Bobby Jindal will change the world

Posted on by

Do you like lists? I love ’em. My favorites include “100 things to do before you die,” “50 ways to lose your blubber,” and “25 ways to hide your bald spot.” (No, I don’t have a bald spot. I have a bald zip code.)Jindal.jpg

I just found another list. It’s called “Ten people who could change the world” and — surprise, surprise — Bobby Jindal is on it. The man never ceases to amaze me. I mean, he’s destined to change the world, whereas I have enough trouble changing my little son’s diaper.

The list appeared in the British magazine New Statesman, along with a profile of the Louisiana governor and future president.

Bobby Jindal talks too fast. That, both admirers and detractors agree, is the most noticeable flaw in the impressive presentation he offers as the first Indian-American governor and perhaps the best prospect for revitalising a Republican Party that has just started its tour of the wilderness … [Link]

Come on, guys. He doesn’t talk too fast. You just need to brush up on your Punjabi. You do know that he isn’t always speaking English, don’t you?

The man is brilliant. He speaks Punjabi, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, French, Spanish, Arabic, Swahili and Xhosa, to name just a few. He’ll be the first U.S. president who can talk to foreign leaders in their native tongues. That would be a stark contrast from the last Republican president, who could barely talk to foreign leaders in his native tongue.

His rush of words is likely linked to the rush of his ambition, and his ambition – at 37, just two years above the minimum to be president – appears beyond restraint. He began his assimilation aged four, when he announced to his parents, a civil engineer and state official who moved from the Punjab to Louisiana before their son was born, that he wanted to be called “Bobby”, after a character in the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch, rather than his given name, Piyush. [Link]

You hear that? Bobby began his assimilation at age 4! The only thing I was assimilating at age 4 was payasam. Changing my name was the farthest thing from my mind. I was focusing on more exciting things, such as climbing the tree in the front yard, bouncing a ball off the neighbor’s wall, and pulling my sister’s hair.

He further adapted to his surroundings in his late teens when he left behind his Hindu heritage and converted to Catholicism, a move he chronicled in lengthy confessional writings while at Brown University and then Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. [Link]

Lengthy confessional writings while in college? The only lengthy thing I wrote in college was a love poem to a young lady who, unfortunately, ran off with a man who had wooed her with a lengthy confessional writing.

After a brief stint as a management consultant, he got his first job in government at 24, when, with the backing of a congressman he had interned for, he submitted a proposal to reform the state’s public health-care system. [Link]

When he was 24, he submitted a proposal to reform the state’s public health-care system. When I was 24, I submitted a proposal to reform my roommate’s bathroom cleaning system. (His system involved staring at the dirty tub, shaking his head and shouting, “Hey Melvin, isn’t it your turn to clean the bathroom this year?”)

While many have already declared Jindal the “Republican Barack Obama”, the differences between the two men are telling. Where Obama has, after much soul-searching, memoir-writing and Kenya-visiting, embraced his biracial identity, Jindal has sought more to find common cause with white Americans. He loves McDonald’s and took to wearing cowboy boots during his second run for governor. And although he married a fellow Indian American, some relatives in the Punjab complain that he downplays his ties to his ancestral homeland. Where Obama was adrift in his early years, Jindal was raised in a steady household with high expectations and forged straight ahead from early on, showing up at college in penny loafers while Obama slouched with a cigarette. And where Obama has benefited from his eloquence and style, Jindal’s appeal is more workmanlike. He lacks Obama’s big smile and, at 5ft 8in and 135lb, offers little in the way of physical presence. [Link]

Bobby does have a big smile (see pic). He may be small in stature now, but if experience teaches us anything, it’s that the man never stops growing. By the time he runs for president, he’ll be 6-foot-three and 220. An extra helping of Cajun cooking will do the trick, not to mention those cowboy boots.

Yes, don’t be surprised if you see him on another list, this time in Forbes magazine: “The 25 most well-heeled politicians in the world.”

121 thoughts on “Bobby Jindal will change the world”

  1. One difference between Jindal and Obama is that Jindal accepts his parents are still Hindu, raised him as a Hindu and had trouble forgiving him for becoming Christian. Poor Obama has to constantly and vehemently deny that even his father was ever a practicing muslim! I don’t care what the “truth” is in either case but I wonder who the real coconut is.

  2. In my last comment, I meant to say birth name not “real name”.

    Whether you are Democrat or Republican or whatever, Jindal has excellent credentials compared to other politicians like Palin.

  4. As of today you have to sell out and whiten yourselves as much as possible if you want the top position. I don’t >blame him. He is doing the best he can with the prejudices of today

    Problem of Majority-Minority equations in society, govt, univs, corporations etc. with increased immigration. Onus of walking the talk of unbiased democracy and meritocracy on majority or minority ?

  5. I’m all for Desis climbin’ the political ladder, I just think Bobby Jindal isn’t the best example for us, and it’s all about his performance as governor. I’m not bothered by his name change or his personal beliefs (though this dogmatic backwardness, associated with Creationism, seems to have been a large part about what got the USA into our current mess under Bush). And any fair-minded person would admire the man’s résumé.

    But he did all the wrong things while in office- when the oil-patch states gained from the oil boom, he should have been talking some sense into the legislature, telling them that they need to save for harder times. Instead, Jindal did the drunker-sailor thing just like Bush and Cheney did, introducing ridiculous revenue-starving and over-spending policies which more than consumed Louisiana’s “oil surplus” even during the boom times. Now, with oil less than $40, Louisiana is unsurprisingly one of the hardest-hit states. With his other ultra-conservative views, Jindal strikes me as George W. Bush with a Punjabi face. That’s exactly the kind of short-sighted mismanagement we don’t need in government, and the last thing that the country (let alone the Desi community) needs- if anything, Jindal’s association with Desi-Americans is backfiring by reinforcing some of those ugly stereotypes some of us have encountered. Desi or not, Jindal is not the right person for the job.

  6. 38 · Priya said

    This is a good point. But why is Darwinism such an important topic to be taught in a science class at the early school level ? And wherever Darwinism is taught teaching other -isms too has a strong merit as an argument. I guess the only fear of non-creationists is teaching right-wing concepts under the hood of creationism/intelligent design as pointed by some commenters. Are there any other problems with creationism/intelligent design in syllabus ?
    1. Both creationism and intelligent design have no scientific backing to speak of (feel free to do a statistical survey of scientific journals). Therefore, they should be taught in other classes than “science” at this level.
    2. The arguments for teaching creationism in science classes devalue the notion of science – which is fine at a higher level, but people should understand what they’re devaluing andn talking to people who have been exposed to multiple ideas before they do. If they’re to be taught in the same class, teach a science class, and then let them take an epistemology class that debates the merits of the theories and the systems that generated them.
    3. There’s really no reason FOR teaching creationism besides political pressure – so given that you have to make choices in an environment of limited funds and time in the educational process, when you make a choice to teach something not valuable, it has an opportunity cost.
    4. These are mandatory classes, which seems to violate the separation of church and state.
    5. It’s exclusionary to people who don’t believe in creationism (which includes other Christians, Jews, and others) and thereby promotes communalism.
    6. It’s bad for democracy to have people’s critical thinking skills deteriorate. Which is why it was good to have the challenge raised to the scientific consensus (by postmodernists on both the right and left) and it’s bad for either to use political power to substitute for any kind of consensus working in the best interests of the people being “educated.”

    I could go on, but the spaghetti monster calls…

  7. Moni- I wouldn’t blame Jindal entirely for the budget crisis nor say that Louisiana is alone, but Jindal gulped down the same neoconservative Kool-Aid as Bush and Cheney, pushing massive and unsustainable tax cuts and massively increasing spending (though not the kind of social services spending that helps the poor and less-well-off) when oil prices were high.

    Anyone with a freshman economics education knew that oil prices would be plummeting as the world’s economies slowed down, but Jindal along with his right-wing cronies all acted as though the oil windfall was the norm, and they failed to plan for tough times. Louisiana isn’t the only state in dire straits, but Louisiana’s $2 billion shortfall is- considering the size of the state’s economy- among the worst in the nation. In fact, while Louisiana has long been in the cellar on assessments of educational performance and economic attractiveness, it’s actually slipped to the very bottom since last year, in part because Jindal once again towed the idiotic Limbaugh line and blocked better funding for schools. And this was during the boom times when the oil was flowing and the price was high.

    Now, the bottom’s about to fall out in Louisiana’s educational system, at the university and elementary school levels alike. An old classmate of mine is doing graduate studies at LSU, and they’re not just cutting back on classes there- they’re on the verge of eliminating entire academic programs, especially in the kinds of fields (engineering, the sciences, languages) that the USA desperately needs to regain economic footing. Jindal embraced the very worst of neocon economic mismanagement, and it’s this bumbling performance- far more than any personal beliefs- that has been so disappointing for everyone. In fact, Jindal’s touting within the GOP came about precisely because of his association with the boom times in Louisiana and his profligate neocon policies, which were sustainable only with the oil boom. With the bust, the GOP has been quietly tossing him aside. If Jindal gets the tag of the “prodigal Desi governor” (he already is) on a national basis, it’s the last thing that we in particular need.

  8. Singin: neocon has become a catchall word hasn’t it. A friend of mine labels any humor she doesn’t like as slapstick. It’s a catchall word for her. Jindal used oil profits to fund his budget? neokhaaaan!!!!!

  9. Evolution ‘theory’ has a lot of holes in it. Scientist accept it simply because there is nothing better out there.

    But that’s the entire basis of science – accepting the fundamental premise that you don’t know everything. The entire discipline is based on self-correction. (Despite the contrary behavior of some individual scientists)

    Technically before Einstein came along the ‘theory’ of gravity had some holes in it, too. I guess we should not have been teaching gravity for the 300 years prior to that either. Maybe “intelligent descent” would have been a suitable alternative.

  11. and bobby is yesterday’s news. it ain’t fun being gov. of an oil state when oil prices are low, and probably will remain so for a few years because of a worldwide economic contraction.

  12. WOW. You guys really do need to take it down a notch. If I read anymore arguements about Creationism VS Evolution, I think I might devolve into monkey and start to throw shit at you guys.

    And to the Scientists in here, stop trying to prove evolution and start trying to cure male pattern baldness and produce better weiner enlargement pills. Those ones from TV dont work for nothing. When ever I hear about “out of this world” smart people working on something called “String theory” I start to lose my mind because they are not working on stuff I need.

    “I am working on the universal equation that will unite everything in this world”

    Man screw that! How are you going to find some universal equation, when your ass cant tell me why my damn back hurts.

    Scientist should not be able to choose what they work on, but we as a society should vote for what they work on.

    “I am going to work on the flight patterns of the bird tit”

    No, your not! We voted and you are going to make a dream machine.

  13. “Jindal used oil profits to fund his budget? neokhaaaan!!!!!”

    It was more like “he heedlessly used temporary oil profits to fund an immensely bloated budget giving tax cuts to rich cronies while cutting funds to education and the needy.” I wouldn’t call Jindal himself a neocon since the term has foreign policy connotations that wouldn’t concern a Louisiana governor. Except as far as Texas is concerned, since those Texans are always talking up that independent Republic of Texas thing… But on budgetary matters, his orthodoxy reeks of the neocon MO overall:

    1. Channel the ghost of Darth Cheney, claim “deficits don’t matter” and then spend way beyond the government’s means even during prosperous times
    2. Spend those funds on conservative favorites that do little to help the state’s long-term benefit but gin up kisses and crushing bear hugs from the talk-radio wingnut crowd
    3. Deprive needed programs (especially related to social services, health care and education) of desperately needed funds
    4. When the economy goes south, reap the whirlwind for poor and grossly short-sighted economic choices (current status #1)
    5. Continue repeating Hannity-esque, “non-reality-based” wingnut talking points even when said state economy is going south (current status #2)
    6. Tell even more-hard-pressed schools and social services: “Let them eat cake.” [OK, maybe not verbatim, and hopefully no guillotines and prison-storming involved, even though Louisiana is kinda-sorta French and all.]

    And like Razib was saying, the Republicans are now in the process of dropping Jindal faster than you can say “Token br… er, Republican Party big tent.”

  14. 60 · razib said

    also, surprising how many ret*rds are lurkers….

    u mean vice versa, otherwise it sounds like you went around meeting lots of ret*ards and lo and behold they turned out to be SM lurkers. that would be funny, though.

  15. 3 · suman said

    You cant trust someone that hates who they are and where they come from.

    But Mork adopted Earth customs, like marriage and sitting on one’s ass instaead of head, and even went as far as defending Earth when the Orkians badmouthed the planet.

    Yet everyone trusted him, including Orson.

  17. For those praising larger government and big spending. Capital is a scarce commodity. In a truly free market society, capital is directed for most part where it has most chance of appreciation. When government starts spending, the capital distribution is very inefficient, and in certain cases is invested in things that have no appreciative value (akin to impulse buys). That is why most socialist societies do poorly. Politicians have too much influence and capital is directed in areas where it has no business being invested. Its no coincidence that the market tanked 400 points today when there was more talk of govt. spending. Its the rich that create wealth. Its about 5 % of the people (engine)that drive a country’s economy. Rest are just on for the ride. You stress the engine..pretty soon the kaput. That’s what is happening.

    $4.2 billion to Acorn. Gimme a break!!!……why isn’t anyone bringing that up.

  18. “Bobby Jindal will change the world”

    No, more like Piyush Jindal the Hindu changed into Bobby Jindal the right wing Christian extremist to fit in the world around him in Lousiana. Though I don’t blame him for assimilating, something like him telling the Lousiana KKK that he is basically white like them is troubling:

    “When Jindal made a speech before the Louisiana KKK with scientific evidence that people form Northern India were Aryan and not African despite the high melanin content, I assumed he just wanted the honky pig vote.” http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&func=view&catid=63&id=248303&Itemid=104

  20. Sameer, The fact that you apparently believe that Bobby Jindal gave a speech to the KKK says more about you than–well, about anything. Give me a break!

  21. Wow. I’m surprised SM would cover anything positive regarding the Republican party or Republican polticans, considering all the bloggers are extremely liberal in their political views. Why don’t you guys just label this a South Asian American ‘liberal’ blog?

  22. For all the facebook users, search the facebook group, ‘South Asians for Obama’….look at the related groups and you’ll find ‘Sepia Mutiny’.

    Zing!

  23. Ahhh Razib. Where did your “Sarcasm sensing” gene go?

    But seriously, you have a “Tit bird” specialist for a favorite professor or something dont you?

  24. Dr Amonymous (#56) Bravo! Dr A. This is a first, but I couldn’t agree with you more, nor could I have put it any better.

    Jeff Costello (#64)

    Cool, complex names like Rajiv, Sanjay, Maneka, Rahul, Priyanka, Varun, etc. came into popular use only as cricketers and film-stars have become popular and as a new, educated, nationalistic aristocracy has risen.

    Jeff, I think all the classical/Sanskrit names that you mentioned above come and go in and out of fashion. Generations tire of them, and adopt new names for their children.I am sure Motilal Nehru thought that he was giving his son just the right head-start in life by giving him a cool, contemporary name like Jawaharlal. And Mohan and Sharada in the famous Aaj Tak ad.( can’t find a link- grr!) could have been the Karan and Anjali of their times. Sanjaya was the narrator of the Mahabharata, Menaka was the famous apsara, the seducer of Rishi Vishwamitra and the mother of Shakuntala. Rahul,likewise was Siddhartha Gautama’s son, and Varun the vedic deity of oceans and a name fit for many kings in ancient and medieval India. I think a few generations down we might see another smug bunch of Chiraunji Lals and Putli Bais.

  25. Jeff, I think all the classical/Sanskrit names that you mentioned above come and go in and out of fashion. Generations tire of them, and adopt new names for their children.I am sure Motilal Nehru thought that he was giving his son just the right head-start in life by giving him a cool, contemporary name like Jawaharlal. And Mohan and Sharada in the famous Aaj Tak ad.( can’t find a link- grr!) could have been the Karan and Anjali of their times. Sanjaya was the narrator of the Mahabharata, Menaka was the famous apsara, the seducer of Rishi Vishwamitra and the mother of Shakuntala. Rahul,likewise was Siddhartha Gautama’s son, and Varun the vedic deity of oceans and a name fit for many kings in ancient and medieval India. I think a few generations down we might see another smug bunch of Chiraunji Lals and Putli Bais.

    Thanks for the info, Prabhu Subramanian.

  27. 32 · Moni said

    Had he not made the change, who knows what would’ve happened. Maybe he would’ve constantly been picked on, beat up, etc., and his life would’ve turned out differently.

    When I was in the 7th grade, one of my friends told me that my name was impossible to make fun of because nothing rhymed with it. I’ve been thankful ever since.

  28. 79 · TTCUSM said

    32 · Moni said
    Had he not made the change, who knows what would’ve happened. Maybe he would’ve constantly been picked on, beat up, etc., and his life would’ve turned out differently.
    When I was in the 7th grade, one of my friends told me that my name was impossible to make fun of because nothing rhymed with it. I’ve been thankful ever since.

    Orange? Hiphopopotamus?

  31. slade is a cool name. definitely better than chunky or happy. we should take ownership of bristol, Piper, Track, Willow and Trig since i don’t see the real americans jumping on that bandwagon. we can use them to replace all our funny, cutesy names (yeah, i’m looking right at you, Punjabi people). ok, ok, manju doesn’t exactly exude coolness but everyone calls me ramrod in real life.

    anyways, blacks have been approprating all sorts of cool names, especially form the native americans, for a long time now and its taken them all the way up to the white house. i say just follow the model minority, which for me used to be the jews but now wall st’s become to them what gangsta rap was to the blacks and i don’t see any rabinowitz in the oval office anytime soon, so time to switch.

    after all, its no coincidene that barack sounds like the rock.

  32. Hey Melvin hope you’re enjoying the thaw . 🙂 i think the southerners need a taste of the peg, no?

    I’m not sure if I prefer -20C weather in which you can walk outside or +1 in which you keep slipping and sliding. Can’t wait for spring, which over here arrives in May.

  33. 84 · Melvin said

    Hey Melvin hope you’re enjoying the thaw . 🙂 i think the southerners need a taste of the peg, no?
    I’m not sure if I prefer -20C weather in which you can walk outside or +1 in which you keep slipping and sliding. Can’t wait for spring, which over here arrives in May.

    are you saying you would prefer to be keezh-vin rather than mel-vin?

  35. Yeah, I wanted to be called Batman when I was 4, but my parents never gave in. I guess I wasn’t ambitious enough.

  36. Jef Costello – Bobby is a common nickname among Punjabis but it came into use only as the aristocracy in Punjab and elsewhere began to take Anglican nicknames.

    Erm…regarding these aristocratic names, I’ve never heard of these royals. My family were considered untouchables back in India, so the aristocracy was the last thing they modelled themselves on.

  37. Melvin, do you have pictures of nekkid ladies on your website? I clicked on your ID and got the Dubai govt message ” this site is blocked as it does not comply with the culture of Dubai”. We usually get this for porn sites. Hmmmmmm????

  38. I clicked on your ID and got the Dubai govt message ” this site is blocked as it does not comply with the culture of Dubai”.

    What?!!! And just when (he knew) I was going to send my CV for a teaching job there.

    Note to self: Choose! Dubai money or devious humorist?

  39. Melvin, do you have pictures of nekkid ladies on your website?

    Shhhh! My wife doesn’t know!

    I clicked on your ID and got the Dubai govt message ” this site is blocked as it does not comply with the culture of Dubai”. We usually get this for porn sites. Hmmmmmm????

    What about my main site? Is that blocked too? I didn’t realize Dubai blocked sites too. Whom should I appeal to, the Dubai Bureau of Blog Blocking?

  40. 69 · Sameer said

    “Bobby Jindal will change the world” No, more like Piyush Jindal the Hindu changed into Bobby Jindal the right wing Christian extremist to fit in the world around him in Lousiana. Though I don’t blame him for assimilating, something like him telling the Lousiana KKK that he is basically white like them is troubling: “When Jindal made a speech before the Louisiana KKK with scientific evidence that people form Northern India were Aryan and not African despite the high melanin content, I assumed he just wanted the honky pig vote.” http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&func=view&catid=63&id=248303&Itemid=104

    Thanks for the laugh. Did he make the speech with or withouth the hood?

  41. “Bobby” can be a variation of the name “Babu” or “Bapu” or “Baba” so to call a Desi Bobby is not a big stretch. But you have to watch out for nicknames in my family. There’s one Aunt nicknamed “Baby” and now she’s in her 60’s. She’s one ancient Baby.

  42. I forgot to mention this Aunt still has that nickname to this day.

    What’s in a name, anyway? (Unless you are Sean Valentino.)

  43. “71 · rob on February 10, 2009 07:45 PM · Direct link · “Quote”(?)

    Sameer, The fact that you apparently believe that Bobby Jindal gave a speech to the KKK says more about you than–well, about anything. Give me a break!”

    I believe Thom Hartmann:

    http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=104&func=view&catid=63&id=248084 “Bobby Jindal for castrating black men 6 Months, 3 Weeks ago

    I hesitate to call anyone a racist because I have had the false charge leveled against me.

    So when Bobby Jindal opposed the rights of Katrina victims to return to New Orleans I assumed his motives were economic and not racial.

    When Jindal made a personal attack on Cynthia McKinney and defended the capital police that profiled her I assumed the motives were political, not racial.

    When Jindal made a speech before the Louisiana KKK with scientific evidence that people form Northern India were Aryan and not African despite the high melanin content, I assumed he just wanted the honky pig vote.

    But when Jindal signed the bill calling for castration of black men accused of rape and defended eugenics, It was just too much.

    I thought we had left behind policies of castrating black men for being a threat to white women and policies that tied the fallopian tubes of single black mothers, but just when you think the nightmare is over, it surfaces with a New Face.

    David Duke is gone, but Bobby Jindal has taken his place. Forty years of racism in Loiusiana.”

  44. I’m doing some googling and I can’t find anything but Thom Hartman to corroborate the KKK speech thing so I have to call bull. I don’t doubt that Jindal would perpetuate such a pernicious lie, but that would hardly make him any less Indian than the North and South Indians who peddle the Aryan Invasion Theory anyway.

  45. Sameer, I am, frankly, stunned that you are persisting with this utter and absolute calumny against Gov. Jindal. You have a “tin ear” about politics, my “friend.” I’ll eat my hat if Bobby Jindal ever spoke to the KKK. You are mistaking overheated rhetoric on that Hartman blog for facts. What were you, raised by wolves? I mean, seriously. . . .

  46. Sameer, I really, really hope that you’re a troll. Or else I’ll revoke my faith in democracy tout court. Your allegation is disgusting.

  47. 96 · NV said

    I can’t find anything but Thom Hartman to corroborate the KKK speech thing

    much as i’d really, really love to believe that jindal did this, i too am sorry to say i didn’t find anything else to corroborate it. don’t know who hartmann is, but i don’t think this statement is even by hartmann, seems to be a post on his forum.

    of course, there’s a bunch of stuff he’s done that has screwed over the lower income folk but he’s a southern politician after all, and a southern republican to boot.

  48. When Jindal made a speech before the Louisiana KKK with scientific evidence that people form Northern India were Aryan and not African despite the high melanin content, I assumed he just wanted the honky pig vote.

    I’ve solved the mystery. Bobby Jindal was siding with PETA, pandering to the Pig vote. Pigs are people too, folks.

  49. 98 · rob said

    Or else I’ll revoke my faith in democracy tout court.

    not a millionth as disgusting than the kerry swiftboating by bushies? or the mccain black baby by bushies? or the obama muslim terrorist by hillary’s henchmen and palin?

  50. not a millionth as disgusting than the kerry swiftboating by bushies? or the mccain black baby by bushies? or the obama muslim terrorist by hillary’s henchmen and palin?

    No, it’s in that league.