I'm sitting in a class now where a very intelligent man is rambling on about Indian Cinema. He is not boring mind you, I'm just not paying attention because I'm oddly spaced out. I had to traverse the hot landscape today looking for a DVD, then I had to go look for a computer that can play the DVD, then I spent about 2 hours plus stoning in my room with my PSP because I couldn't do any work whatsoever (lack of equipment to do the work).
Here's an update of the last few days:
Two days ago, I had a CCC class with one of India's eminent design consultants with the National Institute of Design (India). He discovered that we're from Singapore and directed questions at us. At one point he asked me why I came to India and I didn't know what to say. After that he asked me something regarding the strength of Singapore or something and I was kind of lost, because Singapore (rocks and has so many things that are wonderful) just has so many things.
And the guy went into this whole barrage of sentences beginning with "The Power of India is..." and this ended (torturously) only after 2 minutes. During this time, I had to look him in the eye and pretend like I was interested only because I'm Chinese and the issue of mian zi is essential to our functioning.
After this I was cued in to the horror that lay ahead, but couldn't escape the lesson. He continued the second session of the day with something even worse. It started off as a PowerPoint presentation that seemed to want to discuss graphic design, but eventually devolved into something somewhat strange and absolutely irksome.
I have complained before about the occasional individual I meet here who is self-obsessed and nationalistic. This took an entirely new level with this lecturer (he was nice enough to want to end the class early for us to leave for a dinner appointment, but nonetheless), as he displayed a slide of two photos, one had leaves hanging on the doorframe, and the other I can't recall, but it says on the side of one of the photos: Agents of Communication.
He then carries on to say how Indians are very adaptable people, and how their beliefs, culture, and everything in-between will enable them to take over the world. Like dominate. As in to emerge-on-top-because-intrinsically-they-are-better. I have chosen "they" because that's what he meant, and I can't perceive in anyway to state otherwise.
And he said that he made this comment at a conference somewhere and a foreigner deigned it essential to correct him. He then said to him/her that he only needs a month to fully convince him/her.
And another: "We are so diverse, with so many states and languages, which means that if you design a communication here, and it reaches out to such a diverse group of cultures, then it will work for the rest of the world."
Oh yeah sure what cause the entire world is the same and even if you don't leave the country you can know exactly what is going on somewhere else through a "PPT" (as they refer to it here). We don't need to travel to understand someone else viewpoint, we just have to watch movies and read books to know about the people and situation elsewhere. As if everything is so clearcut divisable and determinable.
His criteria for WORLD DOMINATION by the people of India (besides the inherent goodness within the Indian -loosely used here- culture, beliefs and attitudes)?
"We have solved all our problems."
This is the exact statement he made, but of course goes on to refute by saying a few sentences later, that the education system is messed up cause people study things that they'll not use in life later. But they've solved all their problems. Okay, if this is solving communal riots, an inherent desperation for sex that leads to different cases of rape, an even worse legal system in whom the people have absolutely no faith in, a wealth divide that is so great that pervasive that no state in this subcontinent has been able to manage it, etc, etc.
If this is the criteria for WORLD DOMINATION, I am proud to inform the citizens of Singapore that we will soon become the Supreme Leaders of The New World Order. Why, you ask? Because we, like this lecturer's warped view of India, have come closest to eradicating all our problems. Never you mind that we're not even close to being a fraction of the size of India, never mind the fact that we've got a population the size of a tiny town here in India, never mind the fact that we've got no natural resources, no, think only of the worth of our entire nation, the fact that we've boast a low crime rate, we're the fourth largest foreign exchange in the world after New York, London and Tokyo, we have a (relatively) highly educated population, we have a transparent, clean and just government, our economy is booming, we've SORTED OUT ALL OUR PROBLEMS!
WE CAN DOMINATE THE WORLD NOW! WOOT!
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