Open letter to Barack Obama

18 June 2009
Mumbai

Dear Mr. Obama,

Past is always so easy to understand. It’s only the present that we don’t get hold of, in order to shape up our future. Still, many of us are obsessed with the future. You would definitely be one of these – after all, future was all that you promised in your election campaigns in order to buy the present! But I see a big problem in the way you are going about it, and hence this letter.

The Great American Blackmailers

Think of the way your predecessor George W. Bush managed to get his second term in the office. It’s an easy guess! Yes, it was nothing but blackmailing… Blackmailing the Americans that if they didn’t support him, those evil leaders with weapons of mass destruction would dig their graves, oppps, mass graves… If they didn’t support him, the Afghans would keep bringing down all the Twin Towers, and each Iraqi boy, a born Saddam, will come back to hit at the US… So the scared (and fooled) Americans put their faith behind him, and enjoyed all his fairy-tales with a coke and a ham burger. And they gave him enough time on the chair to make himself an unforgettable world leader. What followed is history… Can he be called a benchmark on blackmailing? Not yet; he has got a serious contender! Who better than yourself Mr. President?

Your message to America

Last week, you addressed a town hall speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You delivered a message to your countrymen. I will present the sequence in which you said things, to bring better clarity. You said: (Ref1, Ref2)

"Our kids are falling behind when it comes to science. We have kind of settled into mediocrity when we compare ourselves to other advanced countries and wealthy countries… That's a problem because the reason that America over the last hundred years has consistently been the wealthiest nation is because we've also been the most educated nation… It used to be by a pretty sizable factor we had the highest high school graduation rates, we had the highest college graduation rates, we had the highest number of PhDs, the highest number of engineers and scientists… Though the Americans used to be head and shoulders above the people of other countries, especially in the field of education, they are fast loosing that position…

So even with the good schools, we have got to pick up the pace, because the world has gotten competitive. The Chinese, the Indians, they are coming at us and they're coming at us hard, and they're hungry, and they're really buckling down.”

Is not this is what is called blackmailing? In your statements, you first express envy: “We have kind of settled into mediocrity when we compare ourselves to other advanced countries and wealthy countries.” I note that here you are comparing the position of US vis-à-vis ‘other advanced and wealthy countries’. Do India and China come here? No. You should be talking about countries like Germany, France or may be exclusively – Japan. But you have a job in your hand – to inspire people, 24X7. Envying the Europeans and Japanese is passé. What a better way to inspire the kids than to prepare a soup, opps, curry, made from a little hatred and lots of insecurity? I will explain how this is exactly what you did…

Teaching them whom to hate

While addressing the students of US, you brought in India and China. India! And China! The dreaded job-snatchers from American Silicon valleys – the Bangalorean savages who eat, drink and think software – the manufacturing mavericks who produce computers cheaper than American cell phones – are not these the real ‘circle of evil’ that Americans in Obama Raj should worry about? I love your spirit of teaching. Earlier, you were teaching them how to eat, what to watch on TV, or even how to dream. And now you are teaching them whom to hate! I remember the last time George W Bush used a hard-power to teach Americans whom to hate. Why hard power? Because beards are hard – caps and black veils are hard – nukes and chemical weapons are hard and even oil is hard in some ways. Now you Mr. Obama are using soft power. It’s not difficult to write a book like ‘A hundred reasons to hate Indians and Chinese’. This is a soft way to do the same - blackmail people to do things. (I wonder why Mr. Bush failed to use this type of soft-manipulation – after all he remains one and only MBA President of the USA in entire history!) Indian students are good at software, they are good in space research, even getting better in nuclear and cutting edge technologies, and they have Bangalores. China has Shanghai while Detroit and Manhattan are in the news more because of bankruptcies than anything else! So your problem was how to let Americans realize and come back till they achieve what it seemed they were destined to lose! And through your speeches, you made use of the uncertainly and vulnerability that a US citizen is going through these days, to blackmail them into studies and hard work!

Declining US Growth rates

Your dilemma is how to sustain the supremacy of the US. US growth rates are witnessing saturation: GDP growth in recent years are 3.2% in 2006, 3.2% in 2007, 2 % in 2008, and (-).57% in 2009. The problem is that many things in life are like the bell curve. You have to come down after a point. How you come down and how you prolong your growth phase is in your hands. I will tell where I think you are making mistakes.

How America can still grow

I think you are wrong when you emphasizes that US was supreme because of its “highest education”. Education as an end in itself won’t achieve much. What will the US do when the entire world becomes “higher educated”? It happens so many times in our life too – when we see things as ends in themselves. Is not it the reason why the US firms are losing out? And they are still not learning lessons! Was not this the very reason why US auto giants lost to Japanese and then protected themselves, but again failing now? I think when the entire US growth model is based on a ‘superiority feeling’, it leaves only one direction for movement – downwards…

Recently, I came to know that Google had to buy present day Orkut from a Turkish guy. He worked for the US firm Google! Doesn’t it tell you how much those non-native Americans contribute to your growth? Long before, US firm Microsoft had to buy Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia. I think the US firms are best at making commercial gains out of ideas. But you should have your own ideas too! Though so many American firms have thrived because of innovation, I see something lacking in your vision. Let us come to the fundamental question – how can US still grow? I think there is only one way – and that is your basic job also. The word is –‘creativity’.

I think the US can still grow only by making ‘creative’ ways into areas where others have not plunged yet… Making the best use of creativity to create niche sectors, to use creativity to come out with lifestyle changing offerings – this is the way forward… Let the Chinese manufacture your designs at the cheapest costs. Let the Indians write software codes for your companies. You should aim at the intellect! But alas, you are fighting with Chinese to continue making tractor components. You are snubbing the Indians for ‘stealing’ your back-office jobs! And then you are blackmailing your people into competing against these very Chinese and Indians? I think this may grant you more years in power in the US, but will take your country downwards…

Please stop blackmailing into future

I think your approach of showing threats to young children to get them to study, and using blackmailing to bring people in the right direction won’t take you far. In fact your approach will kill the very hope that is still remaining in the Great American Dream. Americans like to have fun in doing whatever they have to. The days when the US saw a threat in the USSR and hence made a Space march are over. US now is not an underdog, and those tactics won’t work any longer. The faster you understand this, the quicker you will get back.

In a way, your tactics of threatening and blackmailing will breed a generation of jealous Americans. This would never have happened in history of the US. When a generation of Islam-hating America grew up, we saw the Guantanamo happening. Take care to see if you are not watering a ‘hate-India’ generation to come up… Because, the repercussions would be a loss to the entire world.

From India with love,

(Kumar Rahul)