Discoveries abound

I have been discovering things ever since I got here. When I went shopping for my dorm room, I discovered that there was more than one type of pillow. I had to choose between a pillow for people who sleep on their stomachs, sides, on their back, back and sides and so on. I stood there and pondered which pillow would best suit me, whereas back home I would have just bought the first pillow that came to my hand, as there wouldn't have been such a wide choice. Ive already blogged about the Disney channel, Adult Swim, Family Man and South Park. There have also been people like Bill Maher and Bill O Riley. The fact that it is possible for these two men who are complete opposites on the political spectrum to have their own shows is one of the things that I like about America. I have also discovered You Tube and the reliance of this country on credit cards, and that you cannot park your car in an empty car park outside a bank at night but with a permit, you can ride a horse carriage down the street. Oh, and i will not forget anytime soon the first time my cousin saw my handkerchief and asked me what it was because, as I discovered, they don't use handkerchiefs in America. Then there was the first time I went looking for my dorm room and climbed up to what I thought was the third floor, but turned out to be the fourth floor because in America the first floor is what I previously knew as the ground floor. That story really cracked some people up.

One of the more interesting things I have discovered is Helicopter parents. Not so much the concept, but the term. The concept is somewhat familiar, though back home I rarely encountered it. When I got here, I encountered so much of it, that I mentioned it to some one who drew my attention to the term Helicopter parents. So I looked it up, and found two articles (among many) that gave me an insight: Helicopter parents' lead to spoiled, unhappy children and What Are The Latest Accessories College Students Are Bringing To School? Their Parents!

I was told that helicopter parenting was a serious problem faced by college administrators and that increasingly children are being sheltered from the "real world". I thought this was incredulous and was finding it hard to believe. It struck home the other day though, when time.com quoted President H W Bush as saying: "My son is an honest man" in defence of his son at a leadership conference in the UAE. Apparently, the current president was facing "harsh criticism".

Helicopter parents in college I can understand, but this is the President of the most powerful country in the world! The leader of the "free world"! But when President Bush faces the "real world", we find pop hovering above him, and as usual, coming to his rescue. I wonder whether it will work this time though. This time the mess is too big even for Senior and his pals to clean up. That is not to say that they aren't trying. There is a lot being made of the fact that the old guard is back at the White House, trying to fix the mess that is Iraq.

I have heard President Bush talk about his legacy and how history will judge him. He still has two years, but it increasingly looks like history will judge his legacy to be the creation of a right royal pickle in Iraq. A mess left for some one else to clean up.