American Soma, even in Britain

London Telegraph blogger Toby Harnden reports that Obama gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod containing photos of her 2007 royal visit to the Tidewater region of Virginia. She gave him a portrait of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh framed in silver. Hmmm...

Anyway, Obama's gift is wonderfully American Soma-ish (see "Post-modern Colonialism", page 124):
"Foreign governments understood it to be an expansion of commerce. We intended it as colonization. “What cannot be accomplished with guns, tanks, and foot soldiers, we will accomplish through sneakers, cubic zirconia, and iPods,” said one Presidential cabinet member, a southerner, whose fat hands began to sweat with keen anticipation upon hearing the initial corporate proposal."

Certainly we're not counter-colonizing the "island the size of Oregon". Or are we? Perhaps it's a foregone conclusion.