Bobby Jindal, the 36-year-old son of Punjabi immigrants, was elected governor of Louisiana Saturday becoming America’s first Indian-American governor. The conservative Jindal received 53% of the vote and when sworn in to office in January, will take the reigns of a state still devastated from Hurricane Katrina two years ago. Despite the fact that Jindal will be presiding over a state with perhaps the worst schools, health and poverty in America, the governor-elect promised a “fresh start” for Louisiana. He told supporters in Baton Rouge Saturday, “In America and here in Louisiana, the only barrier to success is your willingness to work hard and play by the rules.” The election of Bobby Jindal is a victory for two groups in America. The first is the Bush Republicans, who see Jindal as a rising star within the Conservative party. Jindal is a reborn and devout Roman Catholic, an outspoken supporter of a total ban on abortion, a staunch opponent of hate-crime laws and a defender of teaching intelligent design in Louisiana public schools. The second group celebrating Jindal’s election are Indian-Americans, who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, at 1.5% of the total U.S. population, rank as America’s second fastest-growing ethnic groups behind Hispanics. While Indian-Americans boast a representation in America’s universities and medical and financial industries disproportionately high in relation to their numbers, Americans of Indian descent have been pretty much absent from the U.S. political arena. Jindal, U.S. Representative from Louisiana’s First Congressional District since 2004, is only America’s second Indian-American member of Congress. Hispanic-Americans on the other hand, who represent 10 times the population of Indian-Americans, have 25 times as many members of Congress (25 total), three of whom are United States senators. Jay Chaudhuri, president of the Indian American Leadership Initiative said about Jindal’s win, “Bobby Jindal replaces the Mardi Gras Indians as the best known Indian from Louisiana. We congratulate him for providing Indian-Americans a seat of the table.” And indeed, he said “seat of the table.” But Chaudhuri’s comment is correct. Indian-Americans, a group often mocked in U.S. pop culture for their thick accents, traditional dress and religious headwear, are no longer a marginal ethnic minority who, as programs like the Simpsons would have you believe, either serve Slurpees or drive cabs. They are now America’s doctors, lawyers, bankers and CEOs. And now, thanks to Bobby Jindal’s election, they are America’s highest political officials.
•Times-Picayune: 1st Indian-American Gov.
•Times of India: Indian Village Celebrates
The Joe Torre era, a 12-year span that includes 12 straight playoff appearances and 4 World Series titles for the New York Yankees, has officially come to an end. Yankees’ manager Joe Torre declined an incentive-laced 1-year contract that would have kept him with the team through the 2008 season. Torre flew to Tampa Thursday morning to discuss his future in pinstripes with Yankee management and was offered a shabby 1-year deal worth a guaranteed $5 million and $3 million in performance-tied bonuses. Considering half of major league managers make less than a million a year, this might seem to some like a generous offer. But in light of the fact Torre earned $7.5 million this season, Torre would be taking a 33% pay cut, an unacceptable reduction for a Major League manager or a garbage man. Last week, Joe Torre watched his team get bounced from the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year, a feat which in Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s world (a world blurred by advanced Altzheimer’s), is wholly unacceptable. What surprises me about this final chapter of the Joe Torre story is not that he will not be returning next season. Many believe that when the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs this year, that it was time to hire a new manager with a different leadership style and brand of strategy. As Pat Riley once said, sometimes players grow tired of hearing the same voice. Since the colossal disappointment that was the 2004 ALCS in which New York lost four straight games to Boston, it has been disappointment after disappointment, year in and year out. The Yankees have lost 13 of the last 17 postseason games Torre has managed and in ways not befitting a team with a $200 million payroll. What shocks me about the Torre situation is that the Yankees would treat such a dignified member of their organization in a such an undignified manner. If the Yankees weren’t happy with Joe’s performance, they should have let him resign on his terms. And if they did want him to return, which they obviously didn’t, they shouldn’t have offered Torre, the second winningest manager of the team, a cheap, bonus-driven contract. Torre’s been in the Yankee dugout for so long that it’s hard to imagine a new skipper will be managing the Yankees next season. At the same time, Joe’s lengthy tenure made it easy for fans to forget how classless Yankee ownership is when it comes to managers. Perhaps Joe has always been too good for George Steinbrenner and his two stupid sons. But with Torre’s accomplishments as a manager, he has no obligation to be consistently disrespected. While I will miss Joe in the years to come and look forward to his induction into the Hall of Fame, I applaud his decision to leave.
As China’s Communist leaders convene in Beijing for their five-yearly National Congress, it appears state internet censors have blocked access to the online video site YouTube. As of Wednesday night in Shanghai, an attempt to connect to YouTube returns an all too familiar page for Web users in China, a blank page notifying the user that the browser cannot make a connection to the site. Web surfers in China may remember this page from such blocked sites as BBC News or Wikipedia.
It looks like LeBron James is really happy to be in Shanghai for the NBA China Games 2007. In a China Daily photo in Wednesday’s paper, it looks as though King James is gripping his royal jewels. While James’ Cleveland Cavaliers are in town for a preseason game Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic, he has taken centerstage in Shanghai this week. As the China Daily reports, James launched a new sneaker in China this week called the Nike Zoom LBJ V China Colorway, which might just be the most ridiculous name for a shoe in the history of shoes. “LBJ” is not an homage to America’s 36th president Lyndon Baines Johnson, but rather refers to LeBron’s initials. Nike has also sponsored the LBJ Museum in Shanghai which displays all different types of LeBron memorabilia. On Monday, for the opening ceremony, 2,000 Chinese fans showed up to honor the NBA star. As quoted in the China Daily, James told fans, “I want to share with you my style of playing basketball and I hope what I do in the NBA inspires Chinese young players to have more passion for the sport.” As one who plays pickup games on the weekends, I hope Chinese young players don’t look at this photo and mimic his style. At least not while they’re guarding me.
The lead story on MSNBC.com Wednesday deals with the fledgling women’s lib movement in modern China. While in the past, roles for women in China were limited to marrying and having a child, today’s Chinese women find themselves with unprecedented career opportunities and a desire to remain single. For the first time in in China, women are valuing economic independence over the traditional Chinese family structure and do not feel pressure to find husbands anymore. I know this seems contrary to what most Western men find when they visit China and are bombarded by local women pining for sexual attention. These kind of of Chinese women are not the urban professionals to which NBC is referring. Although they do work hard. Here is MSNBC’s explanation of the changes in values:
This is how much China hates the Dalai Lama. So much that when the Tibetan spiritual leader met with President Bush Tuesday in Washington, what we can assume was the most important meeting between two people anywhere in world, there was not a single reporter or cameraman in sight. A day before the United States Congress honors the Dalai Lama for his humanitarian work in a ceremony that the Chinese government has deemed “extremely wrong,” the media was kept away from the White House out of respect for China. Because I guess Chinese government doesn’t want its bitter Buddhist enemy seen with a man so well-respected throughout the world as George W. Bush. Reuters reported that Wednesday’s ceremony will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will appear publicly with the Dalai Lama, however the photo above from 2003 somewhat confutes this claim. If you are still confused, photo is right, Reuters is wrong. Bush has met with the Dalai Lama several times before during his presidency, however, Wednesday’s honor will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will bestow an honor upon the religious leader, who China considers to be a separatist and a threat to its sovereignty. China’s foreign minister said the Bush-Lama meeting “seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China’s internal affairs.” The Dalai Lama has lived in India since being exiled from China in 1959 for staging an uprising against the Chinese government. In China’s eyes, the legitimization of the Dalai Lama as a world leader fuels the Tibetan freedom movement and lends credence to both Tibetan separatists and the Beastie Boys. And you know what? So what. Let China be “wounded.” Nobody demanded that Hu Jintao cancel his photo ops with 
Every so often, Coca-Cola decides to concoct some sort of new variation of its tried and tested Classic formula to give drinkers a slight, and often sickening, new taste. Usually, these varieties are released with an abundance of corporate fanfare but never stick around long enough to be anything other than an answer to a trivia question. In my lifetime, there was the original Vanilla Coke, a concept drink that was supposed to launch in 1982 and got canned, no pun intended, before ever reaching the public. Then in 1985, there was New Coke, the drink so sweet and tasty it would make drinkers forget all about that original formula. Not only did no one forget about the original formula following New Coke’s release, but drinkers begged Coke executives to go back to the original recipe. Within three months, Coca-Cola gave in and 22 years later, New Coke is still viewed as one of the great marketing blunders in the history of American consumerism. Then there was the regrettable TaB Clear in the early 90s which lasted about a month until Coke realized that nobody even drank the opaque form of TaB. And recently, there was the Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla, discontinued this summer after less than a year, perhaps for having too many flavors attached to the brand name. Well Coke is at it again, concocting a new line of drinks that will appeal to the world’s Eastern sensitivities, drinks that will have us believe we are healing ourselves despite ingesting large quantities of high fructose corn syrup. MarketWatch reported Sunday that the Coca-Cola Company has opened a new research center in Beijing that will partner with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to develop drinks based on Chinese herbal ingredients and formulas. While these drinks may taste like dirt, they promise to align your yin and yang, strengthen your spiritual core and perhaps bring some much needed feng shui to your refrigerator. Coke’s VP said the drinks will connect the company’s global reach and marketing with Chinese medicine’s “more holistic view on health.” The presdient of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences said of the collaborative center, “we will be much more effective in bringing Chinese medicine to the world through packaged beverages.” Who knew you could find your qi in a 12-ounce can of liquid sugar?
On Wednesday the ever-credible New York Post reported that Khadijah Farmer, a transgendered lesbian, filed a suit against a restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village for tossing her out of the ladies room. As only the Post could publish, the headline read “Manly Lesbian Sues for Ejection.” The incident took place back in June at the Caliente Cab Co. Mexican restaurant, where Farmer dined after attending the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade. So as manly as she is on a normal day, you can only imagine how manly she must have looked on transgender pride day. As the Post reports, Farmer, on her way into to the ladies room, crossed paths with what we’d call a “typical” lady, or a female who adheres to the normative standards of femininity. This woman found a bouncer who adheres to the normative standards of Mexican bouncer and told him that a “man”, Farmer, had just entered the ladies’ room. The bouncer, unaware that the LGBT parade would bring many Ls, Gs, Bs and Ts to the restaurant, barged into the bathroom and began pounding on the stall door. The lawsuit says, “The bouncer yelled through the stall doors that he had been told there was a man in the women’s restroom, and demanded that Ms. Farmer leave the restroom and the restaurant immediately.” And 4 months later, Farmer files suit for embarrassment, humiliation and emotional distress. It hasn’t yet been confirmed whether Farmer was taking a leak or a dump, a fact that interests me, but wholly immaterial to the lawsuit. I suppose even the most manly of women have the right to use the ladies’ room without a big Mexican bouncer disrupting her. But I would say this. If you are a woman, like Farmer, whose entire outward appearance conflicts with normative standards of gender, don’t be angry when you actually fool people and they react accordingly. Because that seems to be what happened at the Caliente Cab Co. The bouncer reacted to a situation that appeared to be a situation to which he needed to react. And while Farmer has the right to appear however she wishes, as a man or a woman or whatever, she has to acknowledge that the majority of the world uses appearance to make, or in this case, rush to judgments. Not every mistake is a violation of human rights or the basis of an emotional distress lawsuit. And if Farmer doesn’t conform to society’s gender roles, it’s interesting that she’s so bent on conforming to normative restroom practices. While West Village men’s rooms at Mexican restaurants might not boast the nicest stalls, Ms. Farmer might find herself a more peaceful experience there. I doubt any man would complain.
If only American newspapers knew about me. Not for a job or anything like that. But every so often there is a story in one of these papers about an American who finds a way to keep in touch the homeland. Whether it’s eating at China’s first Applebee’s (already conquered) or listening to live blues music or blowing 75RMB on a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, there are certain things that American expats do on a regular basis that allow them to forget for a while that they live in Communist China. And while these things are necessary to the American expat’s psychological well-being, I’m not sure if these things would qualify as news.
