One good turn deserves another. You didn’t bother making a serious argument and in fact went after the lowest common denominator argument in pursuit of your goal, which is apparently to blame Indian children for the economic phenomenon of outsourcing. So don’t be surprised if I find you in good company with those idiots. I bet they’d raise a beer for your post.
Obviously, I don’t actually think you’re a neo nazi. At least nazis have an ethos. You’re just irrational and sad, and coincidentally lashing out the same way they do. Or maybe not coincidentally, maybe it’s human nature.
At the end of the day what the charity does it up to it, I’d prefer we lived in a [global] society where charities to find cures for cancer or stop kids having to sift through bins in what’s supposed to be a city of economic miracle weren’t necessary.
Their ad’s just been the final wake up call that hammers home that we’ve run full circle. We’ve spent a century in “the west” improving human rights, the rights of workers, social security, welfare systems and so on, but at the end of the day as long as we keep the share prices up by shipping entire sectors of industry out to places where it’s “cheaper” because none of those rights exists we don’t really care. That we’re now running prime time ads from charities to help people in these places just seems to illustrate that we now can’t even be bothered to keep up the pretence.
One’s got little to do with the other. Poverty in the West is still operating at a severity a couple of degrees of magnitude below what is happening in a place like Bangalore. What you’re pissed off about has much more to do with Western corporations, Western governments enabling them, and rich people across the globe. These charities have been around for ages, and there is no pretense in the need for their existence or the results they get. At least, not in the argument you are making.
I see a lot of defense of India in this thread in reference to the OP’s frustration at a commercial asking for help for a poor and sick child. I’d be willing to bet a lot of you defenders haven’t been there, and haven’t been to other “developing industrialized nations” for comparison.
Trust me, there is a huge chasm of nothing in between the very rich and the very poor in India. Castes are still all over, the amount of money the government spends on infrastructure there is pitiful, what funds that are spent on infrastructure are spent somewhat foolishly and all the while they have quite happily taken the money of the countries who flocked there for cheap labor. There is a problem in India, and it’s the government of India. Don’t rail on the OP for essentially stating some pretty truthful statements here. And don’t let these statements prevent you from going to see what is both an eye-opening, but also beautiful place. You will see everything from beautiful and spotless palaces, modern business parks and malls to absolute poverty and shantytowns. Bangalore is nothing, Mumbai and New Delhi have even greater extremes.
Aside from that fact, just like here in America, I’m sure there are children that need help. So Nellie if you don’t want to give, then don’t. Give to some local organization supporting children here in America or throughout Europe. Don’t let the example that angered you in one commercial override the fact that there are a lot of folks in need right now.
It’s still not the fault of the needy people that they’re in a shitty situation. Blame the government all you want, but it’s not like the plight of these people isn’t genuine or that the charities trying to help them aren’t doing something worthy. If it’s any consolation to the OP, these people likely hate their government a whole lot more than you do.
Oh I completely agree Deccan. I was trying to say that in the last paragraph. But if the OP doesn’t want to give to India for some reason I would still encourage him to give somewhere else.
Also, your country is a good comparison to India, both are developing emergent economies. A lot of the money in Malaysia IS going back into infrastructure. Not once in my travels in India did I ever feel it was as clean and well cared for as say, Kuala Lumpur. Even the historical sites were well kept.
You’re partially right. Wealth will flatten, people’s educations will be more determinant of their incomes than location is except for some slight geographical advantages that are important for the movement of goods, like the extra high wage that California and Hawaii port workers get.
However since people who are well educated and wealthy will prefer to live in places where they have freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom to travel and economic freedoms which allow them to charge what they are worth, the western world will have a huge economic advantage until either the Asian (including Russia) countries liberalize quite a bit.
Look at the capital (installed) per capita in the US and Russia, it’s about the same but US GDP is much much higher.
One good turn deserves another. You didn’t bother making a serious argument and in fact went after the lowest common denominator argument in pursuit of your goal, which is apparently to blame Indian children for the economic phenomenon of outsourcing. So don’t be surprised if I find you in good company with those idiots. I bet they’d raise a beer for your post.
Then I put my intended point across incredibly badly and I withdraw my application to the human race.
My basic point is that we’ve spent a long time raising unions, minimum wage, and so on. yet, at the first opportunity we let corporations farm everything out to where this protection doesn’t exist and then run charity ads about their kids rummaging in bins.
Wow so someone who makes one quarter your wage is expected to save all the starving children in India?
No, they shouldn’t be on a quarter of the wage, shouldn’t be living in company dormitories because their wage is too low to afford their own housing, eating company provided food because their wage is too low to go buy it elsewhere and their kids shouldn’t be having to scrabble through bins to begin with. And we as consumers, as shareholders, as managers looking through spreadsheets shouldn’t be encouraging it. The Indian government shouldn’t find it acceptable that a major charity feels the need to put out prime time “help the starving children” ads for a city that is supposed to represent the changing face of India and be the centrepiece of its Economic Miracle.
And I’d much rather the Charity felt it was in a position to be using that money to Lobby the Indian government rather than needing to dish out handouts that maintain the status quo. There’s enough money sloshing around the place to maintain a rather large Navy and a nuclear arsenal but not enough to provide basic social services or make any serious attempt to address the remanents of the Caste system? I dare say that from its own point of view, workers rights, minimum wages and so on aren’t actually that desireable when one of its primary selling points and large proportion of its success is the country’s ability to drastically undercut the staff costs of a similar business organisation based in Europe or the US.
