First Slovenian woman astronaut
So, the Atlantis is scheduled to return today. Reality Check wishes everyone on board, Sunita Williams and six others a safe flight back home. In the interest of balanced coverage, let us also point out that Sunita Williams is the first woman and third astronaut of Slovenian descent. The other two are Ronald Sega and Jerry Linenger.
This morning I turned on the TV channels here in India. Indians are going way overboard in claiming Sunita as one of their own. Are we suffering from such low self esteem that we try to appropriate an American woman flying on an American technological marvel called the Atlantis ?
Students performing “Havan” in Patna (Img source : Patna Daily)
Some more,
As US-based astronaut Sunita Williams gets ready for a comeback after her six-month space voyage, girl students of a Varanasi school on Tuesday conducted a holy fire ritual to wish her good luck.
Chanting Sanskrit shlokas, they said Williams, who was born in India, inspired them.
If Sunita Williams is merely “US-Based”, then George Bush is just a “US-Based Englishman”. Who has given these kids such false information ? I can understand their yearning for a role model, but it should be rooted in facts. The media is squarely to blame for this.
Whats happening in Slovenia ?
In this media din, most people do not even know that Sunita is as much Slovenian as she is Indian. Her mother is of Slovenian origin. She not only took samosas to the space station but also “smoked sausage from Azman meats in Euclid“.
So, I decided to check the online Slovenian papers if there was similar mass exuberance there. After all, she is the third astronaut of Slovenian descent and the first female.
http://www.einnews.com/slovenia/
http://www.topix.net/world/slovenia
A people completely devoid of national pride, lacking any interest to scratch the surface, to search for facts, completely satisfied with celebrating mechanical promotions, following campaigns of small time politicians, making movies catering exclusively to wealthy immigrants in Jersey or Southall, picturizing all movie songs (except slum item numbers) in locations ranging from Kazakhstan to Switzerland to Malaysia depending on the producers budget, all of this and a burning desire to jettison national identity. Yes, we can have PIO Universities and NRI Quotas when our own people run from pillar to post seeking basic quality education. Why, Is not the world a flat place ?
Yeah baby, we are true global citizens – except for the inconvenient 15 minutes at airport immigration.
>>>If Sunita Williams is merely “US-Based”, then George Bush is just a “US-Based Englishman”. Who has given these kids such false information ? I can understand their yearning for a role model, but it should be rooted in facts. The media is squarely to blame for this.
True. Media also paints Musharraf as a Pakistan-based Indian and treats him as such.
Kumar
June 21, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Note the complete lack of enthusiasm about the Rushdie Knighthood. Arguably he has more Indian pedigree and the subjects he writes on are almost exclusively Indian.
Barbarindian
June 21, 2007 at 6:53 pm
rediff is running a big serial on Sunita Williams.
Sriram
June 22, 2007 at 11:28 am
I hope they don’t kill this one too in order to save $1.8 mm (transport cost of shuttle from California to Florida). They could have landed yesterday and every minute is precious. Florida weather has been iffy for more than a week now.
Perhaps not my business and definitely coming from the stellar country that I do come from it may sound rather hypocritical, but NASA has its priorities highly mixed up.
Barbarindian
June 22, 2007 at 6:17 pm
[...] Jun 22nd, 2007 by Confused Reality Check writes, This morning I turned on the TV channels here in India. Indians are going way overboard in claiming Sunita as one of their own. Are we suffering from such low self esteem that we try to appropriate an American woman flying on an American technological marvel called the Atlantis ? [link] [...]
Sunita Williams Is Not Indian! « Life is a street car named Desire
June 22, 2007 at 11:19 pm
The Slovenians are taking out their frustration on smokers:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20070623120907274C458215
Barbarindian
June 24, 2007 at 3:06 am
Trust the media to go on the overkill in every such matter. I wonder if instead of Sunita, her Slovenian mother had named her Anoushka or Svetlanya, whether we would have still gone ga-ga over just this astronaut? Worse, if the mother was a black woman, and the daughter had acquired her skin colour and features, would we have still appropriated her as our own and prayed for her as fervently? That would have been interesting to see!
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