Dubyaman

I quite like the USA. To my mind, the American stress on individual freedom, meritocracy and market-led capitalism makes it a genuine 'land of opportunity' (however flawed it might be in reality). Besides, of all the historical superpowers, the USA has been relatively the most moralistic (though that just might be a function of the slightly more enlightened era we are living in).

Over the years, the biggest drawback for the average Yankee has been his complete lack of general awareness, and lack of any bother because of it. This is more perplexing for us Indians, who pride ourselves on our general knowledge. No one typifies the unawareness more than their divisive President, George 'Dubya' Bush, arguably the world's most powerful man.

George Bush Jnr. was a rowdy young man from a premier political family of America. After having all the fun in his youthful days, he claims to have had divine premonitions that he is the 'chosen one' (Rakeysh Mehra was not so off the mark in his debut flick Aks, where Manoj Bajpai uses similar reasoning from Gita to justify his crimes). To get a full flavour of the man, one needs to see Michale Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, especially the first half; part hilarious, part poignant, supremely biased. Even Jug Suraiya's Dubyaman strip in The Time of India was quite funny in the beginning, though has become slightly dragging now.

I got the below story as a forward, but I think it is a great caricature of Bush, a supreme dictator leading the world's strongest democracy.

Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning. He told Bush that three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone's amazement, all of the colour ran from Bush's face, then he collapsed onto his desk, head in hands, visibly shaken, almost whimpering. Finally, he composed himself and asked Rumsfeld, "Just exactly how many is a brazillion?"