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US flips its
lid over 'middle finger' tag
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The remark was innocuous,
but given the Internet age, where one does not have
to wait for the media to make an issue of things,
it has been blogged out of proportion.
India-born PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi, one of
Fortune's most powerful businesswomen, anointed America
the "middle finger" of the world in a speech
to Columbia Business School's graduating
students. And as most of us know, for any guy in the
fast lane, whether on the Internet or in a car,
showing the middle finger can only mean one thing.
A couple of students who attended the
speech started it all by denouncing her comments
as "condescending" and "anti-American". A
blogsplosion of comments and takes ensued. One
weblog reads: "Are we seriously to believe that
she was unaware of the negative connotations
attached to the middle finger? There simply isn't
a more universal sign of disrespect in our
American culture, [which] she acknowledges
enriched her life."
To tone
down things a bit, the reactions have not been as
radical as in Afghanistan, where 16 people
were killed because of one "son-of-a-bitch" (referring
to the alleged desecration of the Koran by
US personnel at Guantanamo); or the bomb blasts in two
popular film halls in New Delhi on Sunday that have
left more than 50 people injured and possibly
several dead in what appears to be the handiwork
of fundamentalist Sikh elements taking offense at a
Hindi movie, Jo Bole So Nihaal, which in
their view offends Sikh sensibilities. Thankfully,
the responses to Nooyi's statements have been
restricted to the Internet, where a vitriolic
offensive has been mounted by Americans against
her comments.
In her speech, Nooyi
attributed fingers to the other continents, none
of whose proponents have reacted in cyberspace:
the thumb for Asia, strong and powerful and
looking to turn into a bigger global player;
Europe, the index finger, pointing the way; South
America, the ring finger to symbolize love and
sensuality; Africa, the little finger, small and
insignificant but when it is injured, the entire
hand hurts.
Nooyi described the US as the
middle and biggest finger. In a rejoinder Nooyi
has explained: "In my comments, I used the analogy
of a human hand to illustrate that people in
countries around the globe need to join together
to make the world work in harmony - just as all
the fingers of a hand work together. It is an
illustration that I learned when I was a student,
and that I have shared with others on many
different occasions."
If one reads the
text of her speech, it does seem that Nooyi meant
no offense. She said that as America moves
forward, it is "our [she thinks and feels like an
American, though she started her management
education in India] responsibility to change the
current state of world opinion" about the US.
Indeed, it is quite unlikely
that Nooyi intended the only connotation the
"middle finger" brings to the mind of many. Given
her pedigree, with all the fine management degrees
and training that teach about nuance and presentation,
it is improbable that she would make such
an obvious reference. She is not a politician
either, looking to gather votes by polarizing thoughts,
like the pro- and anti-outsourcing voices that gathered
steam during the height of US elections last year.
It's also important to note that Nooyi is a
woman, and giving someone the "middle finger" is more
of a man thing to do - unless the woman happens
to be a Madonna or a Britney Spears looking
to excite a male crowd at a concert, not an
audience of management students. Even on the road,
how many women actually point the middle finger?
Not in India, at least: they are too scared of
being followed, stalked, acid-attacked or raped.
In a statement, Pepsi has said: "Ms
Nooyi's comments are anything but anti-American,
and supportive of the United States and its role
as a global leader. The characterization of Ms
Nooyi's remarks could not be more off the mark. No
one is prouder of the US than Ms Nooyi, who has
elected to make this country her home. Ms Nooyi
was simply encouraging the US, and Americans to be
all they can and should be, which is something we
all strive towards."
But even if we were
to interpret Nooyi's arguments for our
convenience, the US is still the big daddy. No
other economy in the world can continue to run
such a huge budget deficit with the Chinese only
pumping back dollars to protect their currency.
Militarily, the ability to make unilateral
decisions that reduce a dreaded dictator such as
Saddam Hussein to his underwear for all the world
to see belongs only to the United States at this
juncture in history. The US is the middle
finger, the cowboy, the most powerful - the one
country that can dictate freedom and democracy to
others.
The question then is, assuming
that Nooyi reiterated a truth that America is the
middle finger and has middle fingered in every
sense, why the reactions? One would think that the
most powerful should be smug and content.
There have been several comments from
Indian observers referring to a perceived nativist
viewpoint: "If the reports are to be believed, the
backlash stemmed from - and then fueled - a
smoldering anti-immigrant sentiment. The waspish
attitude was that, however impeccable her
professional credentials, this cola lady was not
The Real Thing."
Another comment reads:
"No matter how many years she has lived in the US
and how much she professes her loyalty to the
country, to a bigot she is a brown foreigner. And
a woman to boot. How dare she criticize the United
States on American soil? If you are a recent
immigrant, you [shouldn't] bite the hand that fed
you. It is okay if you are white and your forbears
got off the boat a century or two ago."
This
writer, however, professes another theory.
The reactions have been vehement because Americans
believe they cannot get away with being the
world's middle finger. They are not insulated. Being
the middle finger and giving the middle finger
to others means getting middle fingered right
back - whether it be by Osama bin Laden and his
cohorts striking at the heart of the US, American
soldiers dying in Iraq or a security psychosis
most visible at airports. Blogs do not follow the
clinical journalistic norms of keeping away
emotions and feelings from their copy. When
Americans react to Nooyi, the responsibility lies
not with Pepsi but American foreign-policy framers
who have given the middle finger to so many around
the world that innumerable middle fingers are only
pointed toward one country. The blogs send a clear
message - Americans do not want to be the middle
finger anymore. It is not about culture or the
economy, it is about feeling secure.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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