Family & friends ask: Why would you want to go THERE?

Girlfriend: Why would you wanna go to India?

Me: To get away from you!

...

The fifty-first way to leave your lover?

Well I did look it up and here's just a sampling. All the comments are along the same lines and it's on Google as well as a number of other sites. The White House admits he didn't travel that much but "it's irrelevant" to the great job he's doing of course. I didn't post all the articles because it would take too much space. A lie? Don't even get me started.

CNN Student News: Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSC.../17/ip.00.html

"Critics often describe Bush as 'incurious' about the world, but that
word hardly does justice to what feels almost like a principled
provincialism. Here was someone who by age 13 was mingling in the
country-club set of Houston, who then went on to Andover, Yale and
Harvard Business School -- and did so in the age of cut-rate
international air fares -- and yet he rarely traveled abroad. Bush was
in his mid-20's when his father became ambassador to the United
Nations, and still he stayed home. He must have had to resist actively
his parents' blandishments. He visited China in 1975, when his father
was U.S. liaison; Gambia, at President Bush's behest, in 1990; and the
Middle East in 1998, when he had begun thinking about his own run for
the presidency. (He also traveled to Europe several times in the 90's
with the Young Presidents' Organization, a group for corporate
executives.)

To me, it is quite immaterial whether Bush travelled or not, and where.

Travel doesn't always broaden the mind. Sometimes, it reinforces stereotypes in the mind.

To quote Shakespeare, One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

My mum used to say: 'travel broadens the mind: but only if someone has a mind to start with'.

It's not immaterial at all in this discussion, and certainly not for a head of state. The fact that he had the resources and the opportunity to travel but didn't speaks volumes about his interests outside of his own country. More often than not, travel broadens the mind. What reinforces stereotypes is not traveling and believing everything you hear on TV or what your government wants you to believe.

Well, in his defence, he did have the resources and the opportunity, and he kind of 'travelled' to iraq... and I think it may have broadened his mind.

Oh, stop knocking President Bush about travel: he was always nice about the Grecians, wasn't he?

As he said himself:

"They misunderestimated me."—Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

"I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend."—On the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."—Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."—Redwood, Calif., Sept. 27, 2000

"The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas."—To a Slovak journalist as quoted by Knight Ridder News Service, June 22, 1999. Bush's meeting was with Janez Drnovsek, the prime minister of Slovenia.

"If the East Timorians decide to revolt, I'm sure I'll have a statement."—Quoted by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, June 16, 1999

"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease."—Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

"Keep good relations with the Grecians."—Quoted in the Economist, June 12, 1999

"Do you have blacks, too?"—To Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001

"Kosovians can move back in."—CNN Inside Politics, April 9, 1999

"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times."—Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 2002

"King Abdullah of Jordan, the King of Morocco, I mean, there's a series of places—Qatar, Oman—I mean, places that are developing—Bahrain—they're all developing the habits of free societies."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004

The big question: is he good for America - well, he answered this himself:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004


Tim in England

i was really upset when i was in india for six months 11/05-04/06 and Bush's face was on the headlines of the papers almost every day. I travel half way across the world and still cant escape that %$@#

It's fascinating to see where a thread like this goes that starts with one simple question!

What it all boils down to, in my mind, is whether or not you're the type that likes the challenge of getting out of your comfort zone. India can definitely make you feel uncomfortable, but it can also open your eyes to a whole new way of seeing yourself and where you come from.

Dude I saw it somewhere...so for ME it wasnt a lie alright? I cant remember where..it was before Junior was president back in 2000 there was a debate on TV about foreign policy and they mentioned how Junior never traveled anywhere. Maybe it was a false statement, but I didnt intentionally lie alright? Now I read the sources you provided and now I know he did travel so thats that..Jeez chill out..ughhh dont shoot!! hahaha..

Ehhh if he doesnt want to go to India...then go alone

Problem solved

People who dont like India need not visit..I dont have interest in some places, so I dont go. If my husband wanted to go to those places, then he would go solo.

I think I've been lucky, in that I had support from my family or they just cracked jokes about me coming back with an Indian wife (which I would be very happy with)

To those who don't know me so well, I now point out to them that as this is my 6th time, then I must be going back for a good reason. ie. I have a good time there.

I try to briefly point out the diversity from goan beaches to himalayan mountains to rajasthani deserts, throw in selected titbits re who I am speaking to (for some its charas, some yoga, some mountain sports/trekking etc, some its even the cheap cost of living. Usually when I tell them I'm going for a few months and they will be lucky to get a 2 week holiday, it shuts 'em up!)

A few weeks ago, someone did ask me: "Isn't it full of Pakis?" I bit my tongue and explained as polite as I could that, "No, it's full of Indians. Pakistan is the country next door!"

As for the post which mentioned Indians not wanting to set foot in their motherland, I have many Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshis friends here in Birmingham that have said just that to me. Some have never been, some have only visited as kids and some have been very recently.

One time I flew from Delhi and a guy with his family who had been visiting family in the Punjab said to me in a thick Manchester accent, they were never coming again and that they hated the place and couldn't wait to get home. Each to their own I guess.

The fact that a country is so different from your own is reason enough to visit it...out of curiosity! That's how I am inclined to think.

Good or bad, one can never know unless they visit another country and experience it for themselves. So much of our views are based on media's perception and hearsay, causing us to form paranoid impressions about faraway places.

I visited Iran a couple of years ago (yesss...was hounded by U.S. customs for that stamp on my passport!!; it is such a beautiful counrty and the people are so friendly, but it is always portrayed as a austere, rigid society. No matter what, it's still an amazing'y different country to visit for a holiday:-)

what about all the rats they have in India I was asked

Well they will just have to get used to me was my reply