Hijdas and the sub-prime mess

Everything and anything has been affected by the sub-prime crisis. We have been hearing the more high profile stories, the resignation of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch CEOs. But given that every analyst is blaming everything in the world on the sub-prime crisis, it is apparent that there are greater tragedies. After all, just as analysts would have got respect by mentioning growing economies of India and China in any interaction, they can now quote the sub-prime crisis for explaining dinosaur extinction, Michael Jackson’s transformation and poor quality of images leaking out of Diana’s inquest. So much so, US

presidential candidates, who have to say that they are more willing than others to bomb, are already asking their speechwriters to write about bombing sub-prime markets.

And what about the sub-prime person? Bankers are demanding that they be quarantined in Guantanamo. But behind all the cold analysis, is there a case for compassion for people belonging to this segment who have to live their lives with a tag “sub-prime”? Probably they had managed to stay in a house of their own for the first time in their family history. Will they ever be able to shake off the “sub-prime” stigma?

All the same, the sub-prime mess has proven the effectiveness of strategies used by Indian lenders in dealing with defaulters. Indians, always believing that the world has much to learn from them because only they believe their mythologies to be real, are touting the effectiveness of using Eunuchs (hijdas) to deal with lending crises. These eunuchs, with their sharp rhetoric, wild clapping, nonchalant attitude, and 1968 style “sit-in” strategies, have for years helped Indian banks to get defaulters to pay-up. No wonder, Citigroup appointed an ethnic Indian as their new CEO. After the US took away most Indian nurses, it may now be the turn for our eunuchs to hit Ellis Island.