Dear Editor,
On Thursday night, Scripps held their annual spelling bee competition. This year’s competition was extra special, because after the last two boys standing were tied – the competition went to a spell-off. What happened next was the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my forty years in academia. A twelve year old child correctly spelt 29 difficult words in less than 90 seconds. Many of the viewing public admitted that they have never heard of most of the words before, and few could spell any on their own.
But, there was something even more impressive. All of the last five contestants were of Indian origin. The Indian population in the United States is about 2 %. The mathematical odds of the last five contestants all being of Indian origin is more than 1 in 300 million. Even though English is not their first language, these kids similarly dominate the competition every year.
Indians in almost every sector outperform their odds. 11 % of all doctors in America are Indians. They have the highest percentage of college graduates and by far the highest income of all ethnic groups. Indians have the highest percentage of home ownership. They dominate IT in Silicon Valley, technology and business start ups. Nearly 15 % of the major companies in America are led by Indians including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Micron, Starbucks and YouTube. Some areas of excellence stretch the aura of credulity. For example, Indians own almost 50 % of hotels and 70 % of all motels in America.
Yet, despite all these superlatives, I have never heard one person mention that the successes of Indians were because of corruption by their families, friends and favourites.
Respectively submitted,
Jhagroo Persaud
