Aasif Mandvi wasn’t the only person to allude to the fact that Sanjay Gupta’s coming nomination makes life harder for all of us non- attractive neurosurgeon journalists. Sandip Roy, writing at New American Media, also tries to prepare us all for how hard it is going to be for us regular desis to play keep up with the Guptas now:
…I fear it’s a mixed blessing for the rest of us much more run-of-the-mill South Asians. It’s exciting to see someone who comes from your stock make it big. But another neurosurgeon-makes-good story is going to make us look even more like underachievers.
“What’s the matter, beta? Why can’t you be more like that nice Sanjay Gupta? Not just a neurosurgeon but on CNN AND meeting Obama for three hours?”
Not only is he dashing and articulate. Not only did he do brain surgery on a 2 -year-old Iraqi boy while embedded during the Iraq war, now he might be the new Surgeon-general. Let me pause, and reel in the envy!
And his only qualm, according to the Washington Post is “is said to involve the financial impact on his pregnant wife and two children if he gives up his lucrative medical and journalistic careers.”
Golly. This is a South Asian parent’s dream. He’s 39 and he’s already followed the four stages of a good Hindu life – childhood, education, family and now a sort-of-renunciation-and-service… [Link]
I completely agree with Roy’s analysis. This is the reason I have been pretty bummed ever since the Gupta nomination even though I agree he is a good pick. In fact, there has been a sort of let down ever since Obama got elected. He promised that we could all “Be the change.” How can that be true though when 300,000 people submitted resumes for ~7000 “change” jobs? Its like musical chairs and I, like may of you, am left without a seat. I’m the wrong kind of doctor, just a blogger and not a journalist, and I’m not quite so…model-like. I can’t even complain that he had access to a better education at an elitist school since we went to the same school. In short, I’m rapidly turning into a bitter hater, much like conservative pundit Stephen Colbert who basically implies in the clip below that Gupta isn’t qualified since he is a “dick eater”:
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“January 7, 2009
“Dear Colleague,
“Please join me in signing a letter to President-Elect Barack Obama that Dr. Sunjay (sic) Gupta not be nominated for the post of Surgeon General.
“I join in opposition with respected Noble (sic) Peace Prize award wining economist Paul Krugman, who has very serious concerns with having Dr. Gupta be the nation’s Surgeon General. (See January 6, 2009, New York Times Hosted Blog, ‘Conscience of a Liberal.’ Available at http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-trouble-with-sanjay-gupta.)
“Also, there are highly experienced medical professionals who question whether Dr. Gupta has the necessary experience or even the medical background to be in charge of some 6,000 physicians or more who work in the United States Public Health Service. Gerard M. Farrel, Executive Director of the Commissioned Officers Association, stated in the January 7, 2008 Washington Post that Dr. Gupta will certainly face a ‘credibility gap’ because he never served in the National Health Service Corp, and furthermore, does not have the ‘experience or qualifications to be the leader of the nation’s public health service.’ [Link]
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p align=left>Yes, Sanjay’s name is spelled wrong, Nobel is spelled wrong, and Krugman did not win a Peace Prize. A local Cincinnati paper has it’s own theory on Conyer’s opposition:
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The eldest brother of Cincinnati NAACP President Christopher Smitherman has been recommended to be appointed U.S. Surgeon General.
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Dr. Herbert Smitherman, 48, who graduated from Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine, has spent his career in Detroit, where he is an assistant dean at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
“That’s my big brother,” Christopher Smitherman said. “Even if he doesn’t get the job, just to have his name in the hopper is really something we’re proud of.”
Dr. Smitherman first was recommended to President-elect Barack Obama by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Detroit. Since, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm also wrote a recommendation.
Dr. Smitherman met his wife, Lynn, in medical school here. She also is a physician, and they have two children. [Link]
I mean seriously? You think some unknown named Dr. Smitherman is the best one qualified for what is essentially a PR job? I hate to say it but maybe Mandvi was actually right in his Daily Show report and the different minorities are trying to one up each other in a race. One of the most powerful African American congressmen is essentially throwing a hissy-fit because the brother of the NAACP President didn’t get the nod ahead of Gupta. Luckily the Senate and not the House is the body that will hold confirmation hearings:
If Gupta is nominated, he will go through Senate confirmation hearings. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said he would support a Gupta appointment and does not foresee much opposition in the Senate.
“He’s one of the best communicators on the subject of health I’ve ever seen,” Isakson said. [Link]
So I say to my fellow haters, let’s just accept this and soldier on in our comparatively unproductive lives. It could have been a lot worse. Just imagine if Gupta had also won the spelling bee at age 12.
I can’t hate him because there is always someone better. You got a hot wife? Someone has a hotter wife. You make alot of money? Someone makes slot more. The game will never end and you will lose, so why play it?
Seven of the last ten Surgeon Generals have been racial minorities:4 blacks, 1 hispanic and a japanese-american (2 times). Whats up with that? Is it because it is a largely ceremonial post with no impact on policy that makes it convenient to hand it off to minorities?
It sounds to me that the writer of this article is just jealous. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has it all he is intelligent, he is hardworking he is a talented neurosurgeon and he is good looking. He got the job because he has the qualifications and he also has a high profile. He worked hard for his success. I think the haters need to fall back.
Definitely funny 🙂 Thanks muchi.
3 · Orville said
Haha, you did not get the humor Mr Orville, read it again, and then — maybe also look at the tags at the end of the article.
From Sandip Roy’s article –
I concur with the above perspective. It is actually an Indian Problem of Science & Salsa with the education system
Yea and the Surgeon General basically tells kids to put on condoms, not to put everyone you meet in your mouth and not to do drugs. Is he even allowed to practice medicine while in this position?
Why would he want this? He gets paid by CNN and for speaking fees and as the general he gets what? An ear full from the public if something goes wrong in the health industry?
Very funny post! sigh when I worked in news I wanted to be Christian Amanpour (since I obviously can’t be Sanjay Gupta- genetics suck sometimes :->) when I grow up. I still really, really like him for SG, despite a few statements because as we continue to throw ourselves and others on the funeral pile of war, at least we have ONE person who actually understands the medical drawbacks of, say, depleted uranium bombs, not mention PTSDs- so maybe, just maybe, a little medical expertise might weight in and save us from our abominable selves.
When did Stephen Colbert become a conservative pundit?
slightly off-topic but woah Kiran Chetry is a big cable correspondent and she’s half Nepali! has Sepia covered her before?
Funny, Abhi. But misleading to insinuate that 1) folks are trying to pit brown against black and that 2) Representative John Conyers doesn’t think Gupta’s qualified for the job BECAUSE he recommended someone else as surgeon general.
It remains a fact that many in the public health field (including the head of the public health commissioned officers quoted above) think that Gupta may be good looking and a neurosurgeon and great at PR, but not adequately qualified to oversee 6,000 public health professionals and advise the health policy team of the administration (parts of his job). Yes, he was a white house fellow for a year and advised Hillary Clinton back in the day, sure. And yes, he does health reporting, and PR is an important part of the job of surgeon general, and I see where Obama’s going with picking a media-saavy guy as SG, but those who have issues with Gupta do not have issues because of pitting black vs brown.
And it remains a fact that Gupta has MANY conflicts of interest including his pandering to pharmaceutical companies. If you do a google search regarding the conflicts of interest you’ll find instances where Gupta completely ignored evidence-based medicine in his reports (for example, he was still denying Vioxx was a harmful drug AFTER experts concluded that it was). The Michael Moore vs Gupta issue comes up again because Gupta’s “reality check” was so fraught with lies that anyone with the time and staff he had to research the issue could have seen through that (raises questions about whether Gupta was influenced by the health insurance advertisers on CNN). (I wrote about it at Cure This. Representative Conyers is more upset about Gupta having conflicts of interest and unprofessionally smearing Moore about his film “Sicko” than about Gupta not being the guy he recommended. And Conyers has good reason to be upset, he’s the sponsor of H.R. 676, a bill in the house that aims for government paid insurance (for privately delivered healthcare for all Americans) and Gupta used his “reality check” segment to smear the worth of such an aim.
And the Paul Krugman piece linked above is of great importance. I felt like i had to read it a few times for it to really sink in, but it’s SO true.
But back to the south asian thing you mention — I agree this doesn’t help us all from feeling like we can’t ever achieve what the “good” south asians achieve in life. It’s our challenge though to see through that, celebrate all of our wonderful accomplishments, and not to put Dr Gupta and others on TOO tall a pedestal, it only makes the narrow-minded indian-americans happier. I don’t mean any offense by that, I think Dr Gupta would agree with that.
Wow, someone took that post way too seriously. But anyway, very funny. Good post, Abhi, thanks.
Phillygrrl, I anticipated a response like this. I’m not stupid, I understand that Abhi’s post is supposed to be funny. But it ends with this:
There’s the serious part of Abhi’s funny post. To respond to that with a serious answer is not “someone took that post way too seriously.” And “someone took that post way too seriously” is a common statement used to completely derail a well-thought-out argument.
What are you looking for here, exactly? 10 years of mediocrity working for the Federal Gov’t? Give me a break!
12 · Los Anjalis said
goddammit, alright, ok…i revert back to Engelbert Humperdinck.
16 · Manju said
narrow-minded indian-americans are people too. we are also entitled to the pursuit of happiness. sanjay gupta should be rightly hailed as a role-model for the younger generation. if only he had married a nice indian bania girl, he’d be like an avatara of lord vishnu on earth.
Broad-minded indain-americans put Malika Sherewat on a pedistal.
los anjalis thanks for your input by I lump you together with the Gupta types. You are both a doctor and a dj. Stop rubbing it in 🙂
1 · ShallowThinker said
I like you, you make SENSE =]
Now let’s hope that Sanjay has paid his taxes properly…
M. Nam