Nikki Haley was a US presidential aspirant but was beaten by Trump in the convention to choose the Republican candidate. Vice President Kamala Harris became the presidential candidate of the Democrats. Osha Vance is now poised to become the US’ Second Lady being the wife of vice president-elect JD Vance. Vivek Ramaswamy was also a presidential contender but the Republicans finally opted for Trump. Rishi Sunnak was the Prime Minister of Great Britain but was hanged a few months back.
What do all these people have in common? They are all leaders in the most developed countries of the world. They are all of Indian descent, or, for emphasis, children of Indian immigrants. They are highly educated, as well as their parent s. They all went to graduate school, earning their masters’ degrees if not doctorate degrees. Lawyers are sometimes called Juris Doctors (JD) or doctors of law.
US Vice President Kamala Harris is a lawyer. Nikki Haley earned a master’s degree and was former governor of South Carolina and US Ambassador to the United Nations. Osha Vance is a Yale Law graduate. She was the vegetarian classmate of JD Vance and from whom he learned how delicious and incomparable Indian vegetarian recipes are. They fell in love and the rest is history.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a scientist billionaire while Rishi Sunnak obtained his master’s degree at the Wharton Business School.
The moral of their stories was they worked their asses to become highly educated like their parents. So they excelled. At the bottom or base of all these, is they dreamed or had ambitions.
If one lacks ambitions or lofty dreams, earning a college degree will appear so unreachable. Much more a master’s or a doctoral degree. And if you are a minority in society and looked down on, chances are, you will remain so.
Yes, our lack of privilege should spur us to achieve. After all, to dream is free.
I used to have a client, an Igorot mestizo, who retired from the US navy. Unlike so many others, however, he took advantage of the GI Bill. During weekends or whenever he could, he was a graduate school student. And when he retired, he already had a master’s degree. He was, therefore, better off than so many others.
Why didn’t other Igorot US Navy servicemen also do that? His answer was something I can never forget: “It is easier TO JUST GO AND GET DRUNK.”
It reminds me of what I had been seeing around in Baguio City. Of US Navy retirees who enrolled in the lousiest academic institutions around. They did not have to exert much effort to finish prestigious college degrees. Of course, they always passed as they are the favorites of their professors. All they had to do was pay for drinking sprees every after classes, for fellow classmates and the teachers concerned. Passing, just passing, was all they needed to get their GI Bill benefits.
Well, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Talk of benefits abused. Does that result in improvements in one’s life or way of thinking? Certainly, not. Instead, the opposite, called stagnation or deterioration.**
