Yeh Farce Hai Badi

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Some Americans have got into a fizzy over the innocuous remarks made by PepsiCo president, Indra Nooyi, in her speech to Columbia Business School''s graduating students. They''ve put her head on the blog for the way she compared the different continents to the fingers of a hand. She had reserved the middle one for the USA.And the fists began to fly.<br />The objective listener may have found no offence in her statements that it was important to make the other fingers rise in unison with America as it moves forward, and that it is "our responsibility to change the current state of world opinion" about the US. But some students denounced these comments as "condescending" and "anti-American", and they psyched up cyberspace.<br /><br />This unexpected fall-out made the otherwise Oye Bubbly Ms Nooyi feel like a discontinued Coke strategy. Her five-finger exercise was never intended as a paanch-fingered slap on the face of America. Like a cornered politician, Indra-ji complained that she''d been quoted out of context. Pulling out another old line, this one from its own armoury, PepsiCo declared, "Nothing Offensive About It". It proceeded to pour litre-bottles of ice-cold Damage Control on the controversy. No one knows yet if it has managed to seal the thanda.<br /><br />Nooyi is one of US Inc''s stars, so why was she given the lashing stripes? She may have been India-born, but she''s all-American in her corporate thinking. She''s hardly your typical grubby illegal alien. Yet, if the reports are to be believed, the backlash stemmed from — and then fuelled — a smouldering anti-immigrant sentiment. The WASP-ish attitude was that, however impeccable her professional credentials, this cola-di-dah lady was not The Real Thing.<br /><br />Another explanation could lie in the dubious Dubya brand of superpower monopoly and its hazardous byproduct, the Ugly American II. This has led to a renewed defensiveness over image. Ironically, as the over-reaction to the Nooyi speech demonstrates, the more the US gets its boxer shorts in a twist, the more it exposes it''s vulnerable parts.<br /><br />But wait a minute. The outraged bloggers should be commended and copied, not condemned. If they had the guts and the GNP, all the other continents ticked off on Ms Nooyi''s efficient fingers should also have risen in patriotic protest over her stereotyping. <br /><br />Africa should have objected vociferously to being dismissed as the little finger; South America should have demanded to be projected as a newly muscular bloc instead of as the same old, soppy ring finger "symbolizing love and sensuality". Asia should have declared that it didn''t need any certificate from some patronising Pepsi boss; it was perfectly capable of giving itself a Thums Up. And a Europe in disarray definitely needs to suspect anyone pointing it out as "the index finger showing the way".<br /><br />So, who are we to scoff at the US? As sole superpower, it can play its hand any way it likes. Taking a cue from its critics at home, it divides the rest of the world into those at whom it raises the clenched fist, and those to whom it shows the finger. And often it does both to both. Yes, lagi bet. Only America can Do the Dude. <br /><br />HHH<br /><br />Alec Smart said, "How is poaching staffers different from poaching tigers? Here the poached make the killing." <br /><br />Erratica and Juggling Act, compilations of best of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Erratica</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Jugular Vein</span>, now available at leading bookstores. Or log on to www.books.indiatimes.com.</div> </div>