During Bush's recent trip to India, he passed up a golden opportunity to establish a diplomatic rapport with the people of the nation. For a man who seems to want to assert his respect for the worlds great religions, he seems as usual-well, fucking clueless.
This despite the fact that, in the aftermath of 9/11, he happily reported to the nation that he accepted, as a gift from an American immam, a copy of the Qu'ran, which he assurred us all he would treasure in that it represented the true face of Islam, that of a "religion of peace".
"Islam", he almost whined until we were sick of hearing it, "is a peaceful religion". He seemed almost apologetic about his need to take the war to those terrorists who had "usurped one of the worlds great religions."
Bush, in fact, has almost bent over backards to reassure the "peaceful" Islamic majority. Hell, I halfway expected him to start praying toward Mecca five times a day-but on the other hand, when you look at the relationship between him and his family and the Saudi royal family-hee hee hee-he does.
This, then, goes a long way toward exlaining the vitriolic reception he has been given by the nation of India, or by a large percentage of them. Though Bush has in some ways been instrumental in encouraging dialoque between India and Pakistan to an extent none of his predecessors have done, the people could well feel that he has them over a-er,make that under-a barrel.
Bush could very easily have gone a long way toward rectifying this rift with the peopel of the worlds largest democracy, by, instead of the proposed visit to the shrine of Ghandi, he could have very diplomatically visited one of the temples of one of Hiduisms most beloved Gods-the elephant headed God Ganesh.
What could be more appropriate? Ganesh is, after all, the "Mover Of Obstacles", and Bush certainly has his share of them. He is also the "God of Fortune and Good Luck", and these are things that Bush is certainly in need of.
So why ignore the God? Is he afraid that this might somehow offend his right wing Christian Conservative and evangelical base? Well, it probably would, but then again, they didn't seem to be concerned about his seeming near conversion to Islam. Is he afraid of the Muslims? Uh, yeah, probably. But remember, Bush is a no-nonsense type of man who isn't going to sit back and take a lot of guff from terrorists or their sympathizers.
What could be more appropriate than for Bush, the standard bearer of the Republican Party, whose symbol is the elephant, to visit a temple dedicated to the elephant headed God of India. But hey, look back up at the picture-he's missing a tusk. Now how did that happen? You see, like the elephants head itself, this is symbolic. It means that Ganesh is the God that vanquishes dualism, in other words, those contradictory impulses by which mans spiritual nature is ever at war with his physical, material aspects.
Hell, maybe a trip to this God would be just what the doctor ordered. Maybe it might even turn things around for him, not only in India, but here, and throughout the world. Maye the Muslims will start to realize they had better start to play nice. Maybe Bush's detractors in this country would see him as a man with at least some sense of the absurd, reminiscent of his trip to Africa where he was witness to two representatives of his party's mascot getting it on. He seemed to get quite a chuckle out of that one, which I saw as a sign of hope, that maybe he wasn't such a stuffed shirt, pompous hypocrit after all.
One temple in India recently had an idol of the God stolen, which I reported in an earlier post. Perhaps a visit to this temple might be appropriate,with the gift of a new idol, and Bush attending the ritualistic purification and dedication ceremonies.
Perhaps when Bush returns to this country, he could weigh in about the need for sensitivity toward the ever growing Hindu population here. For example, a beer company recently pulled from production a brand of beer, called Ganesh, which featured on it's logo an image of the God with one bottle of beer in one hand, another bottle in it's trunk. A lawsuit was threatened as a result in May of last year. Of course, there were no death threats, nor dire warnings of the nations destruction-just a bunch of that darned old complaining.
Still, it shows that the Hindus, here and there, take their religion and it's Gods and Goddesses as seriously as Chrisitan, jews, and Muslims take their one.
Uh Oh-whoops! I think I've just hit on something. To recognize a Pagan God-such as Ganesh-would be contradictory. After all, the case can be made that the God of Islam is the same God as that of Christianity and Judaism. That's why they are all called the Abrahamic religions.
Abrahamic religions, of course, don't believe in idolatry, which is the worshop of idols-such as those that portray the elephant headed God Ganesh, for example. I guess that's why when a zoo in Oklahoma recently incuded a pictue of Ganesh, a bunch of fundamentalist Christians lobbied for inclusion in the gallery of pictures with a Christian theme. And why a bunch of like-minded fundamentalist Christians in Cincinnati took to the conservative local radio talk shows and moaned and bitched about how the people in Cincinnati voted to name the newly born elephant at the zoo, yes, Ganesh.
And it all boils down to the Ten Commandments.
"Thou shalt make unto thee any graven images of anything, either on the earth, or under it, or in the seas, or in the skies."
Sorry if I don't have the wording of this exactly right. Hell, I don't even know for sure whether it's the Second, Third, or Fouth Commandment. I'm not a Chrisitan, you see. No, thank you, I dont want to be one. But I do understand Bush's reluctance to pay the appropriate respect to the people of India by visiting a temple of one of their Pagan Gods. It would just be bad form. After all, George Bush, the promoter of such ideas as "Faith Based Initiatives", while wanting to assure us all he has respect for all religous beliefs, finds himself at the head of a party that supports the placing of the Ten Commandments in public parks, courthouses, and public schools. Visiting the Temple of Ganesh, or any other Pagan God, would put him in a dilemna with his base. So he has to avoid this at all costs, even at the expense of passing up the opportunity to show respect to the people of India, and their own culture and heartfelt beleifs and religous values.
It's called, in a word, hypocrisy.
