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July 21, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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How Readers responded to Dilip D'Souza's last column
Date sent: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 17:55:21 -0500 An unwashed immigrant's random thoughts on Dilip's commentary: 1. Would these "Americans" of our next generation be Americans if their parents had not immigrated to the States? 2. The educated and thinking people recognise and realise that Americans as such have evolved over a period of time. All new cultures have contributed to it, and so one can assume one can contribute to it in his own small way. 3. We hear of "African American"/"Hispanic American"/"Asian American" etc even when the person might be a 3rd or 4th generation American… but do we hear of anyone as British American or German American or Swedish American even if one is an immigrant? Some thing to think about... 4. You may speak like an "American," be born one and behave like what you think is the American way. But you will never be accepted as one. So it all depends on what social and cultural circles you move in. You are always likely to be asked "where are you from?" 5. The next generation is bound to be different. Like any where. That is a fact of life. And they will be more so here. But to qualify as a TRUE AMERICAN one has to be embarrassed of one's parents… One will really have to go low down the intellectual ladder to eulogise such a statement/thought as coming from one of the " formidable" intellects. Mr Dilip D'Souza, you seem to be one who believes in "HAVE PEN AND A COLUMN... WILL WRITE. " Please give more thought to what you write. Benegal
Date sent: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 15:08:55 PDT Please stop publishing his articles. To even a Moslem like me, his articles are blatantly biased. He always picks the wrong thing to blame the fundamentalist Hindus with. Or he tries to put all the ills of the society on the Hindutvawadis. He is no different, then, than any of those Hindus fundamentalists who try to pin all the problems of the country on the Moslems. We definitely need to bring out the stupidities of Hindus, but Dilip's articles do more harm to the argument than good. No person in his right frame of mind will accept his articles as genuine and unbiased.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 07:59:08 -0700 America was founded by immigrants who had burned their bridges over a period of time. The new immigrants from China and India are highly educated and pay a substantial sum of their salaries in taxes. Some of the older Americans can retire without poverty because the new immigrants contribute to social security taxes. Many American teenagers are busy with their sexual lives that they do not think going to college is a must. A job with one of the factories or a fast food chain will not pay enough to contribute towards the payment of the SSI of older Americans. Even the Mexican farm labourer contributes to the social security pot. Children eventually forget their culture because many parents adopt the American lifestyle of fast food, babysitters and divorce. The pursuit of money as a mode of ultimate happiness is very evident in the first generation immigrant's lifestyle. Many children rebel like the hippies did in the 1960s. A famous professor who was the dean of the MIT school of business, Lester Thurow, asks that if my neighbour's kids do not attend college whereas my kids go to the grad school, is that any of my business? Thurow says it is his business because he is paying a substantial amount of his income in taxes so that the older Americans can retire well. If his neighbour's kids start working in a fast food joint how will they pay for his retirement? So, in a society, all immigrants and citizens should do well. India's problem is that too many babies are born to too many poor people who cannot take care of them. The spacious railway stations built by the British have become the breeding ground for beggars. Their indulgences are tolerated by the quota mongering khadiwallahs for their own self enrichment.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 07:35:47 +0530 I do not think it is such a good idea to provide a soap box to opinionated people who have preconceived notions about everything. This particular piece says a lot but is supported by no facts or statistics. The writer seems to have decided beforehand what role he wants to project, implying by definition that anyone opposed to his point of view, rightly or wrongly, is narrowminded. Poor writing, to sum it up.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:45:25 EDT It is incorrect to compare the immigration of a city (Bombay) to that of a country (USA). Though fundamentally both involve movement of people towards a place offering better prosperity, the similarity end there. The major difference in my opinion is that the immigrants to Bombay are Indian citizens. They have a full right to be there as they are Indian citizens. However, immigrants to the USA are not Americans citizens to start with. The country has a quiet stringent form of legalised immigration. India would have been really concerned if there is a lot of foreign immigration (from Bangladesh?). India is already over-crowded and thus can ill afford immigration from foreign countries, unlike the USA.
Date sent: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 22:02:50 EDT The French won the World Cup! The French team included "naturalised" citizens. Whether these citizens can be considered less worthy of their status is a matter of conjecture. After India's Independence, most Indians in the British colonies and the protectorates were advised by the Indian leaders (including Indira Gandhi) to identify with the countries where we lived. We all knew that Indians from abroad (whom, incidentally, I call Indian Non-Residents instead of NRIs) would be unwelcome in India because India was the lead player of the Non-Aligned Movement, lest it be judged differently. Dilip or Dinesh D'Souza should not worry about us. Just like the French team, we have Indians and Pakistani origin players playing cricket, soccer, hockey, etc etc in the national teams of other countries. We may be unwashed but we are not ashamed of who we really are! We still have some common and cultural values of our ancestral land of India -- but we also owe our allegiance to the nations of which we have become citizens. Ramesh
Date sent: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 15:37:00 -0400 I think you left out one point in your article: 'assimilation' or at least 'integration' is a process which takes a long time. To go from being an Indian in America, to the next generation of Americans unsure of their Indianness, to the third generation of Indian Americans equally proud of their nationality and heritage is a process which often takes 3 generations -- as has been the case with millions of other peoples coming to the U S from other countries. Yes, some people can cope better than others and find their place in America faster. Everyone's experience is different and that's OK. Niraj Mohanka |
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