be more offended when a Hyderabadi muslim views me as a khafir? Or I in turn view him as not one of my own? There are numerous examples, including what Suresh and Ashok Krish pointed out. When in the normal course of our lives we are not able to contain our xenophobic tendencies, how do we expect it to be in control when there is a clearly marked "enemy" as in the case of the Muslims in the US / Gujarat, or non-local-Indians in the North East. I'm not encouraging or condoning Xenophobic behavior, but please - let the nation or man who has not sinned cast the first stone. Cheeni
