OT: last in the series on Indian outsourcing

Last in the series from Salon:

http://tinyurl.com/32j8p

Some fun quotes from the piece:

"White-collar globalization is no boogeyman in India: Newspapers here
like to call the workers at companies like Infosys 'the young
hopefuls,' beacons of modernization in a society where 50 percent of the
population is still illiterate."

"The social changes wrought by that new middle class comes with its own
anxieties. The February 2004 issue of India's Cosmopolitan magazine
warns of a sinister plague of 'DINS' -- 'dual income, no sex
syndrome' -- afflicting software professionals, complete with supporting
data from a fertility expert declaring that 18 percent of women and
26.78 percent of men in I.T. (information technology) suffer from low
libidos."

A real corker:
"He expresses confidence that U.S. programmers who lose their jobs to
outsourcing will find new work: 'I.T. is a high-skilled labor. There is
not much issue for them to have another job. Because they are educated
they will always find jobs.'"

Lastly, the law of unintended consequences:
"In the early '90s, an exposé about the underbelly of the Indian
software industry appeared on a respected U.S. news program. It
documented the hardships of programmers brought to the U.S. on H-1B
visas. Indian programmers appeared with their faces blacked out, and
were quoted lamenting that their passports were being held by rogue
bosses who forced them to live six to an apartment, while paying them
$1,500 for work their predecessors had been paid $5,000 for. 'It was
very negative,' the executive remembers.

"Back in India, industry officials fretted about the fallout from the
P.R. debacle. Should they hire lobbyists in the U.S. to plead their case
in Washington? Would customers be scared away? But three months later,
they found that the reaction from viewers in the U.S. was exactly the
opposite of what they'd anticipated. The exposé turned out to be an
advertisement.

"'Suddenly, Mr. Joe sitting in Wisconsin who thought Indians were going
around on elephants knew that Indians could write programs. He thought,
These Indians can write programs for $1,500 that cost me $5,000? I can't
believe this. I have to check this out. He didn't care that they shared
an apartment.' Three months after the story appeared, the software
association was flooded with inquiries: '"Hey, I want to work with you?
How can I do it?"'"



http://www.vigo-alessi.com/images/products/1362.jpg

Vigo Breadcrumbs

think that says more about selfish greed than anything.
rather short term, short sighted, selfish greed


"Vigo Breadcrumbs" <> wrote in message
news:8Hchc.500448$ om...
> Last in the series from Salon:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/32j8p
>
> Some fun quotes from the piece:
>
> "White-collar globalization is no boogeyman in India: Newspapers here
> like to call the workers at companies like Infosys 'the young
> hopefuls,' beacons of modernization in a society where 50 percent of the
> population is still illiterate."
>
> "The social changes wrought by that new middle class comes with its own
> anxieties. The February 2004 issue of India's Cosmopolitan magazine
> warns of a sinister plague of 'DINS' -- 'dual income, no sex
> syndrome' -- afflicting software professionals, complete with supporting
> data from a fertility expert declaring that 18 percent of women and
> 26.78 percent of men in I.T. (information technology) suffer from low
> libidos."
>
> A real corker:
> "He expresses confidence that U.S. programmers who lose their jobs to
> outsourcing will find new work: 'I.T. is a high-skilled labor. There is
> not much issue for them to have another job. Because they are educated
> they will always find jobs.'"
>
> Lastly, the law of unintended consequences:
> "In the early '90s, an exposé about the underbelly of the Indian
> software industry appeared on a respected U.S. news program. It
> documented the hardships of programmers brought to the U.S. on H-1B
> visas. Indian programmers appeared with their faces blacked out, and
> were quoted lamenting that their passports were being held by rogue
> bosses who forced them to live six to an apartment, while paying them
> $1,500 for work their predecessors had been paid $5,000 for. 'It was
> very negative,' the executive remembers.
>
> "Back in India, industry officials fretted about the fallout from the
> P.R. debacle. Should they hire lobbyists in the U.S. to plead their case
> in Washington? Would customers be scared away? But three months later,
> they found that the reaction from viewers in the U.S. was exactly the
> opposite of what they'd anticipated. The exposé turned out to be an
> advertisement.
>
> "'Suddenly, Mr. Joe sitting in Wisconsin who thought Indians were going
> around on elephants knew that Indians could write programs. He thought,
> These Indians can write programs for $1,500 that cost me $5,000? I can't
> believe this. I have to check this out. He didn't care that they shared
> an apartment.' Three months after the story appeared, the software
> association was flooded with inquiries: '"Hey, I want to work with you?
> How can I do it?"'"
>
>
>
> http://www.vigo-alessi.com/images/products/1362.jpg

billyw