Speaking about the importance of the 4th of July celebrations, American humorist Erma Bombeck once noted, “You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.” And you know what the spirit of America couldn’t have been depicted better.

These days the nation and its citizens are receiving a lot of flak internationally for its leaders flexing their superpower muscles to basically get what they want, but when I think of some of the great things America has given the world this public perception doesn’t make any sense.

For the nation that inspired industriousness, corporate culture and excellence and professionalism in all fields, it’s almost unfair to judge them for the mistakes a few Americans made.

I grew up watching American television, I grew up savoring my Big Macs and my Dominos specials and Cokes and Levis, and in some ways, their notion of what it means to be free, has shaped my own thought process.

I have a lot of friends who went to the States to study or work and they tell me that the mothers of their American friends are just as loving as the mothers back home.

So while I’m in no way in favor or the arm-twisting tactics the American government employs, I’m more than happy to wish the average American citizen a very happy independence day because, the spirit of liberty preached by the forefathers of that nation, helped the founders of my own country to fight off imperialism 60 years ago!

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