Posted on 05/20/2005 2:50:34 PM PDT by Pikamax
Pepsi's Nooyi gets the blues from red Repubicans CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2005 11:22:23 AM ]
Sign into earnIndiatimes points
WASHINGTON: When Pepsico President and CFO Indra Nooyi agreed to deliver the commencement address to Columbia University's MBA class of 2005 last Sunday, she must have recalled her own days as a b-school graduate at Yale in the 1980s, when American college campuses were predominantly liberal.
In fact, not much has changed. A recent survey published by the Liberty Institute shows that most American campuses are still deep blue, more so in the Democratic strongholds stateside.
In the 2004 elections, Nooyi's alma mater Yale weighed in 20 to 1 in contributing money to John Kerry versus George Bush. Harvard leaned 25 to 1, MIT 43 to 1, Princeton 302 to 1, and every dollar from Dartmouth went to Kerry.
Even universities in the red (Republican) states gave more to Kerry than Bush -- Texas's Rice University favored Kerry 3 to 1, Indiana's Notre Dame by 3 to 1, and Tennessee's Vanderbilt by 2 to 1.
Who could blame Nooyi for thinking east coast campuses at least were still bastions of liberal thinking and giving them a "I'm-one-of-you-vibes"?
Indeed, Nooyi initially regaled the audience at Columbia -- which contributed 8 to 1 for Kerry --telling them "it wasn't so long ago that I was in your place."
"I remember the day well," she recalled. "Yet, as the guy on the podium droned on...I remember desperately checking my watch. I thought: I deserve to party, and this codger is cramping my style. In one of life's true ironies, I am now that..codgette."
The rest of Nooyi's speech was on the same lines --self-effacing, droll, and to some, mildly sophomoric.
But unbeknownst to her, even on the liberal New York campus, some students chafed when she used the five-finger analogy to talk up U.S reponsibility as the middle finger.
Although such students were ...
...evidently in a minority --there were no immediate protests -- all it required was for one of them to post Nooyi's remarks on a right-leaning blog for the issue to be talked into national limelight via the blogosphere.
By Wednesday night, cable television networks, having milked the Koran story till it moved, were sniffing at this controversy -- a prospect that has Nooyi alarmed.
Talking to this correspondent Wednesday evening, the Chennai-born Nooyi maintained that her whole message was aimed at advancing American interests as a global leader, and it was unfortunate that it was being misconstrued.
She pointed in particular to paragraphs from her speech where she spoke of her fealty to her adopted country. "Although I’m a daughter of India, I’m an American businesswoman. My family and I are citizens of this great country," she said, adding, "This land we call home is a most-loving, and ever-giving nation -- a "promised land" that we love dearly in return. And it represents a true force that – if used for good -- can steady the hand along with global economies and cultures."
But conservative blogdom had no ear for those words. They seized the middle finger and ignored her message.
"This East Indian-American woman is at the top of her game professionally in a country that celebrates women achievers much UNLIKE her country of origin," raged one blogger. "But she is not satisfied! She must disparage the United States for not doing enough to coddle the corrupt, morally and financially bankrupt 'international community'."
Did not this story first break on the blogshpere?
What blog are they talking about? Us?
powerline.
Repubicans?
Lose an L there?
I think that one lost something in translation. "Steady the hand"?
When a university president gives his opinion on the differences between men and women, he is carried to Room 101 and starts up a 50 million dollar cash hog that has no value whatsoever.
When a conservative complains of an offensive comment, it's being hypersensitive and a "chill wind" of censorship in the air.
Sounds good to me. Although I don't go to fast food restaurants that serve Pepsi anyway. I have always much preferred Coke.
If she has any smarts at all she'll drop the "I've been misconstrued" crap and just apologize for making a sophomoric analogy and saying something stupid.
Thanks.
She looks like the clerk at the 7-11 near my house.
Whats a pepsico? I rarely buy their products, they are subferior to Coke. They are usually flat. They have become a cut-rate alternative. I'll happily give them the finger in the grocery store.
She can go jump in Lake Chilka.
I'll sign on for the boycott. I'm tired of Pepsi anyway.
What other industries does Pepsi dabble in?
aren't you confusing the low quality video with that other traitor, linda foley?
Gotta be an Indian idiom there...
There goes my Diet Sierra Mist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.