Most Americans are probably happy with just an undergrad degree and don't want to go to grad school.
Exactly. Americans find perfectly good engineering jobs with "just" a bachelor's degree. There aren't enough jobs which require advanced degrees in engineering to make it worth the time to give up 2-3 years of engineering paychecks, pay for college, pay for books, pay for living expenses, and earn those advanced degrees. More than likely, you'd graduate with a master's or a PhD and work at the same job you could get with a bachelor's degree.
On the other hand, foreigners looking to immigrate to the United States work under the assumption that if they go to school here and earn one of our advanced degrees, then we'd be more likely to allow them to stay once their studies are complete. THAT is why foreigners outnumber Americans in these topics. It's not because they're smarter, not because they love engineering more, and not because education is better in their country. It's because they want to immigrate here.
I'd like to say that many accomplished people were never particularly good at school, so what happens if these kinds of people get put in the dumb class, that what I want to know?
Then they stay in the remedial classes until they catch up. Once they can pass the entrance test for the standard or gifted classes, then they can join those groups. However, if they can't pass the test, then they likely need that remedial education.
...For instance a lot of smart people might be slow learners and take longer to do things but does this make their work any less valuable? i.e. take a person who can do advanced classes but can't handle the pacing, but is not stupid or incompetent.
The standard and remedial classes cover the same topics as the advanced classes, but at a slower pace. That is the place for that person.
Fine. Then you can choose to send Little Johnny to the gifted school, despite the tests saying he doesn't belong there. However, you do not get to bitch at the teacher for "going too fast". You do not get to bitch if Little Johnny fails. In that case, Little Johnny packs his stuff and his sorry ass goes to the standard school.
Hell, If you want to go logic-chopping, I could argue that Democracy sounds great on paper. Everybody is equal and nobody can claim superiority over anybody else. But, it turned into an ugly, brutal system under the Greeks that just installed dictators like Selecus into power...
At which point they are no longer a democracy, but an autocracy.
...or the French that just installed dictators like Napoleon into absolute power.
At which point they are no longer a democracy, but an autocracy.
Yes, democracies can put dictators in power. At which point, they no longer remain democracies. Does that make the democratic system evil? No. The individual ruler could have stopped at any point and allowed elections. The individual ruler is the evil person. Does that make democracy flawed? Potentially. A strong system of checks and balances must be put in place in order to prevent absolute rule.
Both societies were essentially the founders of modern democratic principles.
The ideas of the modern republic come from the Native Americans. The US borrowed their ideas during the founding of its republic, which came before France's revolution. The US is essentially the founder of modern democratic principles.
Me: Unless you are harboring terrorists, we have no interest in invading your country.
You: That's so inherently racist I can almost hear Luftwaffe planes in the background!
You are so full of shit that this is my last letter. My comment said NOTHING of race, but yet you called it racist. DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD RACIST? No. You do not.
This is in contrast to your country, where even regular non-white muslims are beaten, brutalized and persecuted...
That did happen after 9/11, when the US was attacked brutally by a group of 20 Muslims. However, the police did investigate these attacks on Muslims and went after the criminals who perpetrated the crimes.
...but white supremacists like the KKK and the Aryan Nations, who are no different from the IRA or the al-Qaeda are permitted to practice on account of them being white.
The Freedom of Speech is the first amendment to the US Constitution. The Freedom of Assembly is also in the first amendment to the US Constitution. Both of these groups, as despicable as they may be, still possess these rights along with everyone else in the US. As long as they conduct themselves within the law, they will continue to possess those rights.
If, after these atrocities, you have the audacity to claim that you are a superior culture to ours, then all I can say is that, unlike the words of E.R. Braithwaite, you can't educate the uneducable.
The right of a minority group, such as the KKK or the Aryan Nations, to speak freely is a fundamental right of a free society. They are almost universally despised, but to allow the government to silence their voices would lead any country down the path of autocracy. As much as I hate them and their message, I would defend to the death their right to say it - just as I would defend to the death your right to ridicule me.
Without free speech there is no democracy. Period.
If you want to use that as a pretext for murdering us, then bear in mind that WE are not Iraq.
Oh shut up. You are so full of yourself. There are no terrorists in your country sending freakin airplanes into our building. And besides, all our big companies who virtually run the Republican party all want to outsource their work to India. They have no interest in making your country more unstable than it already is.
Thus, your bureaus have no intelligence base in our country, nor does the People's Republic.
Right... The CIA is just going to ignore a country with a population of one billion people. Don't be so full of yourself.
I suppose the billionaire's rich kid actually "earned" his position as CEO of daddy's company? Please!
And so just because nepotism exists in some cases, that makes the large companies of today anything like a feudal system? Hardly.
Somebody over 40 who just got booted from his company due to "downsizing" & offshoring (that's one point on which I am in partial agreement with the rednecks, that offshoring is ruining both our economies) can actually get an accredited degree that people won't laugh at?
One of my good friends is a 45-ish year old woman who is finishing up her CS degree. I went to school with plenty of other people in their 30s and 40s. While a CS degree may not be as beneficial as they were a few years ago, they're hardly anything to laugh at.
Anybody can get rich! Then why isn't everybody???
Look around you. Who says they aren't already? How many Americans in the US do you know who don't own a car? What percentage would you guess? What percentage of those are brand new? What percentage would you guess have a car in India? What percentage of those are brand new? Those cars aren't cheap. By most world standards, anyone able to afford a new car is rich.
Granted, that went offtopic of my main point. Everyday people can become CEOs. It's just a matter of luck, intelligence, hard work, and perseverance. A famous example is the founder of Wendy's, Dave Thomas, who set up his chain of restaurants without even a high school diploma.
Me: There is no working up to be King in a feudal system.
You: Nonsense! I did mention the Nanda dynasty before, I believe (c 350 bc).
Right... this was so commonplace that you have to bring up an example from 2355 years ago.
The same was true (in varying degrees) of Julius Caesar, Chengiz Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and, though I hate to admit it, even Adolf Hitler...
First off, Hitler was not king. The feudal system had already been eliminated in Germany by the time he came to power. However, that is beside the point.
The fact of the matter is that people taking the role of king who aren't born into it are so rare that you can only find extreme examples of it. Julius Caesar? He was around, what, just less than 2000 years ago? What about the line of kings in Britain that trace their history back to William the Conquerer?
Yes, it may happen occasionally, but in general, there is no working up to be King in a feudal system. However, people do work up to CEO in corporations quite often.
The caste system was SUPPOSED to be LOOSE set of rules. It was not MEANT to be a rigid orthodoxy. The problems we have wrt caste is the result of the DOGMA generated by the RIGIDITY of the caste system by some bad people, not by the SYSTEM itself. Hitler and George Bush were elected into power by the democratic process of election. Just because they are bad does not mean that the democratic process is bad, is it?
King George may have actually been a nice guy if you knew him. A large number of the kings of Europe may have been nice guys who did the right things for their countries. But, that doesn't mean the feudal system itself was good.
Like the caste system, the communist system sounded great in the beginning. Everyone owns everything jointly and we all just get along. But, it turned into an ugly, brutal system that just installed dictators into absolute power.
You can't judge a system by the way it was intended to be used. You judge it by the way it actually is used. Had we followed your advice with the Soviet Union, we'd still be asking them to be a little less totalitarian.
(Nice try comparing Hitler to Bush, but it really isn't a good comparison.)
To eliminate the PROBLEMS of the caste system, we have to work to simplify it to it's original form. It is too integrated into our way of life to be eliminated altogether. To suggest
You: The only differences between our bigotry problems and yours are manifest from the fact that your news media want to detract your countrymen from the flaws of your society, so they focus on the actions of a few uneducated people in the ruaral south of our country so that people like you would develop a false sense of subconscious racial superiority (while consciously believing themselves to be broad-minded and enlightened).
Me: That sentence is complete nonsense. Have you ever watched the local news in Texas? Every news cast goes over the flaws in US society. The local news here in Seattle is just as bad. I suggest you actually watch it a few times before making statements like that again.
You: I don't watch American news for the same reasons that you DO watch it. I don't have to time to factor out all the ignorance and bigotry present in CNN/NBC/FOX/whatever to get the real facts... Hence, I have done a detailed study of Caucasian racism, and the logistics of traffic in central Texas, but never bothered to watch the "news" programs about how to make the perfect bowl of chili, or the corruption of country music by the introduction of digital media, or the latest sexual conquest of Britney Spears, or any of that stuff.
So, I take it then that you have watched some local Texas news. Ever notice how many murders occur in your area? What about the number of robberies? Or the number of fatal accidents?
Ever notice that when a robbery occurs and they find a suspect, that they never mention the race of the suspect? In fact, you can rarely often tell the race of the suspect unless they air a video of the person. Also, have you ever noticed that the people reading the news aren't always white? Your statements about "ignorance and bigotry" and "Caucasian racism" are plain wrong. Obviously, you're not seeing any of this.
What do you think of your statement, "news media want to detract your countrymen from the flaws of your society" in the face of all those murders, robberies, and grisly accidents? How about that your statement is obviously wrong? The news media actually want to get ratings so they can sell more ads. So, they report on the problems in society because that's what people are interested in. People can't turn their eyes away from a car crash - in real life or on TV.
And when you stop murdering muslims, then we will listen to you and consider you to be men, instead of killers.
All of this was done out of hatred for our support of Israel - something you actually like. So, what exactly would you want us to do? Support Israel and piss off the Muslims so much that they fly planes into our buildings? Or not piss off the Muslims by removing support for Israel, thus dooming Israel to a quick and painful death? Which one?! Pick!
Your caste system is primitive and barbaric, but you can't actually defend it, so you end up attacking my culture instead. Yes, we have killed Muslims. And yes, some of them were innocent. And yes, we have done some brutal and nasty things in the process. However, we are dealing with those issues and bringing those criminals to justice. That is all part of war - which they started. None of that changes the fact that India's caste system is barbaric.
Why don't we stick to the actual thing we're arguing about, which is India's caste system!
While we're getting offtopic a tad, here is my rebuttal.
Yeah, I know... At least the likelihood of anyone other than us reading this are slim. I doubt any of our comments will be modded down.
Me: News flash: most people do not "breed" outside their "race". This is not limited to white people.
You: Not true, we have been interbreeding for thousands of years. The 2 races that predominantly comprise the Indian population have intermixed their blood so much that the distinctions are purely academic.
As I said before, most people do not "breed" outside their "race". I specifically did not say all. The fact of the matter is that most white people marry other white people, most Asians marry other Asians, most black people marry other black people, etc. That does not mean my statement is always true. You live in Texas, go to the mall sometime and look for yourself. Most people are there with someone of their own race. However, you will also notice the mixed couples.
Yes, there's "racial hatred" and "religiuos persecution" in the US, but that's perpetrated by a small minority (that just elected the Christian Reich to power and murdered ~100,000 women & childred, btw).
As much as I despise George Bush and his regime, it's actually an insult to the millions of people who died at the hands of the Nazis to label Bush the "Christian Reich". Bush has certainly done evil things that are simply beyond my reasoning such as the torture at Abi Grahib or the unlawful detaining of prisoners in Cuba. However, we are talking about foreign prisoners of war that are still alive. Nazi Germany went after it's own non-combatant citizens in a systematic purge of elements of it's own society - and then slaughtered them mercilessly. The comparison you make is hardly one-to-one.
The majority of us "Americans" are enlightened people that do not do such things and offer equal opportunities to everybody.
I would say that is true of most Americans.
No, we don't burn African Americans alive, or treat them as though they were less than human, then try to compensate for that by insulting their culture through "affirmative action" (claiming that they need "special treatment" and implying the same bigotry that they suffered from the slave owners) or have companies like Resistance Records that mass-produce anti-semetic multimedia games.
As I said, most Americans are enlightened. If all or even most white people went around burning the minorities, then that would be major news and we'd all know about it. Secondly, we wouldn't have any minorities left by now.
As for affirmative action, the racial minorities in America wanted that. Making it law was not an insult.
As for Resistance Records, I've never even heard of the company. I have no idea what they do or make. I've certainly never bought any of their goods or services. Nor have I otherwise aided them. Why am I to blame for their existance?
You Indians, on the other hand, are a primitive barbaric "people" (i.e subhuman race, but I don't mean that really) because you have a caste system.
Did you even read the article I submitted? An entire class of people were denied food in tsunami-stricken areas because of the caste they were born to. The caste system is a primitive system which results in barbarism.
The caste system in India is a primitive, barbaric system. The killing of baby girls in China due to an overwhelming national preference for males is also the result of a primitive, barbaric system. Do you think I am a racist for saying that as well? Or can we agree that the killing of baby girls in China is an atrocity that is the result of a primitive practise in the modern world?
I never said "subhuman", which is a deliberate semantic twisting of my words to paint me as a racist. My arguments that all people are the sa
I cannot bring myself to like Caucasians, who are answerable for the crimes of their forebearers.
As an American, who would my forebearers be? We are a former English colony, but we've had significant immigration from countries all over the world. I am of such a mixed lineage that I cannot point to one country or continent and say all my ancestors came from there. I am part English, Irish, German, Danish, and Native American. Yet, those are just the ancestry I know because I haven't taken the time to memorize it all.
Secondly, if it was possible to pinpoint my forebearers, why should I be "responsible" for their actions and decisions? The idea is laughable. My only responsibility is to correct their mistakes and make sure they are not repeated.
You, on the other hand, are something far more dangerous and sinister, Sir. You, are a racial supremacist, worse than the rednecks you disown above.
I almost didn't respond to you because of this flamebait. Where is your proof? What did I write that makes me not only a racist, but a supremist?
You make the conclusion from my arguments that I am 100% white. My great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian - that's Indian as in Native American. That makes my grandfather 1/2 Cherokee, my father 1/4, and me 1/8. That also makes half my family part Cherokee as well.
Since the majority of whites choose not to breed outside their race, the process of inbreeding-induced Darwinian selection will render your people extinct in a few thousand years, and the rest of humanity will not have to worry about you.
News flash: most people do not "breed" outside their "race". This is not limited to white people.
Even so, I still take exception to this. I am a product of mixed ancestry between White and Native American. One of my best friends is half Italian and half Korean. His sister is engaged to a Filipino. Most black people you see in America aren't dark, "African" black because they had a white ancestor at some point.
If America does indeed die out, I believe it will be because the only people having more than 2-3 kids are the religious fanatics. These are the people who believe that sex is only for procreation and that condom usage or birth control is morally wrong. The 6-10 kids they have per generation will eventually drown out the less religious in our society.
Tell that to the average African-American or Hispanic person who can't get a
well-paying job because your people refuse to enter him/her in the better schools despite his/her merits, then drive him/her into poverty.
Until the last few years, the US had an affirmative action system for 30 years. Under that system, non-white people were given preferential admission to colleges and universities. Even after being struck down as being blatantly unconstitutional, certain educational institutions still attempt to enforce the affirmative action rules.
Ask the average non-white US citizen if he or she has the same opportunities in life as a white man, and he or she will tell you of the crappy jobs they have to do and that they get paid significantly less than their Caucasian counterparts.
My grandfather is part Native American. Despite not getting a high school diploma, he was able to work at Ford on their assembly line. He even got up to foreman-level, supervising other workers - including white people.
My father ended up going into the Army and using the GI Bill to receive two masters degrees. He now makes about $230,000 a year working in medicine in El Paso.
One of my good friends came to Washington with his family from Mexico. He ended up earning a high school diploma here. I attended college with him, taking computer science classes. He's now being courted by a company in Connecticut that's interested in him for their Chief of Technology officer for $95,000 a year. That's the amount he said he w
Excuse me? THAT is outright racism. THAT is exactly what I fought against in Texas against the white rednecks using terms like "nigger" and "spick" and "wetback".
So now your true colors come out. You can't win an argument fairly, so you resort to name calling. Bravo.
The caste system has been perverted and degraded to dogma by many upper-caste fanatics since the collapse of the Gupta Empire and the rise of the Shaivite/Vaishnavite movements in the 7th Century, but in it's purest and most fundamental form, it has been designed scientifically and methodically during the heyday of the Mauryan Emperors in order to keep people civilized and preserve the foundations of society, providing professional niches and a system of assigning a division of labor to negate the effects of class-bias (on the basis of wealth).
The idea that you can "scientifically" design a caste system is "pure horseshit". There was no scientific proof then, just like there's no scientific proof now, that one person is born better at a specific job than another. I need no further study. Scientists have already examined these topics exhaustively and concluded that the claims are preposterous. Therefore, caste systems in general are "horseshit".
Due to this caste system you condemn without thinking, our people have NEVER, in over 6000 years of history, EVER resorted to the utterly barbaric act of mass slavery (unlike the Europeans/Americans, who have been doing so to the African people since the time of the Romans)
Nice change of topic. Slavery was in our past and ergo India's caste system is ok? What kind of illogic is that?! The fact that you're still defending it is completely laughable.
Yes, America had slavery in it's past. Yes, the practise was completely dispicable. I make no excuses about it. And I certainly hope that none of my ancestors participated in it.
That said, the fact that America had slavery 150 years ago is no excuse for the fact that India follows a caste system in the present.
I find it utterly barbaric that members of lower caste classes starve to death when food is freely available. However, the fact that you can't kill the cows freely roaming the streets goes against religion - another primitive system that not even the west has completely kicked yet.
...herded people into concentration camps and butchered them like cattle, as your kindred folk have done to Jewish people countless times for no sensible reason other than pure unadulterated hatred (and not just during the Third Reich; then your ilk even went so far as to pervert OUR religious symbol and call it your own!
Excuse me? When has America done this? If you recall, it was America who established a home land in the middle east for the Jews out of compassion and remorse for a crimes of the Germans during WW2.
When the bubonic plague spread in Europe
The middle ages? You're bringing up stuff from what, 600-700 years ago? Let me clue you in: those primitives from our distant past are nothing like we are now. Caste discrimination is occuring in India now. I can't believe you have the balls to defend it.
How dare you imply that we are an inferior race
Exactly when did I say that? First off, I would not say that because I know it's not scientifically true. We are actually the same race, but maybe different "breeds". Second off, the whole idea that people from your country are inferior is "horseshit". Primitive maybe, inferior no. Again, refer to the scientific studies on the topic.
The crimes against humanity perpetrated by white christians are NOT the actions of a few extremists, but a broad social trend seen among millions of your kind that demonstrate the influence of Nordo-Celtic and Odinistic beliefs of master-race style supremacy in White thinking prevale
I havent spent that much on Microsoft. When I built my computer I bough t a copy of XP Home and haven't given them another dime.
What'd you pay for XP Home, $100? That copy cost about $15 to make.
I know MS makes tons from corporations.
Surprise! Corporations at least get bulk discounts. Unless you buy directly from another big corporation, MS actually makes a bigger percentage of profit from people like you.
This is probably one reason why Microsoft is increasing office space (a good hint at increased hiring if they're making room for thousands of extra workers).
I'll believe it when I see it. MS recently gave up it's option to buy land in nearby Issaquah. To me, that says they aren't as interested in expanding as they used to be.
This does sound like the company about 4-5 years ago. Back then MS employees worked 80+ hours per week. Mothers would bring their children to the office to visit their fathers since they never saw them. People would literally sleep under their desk.
Up until then, MS was out to change the world. And their employees seriously thought they could. They attracted the best and the brightest considering their stock was going through the roof. Just working there for a few years would make you a millionaire.
But that was a different time and a different Microsoft. MS today is just another software company like all the rest. Employees work a standard 8 hour shift unless they're near a release. The stock price is now the same as it was in 2000. Any thought of getting rich after a few years is now laughable.
MS sold $40 billion worth of goods last year. Even after the $3 per share dividend distribution last month, they still have $35 billion in the bank. They're not going away any time soon. Management knows it and the employees know it.
Microsoft isn't the lean, starving underdog anymore - they certainly aren't acting like it either.
Me: The "white news media" that I've seen, namely the US media and the BBC, are mostly liberal.
You: Ever watch Fox news? It might as well be run by the Ku-Klux-Klan!
That's why I said mostly. Fox is a well known conservative news network. Talk radio is also fairly conservative. However, that does not change the fact that the majority of the news sources are liberal.
When rednecks refer to "Indians" with their lips, the inflexions scream the N-Word and various other racial epithets... I've heard broadcasts from the Aryan Nations that are hijacked from regular network television here in Texas that clarify this point with nauseating accuracy.
I had the displeasure of attending college in Texas. I do understand what you're talking about and I certainly sympathize. Yes, racism is a large problem there, although most Texans would proclaim they are not racist. As a white person in Texas, I heard every derogatory term from my white friends including "nigger", "wetback", "chink", etc. I couldn't stand the hypocracy any more and ended up moving to Seattle. In the seven years since I've moved here, I haven't heard any of those terms uttered from any of my white friends - not once!
Rednecks are a small minority of the population outside of the US south. But, there are a lot of them still living in the south-eastern states. The south is an odd place where the US Civil War is still called the "War of Northern Aggression". Everywhere else in the US the Civil War is referred to as the time when slavery of our black population ended. In some ways, I still think the south would like to go back to that time. However, there are a lot of people, white people included, who violently disagree with them.
As for the twisting of the regular network television by the Aryan Nations, you have to remember that they purposefully take things out of context and warp them. That certainly doesn't make the original news source bad or non-liberal. That doesn't mean that all or even the majority of the Slashdotters talking about Indian citizens are conservative, racist, rednecks.
Given all that, I still stand by my argument that talk about Indians is not racism just like talk about Canadians or Americans is not racism. Nationality is separate from race.
I've seen doctored programs on National Geographic that describe Indians as cannibals, necrophiles, rapists, and generally less than human.
Where? This is all news to me. National Geographic is a well respected association. You said these where doctored. I'm assuming that they where edited by some racist with an agenda?
Also, witness the now-legendary "Tsunami Song" that targets at East-Asians as well as South-Asians and The 'Rat-Eaters' broadcast.
Sorry, I can't comment on that yet. I'll have to look at those when I get home.
The yanks make fun of our caste system, but the truth is that the racial and anti-semetic bigotry and hatred in this country is an order of magnitude more than in any other Asian Country (Surpassed only by Western Europe).
There is a large difference between our countries. When a natural disaster hits Texas or Florida, people don't die from lack of food because they're black or hispanic. If you remember, Florida was hit by hurricanes four times last year. Even though there are a number of racists in those areas, there are also a number of good people who aren't racist who made sure everyone got what they needed.
In 2004, video games flew off the shelves as eight titles were sold per second per day throughout the year, evidence of the continuing vast popularity of games among consumers of all ages. This industry remains strong and poised for renewed double digit growth over the next five years as we enter a new cycle of video game console launches. The future could not be brighter.
If that is true, which I am not disputing, then why are game companies always bitching about not making enough money?
Combine that with the white news media, desirous of reaffirming their cultural myths of racial superiority, choosing to focus on the status of the latter as a means of defaming our people, and it is not hard to realize why ignorant low-class westerners, who parochially prefer to view their native sources of information, have such a stereotyped view of our people.
The "white news media" that I've seen, namely the US media and the BBC, are mostly liberal. That is liberal as in anti-racism, particularly since the time of Dr Martin Luther King in the 1960's. The "white news media" takes great effort to remove all references of race from a report unless it is integral to the story. Likewise, they are extremely sensitive about removing all bias from reports. Although, since they are liberal, some of those views including anti-racism do slip through.
Further, when the news media and most people on Slashdot refer to "Indians" in this context, they are speaking about citizens from the country India. It very seldom has anything to do with race. This is just like when the media refers to Canadians, Americans, or Mexicans. All three countries contain mostly white people of European ancestry. (Although Canada and America also have significant minority populations.) But, when the media calls someone a Canadian, they are referring to his nationality, not his race. Very often Indians forget or don't realize that in these discussions and start making calls of racism.
As for your last comment regarding my "parochial" views... I do occasionally read the Times of India website. Some of the stories are interesting to me. However, most reports concerning local events or politics hold no interest to me, if I even know who they're talking about. You also must consider that unlike India, most countries do not post their news in English. I'm not about to learn another language just so I can catch up on the news. And finally, if I could, who has time to read all these foreign sources of news? Which ones would I pick? A paper in Moscow might be good. Maybe Taiwan. Maybe Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, or Rio de Janeiro. There are literally thousands of newspapers I could read. I don't know about you, but I don't normally have the time for that.
tell me how many people in the western world actually pay for windows?, a huge chunk of people use an illegal copy.
Most hardware suppliers (Dell, HP, Gateway) bundle the OS with computer purchases. A few people build their own computers and may be tempted to install an illegal copy. People upgrading to the latest OS may also be tempted to install an illegal copy. But the people who build and upgrade are a little more saavy than the average user, thus being a minority. I'd say most average users in the western world own a legitimate copy of their OS.
you don't know shit about india, so don't talk.
I know the average annual salary for someone living in India was $450 a couple years ago. The dollar's decline against foreign currencies may have recently inflated that a little. However, I don't see how the average Indian can lay down $100 for a legitimate copy of Windows XP Home or $200 for Pro.
Don't feel bad America, stay lazy, make sloppy code, and become a virtual despot.
Excuse me? Can someone please mark the parent flamebait? Even if you had a good point elsewhere in your statement, I can't get past the obvious problems with the two statements above.
Americans work longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized world. Americans also get the least time off. Americans are the most productive as well.
Besides those points, let's look at the American's accomplishments. Americans founded and built IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Oracle, Sun, HP, etc... Basically all the big names in the technology field. Americans invented the telephone. That paved the way for AT&T to invent switches to replace human telephone operators. Americans invented the first modern computer, Eniac. Since then, we've invented the mainframe, internet, the PC, routers, etc. Shall I continue?
Americans aren't interested in Linux because they use Windows at work. Why install a different operating system on your home computer that you don't know? Windows works just fine for most people and it's only $100. Most Americans can easily spend that much cash. Hell, most hardware companies bundle Windows with your computer purchase, so in effect consumers think they're getting it for free when they buy a whole system.
Businesses use Windows because that's what they've used since Windows 3.1 and they don't want the hassle and expense of retraining their employees for Linux. The same could be said for Microsoft Office.
If Americans don't "get on the bandwagon", then it's a direct result of the cheap companies they work for afraid to leave Windows or the fact that Windows comes "free" on the computers they purchase.
Slashdot Mirror
Most Americans are probably happy with just an undergrad degree and don't want to go to grad school.
Exactly. Americans find perfectly good engineering jobs with "just" a bachelor's degree. There aren't enough jobs which require advanced degrees in engineering to make it worth the time to give up 2-3 years of engineering paychecks, pay for college, pay for books, pay for living expenses, and earn those advanced degrees. More than likely, you'd graduate with a master's or a PhD and work at the same job you could get with a bachelor's degree.
On the other hand, foreigners looking to immigrate to the United States work under the assumption that if they go to school here and earn one of our advanced degrees, then we'd be more likely to allow them to stay once their studies are complete. THAT is why foreigners outnumber Americans in these topics. It's not because they're smarter, not because they love engineering more, and not because education is better in their country. It's because they want to immigrate here.
I'd like to say that many accomplished people were never particularly good at school, so what happens if these kinds of people get put in the dumb class, that what I want to know?
...For instance a lot of smart people might be slow learners and take longer to do things but does this make their work any less valuable? i.e. take a person who can do advanced classes but can't handle the pacing, but is not stupid or incompetent.
Then they stay in the remedial classes until they catch up. Once they can pass the entrance test for the standard or gifted classes, then they can join those groups. However, if they can't pass the test, then they likely need that remedial education.
The standard and remedial classes cover the same topics as the advanced classes, but at a slower pace. That is the place for that person.
Fine. Then you can choose to send Little Johnny to the gifted school, despite the tests saying he doesn't belong there. However, you do not get to bitch at the teacher for "going too fast". You do not get to bitch if Little Johnny fails. In that case, Little Johnny packs his stuff and his sorry ass goes to the standard school.
They only said the first study was done with rats. They said nothing about what was used in the next 200 studies.
1. The article states that digital phones are actually more damaging due to the fact that they burst their information.
2. Only the first study mentioned using rats. Nothing was said about how the subsequent 200 other studies were conducted.
Only the first study mentioned using rats. Nothing was said about how the subsequent 200 other studies were conducted.
Only the first study mentioned using rats. Nothing was said about how the subsequent studies were conducted.
Maybe it'll be as good as the Street Fighter or Super Mario Brothers movies!
When will they learn that video games do not have enough plot to transform into a 90 minute movie?
Hell, If you want to go logic-chopping, I could argue that Democracy sounds great on paper. Everybody is equal and nobody can claim superiority over anybody else. But, it turned into an ugly, brutal system under the Greeks that just installed dictators like Selecus into power...
...or the French that just installed dictators like Napoleon into absolute power.
...but white supremacists like the KKK and the Aryan Nations, who are no different from the IRA or the al-Qaeda are permitted to practice on account of them being white.
At which point they are no longer a democracy, but an autocracy.
At which point they are no longer a democracy, but an autocracy.
Yes, democracies can put dictators in power. At which point, they no longer remain democracies. Does that make the democratic system evil? No. The individual ruler could have stopped at any point and allowed elections. The individual ruler is the evil person. Does that make democracy flawed? Potentially. A strong system of checks and balances must be put in place in order to prevent absolute rule.
Both societies were essentially the founders of modern democratic principles.
The ideas of the modern republic come from the Native Americans. The US borrowed their ideas during the founding of its republic, which came before France's revolution. The US is essentially the founder of modern democratic principles.
Me: Unless you are harboring terrorists, we have no interest in invading your country.
You: That's so inherently racist I can almost hear Luftwaffe planes in the background!
You are so full of shit that this is my last letter. My comment said NOTHING of race, but yet you called it racist. DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD RACIST? No. You do not.
This is in contrast to your country, where even regular non-white muslims are beaten, brutalized and persecuted...
That did happen after 9/11, when the US was attacked brutally by a group of 20 Muslims. However, the police did investigate these attacks on Muslims and went after the criminals who perpetrated the crimes.
The Freedom of Speech is the first amendment to the US Constitution. The Freedom of Assembly is also in the first amendment to the US Constitution. Both of these groups, as despicable as they may be, still possess these rights along with everyone else in the US. As long as they conduct themselves within the law, they will continue to possess those rights.
If, after these atrocities, you have the audacity to claim that you are a superior culture to ours, then all I can say is that, unlike the words of E.R. Braithwaite, you can't educate the uneducable.
The right of a minority group, such as the KKK or the Aryan Nations, to speak freely is a fundamental right of a free society. They are almost universally despised, but to allow the government to silence their voices would lead any country down the path of autocracy. As much as I hate them and their message, I would defend to the death their right to say it - just as I would defend to the death your right to ridicule me.
Without free speech there is no democracy. Period.
If you want to use that as a pretext for murdering us, then bear in mind that WE are not Iraq.
Oh shut up. You are so full of yourself. There are no terrorists in your country sending freakin airplanes into our building. And besides, all our big companies who virtually run the Republican party all want to outsource their work to India. They have no interest in making your country more unstable than it already is.
Thus, your bureaus have no intelligence base in our country, nor does the People's Republic.
Right... The CIA is just going to ignore a country with a population of one billion people. Don't be so full of yourself.
Me:
I suppose the billionaire's rich kid actually "earned" his position as CEO of daddy's company? Please!
And so just because nepotism exists in some cases, that makes the large companies of today anything like a feudal system? Hardly.
Somebody over 40 who just got booted from his company due to "downsizing" & offshoring (that's one point on which I am in partial agreement with the rednecks, that offshoring is ruining both our economies) can actually get an accredited degree that people won't laugh at?
One of my good friends is a 45-ish year old woman who is finishing up her CS degree. I went to school with plenty of other people in their 30s and 40s. While a CS degree may not be as beneficial as they were a few years ago, they're hardly anything to laugh at.
Anybody can get rich! Then why isn't everybody???
Look around you. Who says they aren't already? How many Americans in the US do you know who don't own a car? What percentage would you guess? What percentage of those are brand new? What percentage would you guess have a car in India? What percentage of those are brand new? Those cars aren't cheap. By most world standards, anyone able to afford a new car is rich.
Granted, that went offtopic of my main point. Everyday people can become CEOs. It's just a matter of luck, intelligence, hard work, and perseverance. A famous example is the founder of Wendy's, Dave Thomas, who set up his chain of restaurants without even a high school diploma.
Me: There is no working up to be King in a feudal system.
You: Nonsense! I did mention the Nanda dynasty before, I believe (c 350 bc).
Right... this was so commonplace that you have to bring up an example from 2355 years ago.
The same was true (in varying degrees) of Julius Caesar, Chengiz Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and, though I hate to admit it, even Adolf Hitler...
First off, Hitler was not king. The feudal system had already been eliminated in Germany by the time he came to power. However, that is beside the point.
The fact of the matter is that people taking the role of king who aren't born into it are so rare that you can only find extreme examples of it. Julius Caesar? He was around, what, just less than 2000 years ago? What about the line of kings in Britain that trace their history back to William the Conquerer?
Yes, it may happen occasionally, but in general, there is no working up to be King in a feudal system. However, people do work up to CEO in corporations quite often.
The caste system was SUPPOSED to be LOOSE set of rules. It was not MEANT to be a rigid orthodoxy. The problems we have wrt caste is the result of the DOGMA generated by the RIGIDITY of the caste system by some bad people, not by the SYSTEM itself. Hitler and George Bush were elected into power by the democratic process of election. Just because they are bad does not mean that the democratic process is bad, is it?
King George may have actually been a nice guy if you knew him. A large number of the kings of Europe may have been nice guys who did the right things for their countries. But, that doesn't mean the feudal system itself was good.
Like the caste system, the communist system sounded great in the beginning. Everyone owns everything jointly and we all just get along. But, it turned into an ugly, brutal system that just installed dictators into absolute power.
You can't judge a system by the way it was intended to be used. You judge it by the way it actually is used. Had we followed your advice with the Soviet Union, we'd still be asking them to be a little less totalitarian.
(Nice try comparing Hitler to Bush, but it really isn't a good comparison.)
To eliminate the PROBLEMS of the caste system, we have to work to simplify it to it's original form. It is too integrated into our way of life to be eliminated altogether. To suggest
You: The only differences between our bigotry problems and yours are manifest from the fact that your news media want to detract your countrymen from the flaws of your society, so they focus on the actions of a few uneducated people in the ruaral south of our country so that people like you would develop a false sense of subconscious racial superiority (while consciously believing themselves to be broad-minded and enlightened).
Me: That sentence is complete nonsense. Have you ever watched the local news in Texas? Every news cast goes over the flaws in US society. The local news here in Seattle is just as bad. I suggest you actually watch it a few times before making statements like that again.
You: I don't watch American news for the same reasons that you DO watch it. I don't have to time to factor out all the ignorance and bigotry present in CNN/NBC/FOX/whatever to get the real facts... Hence, I have done a detailed study of Caucasian racism, and the logistics of traffic in central Texas, but never bothered to watch the "news" programs about how to make the perfect bowl of chili, or the corruption of country music by the introduction of digital media, or the latest sexual conquest of Britney Spears, or any of that stuff.
So, I take it then that you have watched some local Texas news. Ever notice how many murders occur in your area? What about the number of robberies? Or the number of fatal accidents?
Ever notice that when a robbery occurs and they find a suspect, that they never mention the race of the suspect? In fact, you can rarely often tell the race of the suspect unless they air a video of the person. Also, have you ever noticed that the people reading the news aren't always white? Your statements about "ignorance and bigotry" and "Caucasian racism" are plain wrong. Obviously, you're not seeing any of this.
What do you think of your statement, "news media want to detract your countrymen from the flaws of your society" in the face of all those murders, robberies, and grisly accidents? How about that your statement is obviously wrong? The news media actually want to get ratings so they can sell more ads. So, they report on the problems in society because that's what people are interested in. People can't turn their eyes away from a car crash - in real life or on TV.
And when you stop murdering muslims, then we will listen to you and consider you to be men, instead of killers.
If you don't recall, radical Muslims attacked us first! There was the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Then the bombing of three US embassies in Africa in 1998. There's the bombing of the USS Cole while it was refueling in Yemen in 2000. This was all before they flew big, freakin airplanes into our buildings on 9/11!
All of this was done out of hatred for our support of Israel - something you actually like. So, what exactly would you want us to do? Support Israel and piss off the Muslims so much that they fly planes into our buildings? Or not piss off the Muslims by removing support for Israel, thus dooming Israel to a quick and painful death? Which one?! Pick!
Your caste system is primitive and barbaric, but you can't actually defend it, so you end up attacking my culture instead. Yes, we have killed Muslims. And yes, some of them were innocent. And yes, we have done some brutal and nasty things in the process. However, we are dealing with those issues and bringing those criminals to justice. That is all part of war - which they started. None of that changes the fact that India's caste system is barbaric.
Why don't we stick to the actual thing we're arguing about, which is India's caste system!
YOU ELIMINATED THE FEUDAL SYSTEM?!
While we're getting offtopic a tad, here is my rebuttal.
Yeah, I know... At least the likelihood of anyone other than us reading this are slim. I doubt any of our comments will be modded down.
Me: News flash: most people do not "breed" outside their "race". This is not limited to white people.
You: Not true, we have been interbreeding for thousands of years. The 2 races that predominantly comprise the Indian population have intermixed their blood so much that the distinctions are purely academic.
As I said before, most people do not "breed" outside their "race". I specifically did not say all. The fact of the matter is that most white people marry other white people, most Asians marry other Asians, most black people marry other black people, etc. That does not mean my statement is always true. You live in Texas, go to the mall sometime and look for yourself. Most people are there with someone of their own race. However, you will also notice the mixed couples.
Yes, there's "racial hatred" and "religiuos persecution" in the US, but that's perpetrated by a small minority (that just elected the Christian Reich to power and murdered ~100,000 women & childred, btw).
As much as I despise George Bush and his regime, it's actually an insult to the millions of people who died at the hands of the Nazis to label Bush the "Christian Reich". Bush has certainly done evil things that are simply beyond my reasoning such as the torture at Abi Grahib or the unlawful detaining of prisoners in Cuba. However, we are talking about foreign prisoners of war that are still alive. Nazi Germany went after it's own non-combatant citizens in a systematic purge of elements of it's own society - and then slaughtered them mercilessly. The comparison you make is hardly one-to-one.
The majority of us "Americans" are enlightened people that do not do such things and offer equal opportunities to everybody.
I would say that is true of most Americans.
No, we don't burn African Americans alive, or treat them as though they were less than human, then try to compensate for that by insulting their culture through "affirmative action" (claiming that they need "special treatment" and implying the same bigotry that they suffered from the slave owners) or have companies like Resistance Records that mass-produce anti-semetic multimedia games.
As I said, most Americans are enlightened. If all or even most white people went around burning the minorities, then that would be major news and we'd all know about it. Secondly, we wouldn't have any minorities left by now.
As for affirmative action, the racial minorities in America wanted that. Making it law was not an insult.
As for Resistance Records, I've never even heard of the company. I have no idea what they do or make. I've certainly never bought any of their goods or services. Nor have I otherwise aided them. Why am I to blame for their existance?
You Indians, on the other hand, are a primitive barbaric "people" (i.e subhuman race, but I don't mean that really) because you have a caste system.
Did you even read the article I submitted? An entire class of people were denied food in tsunami-stricken areas because of the caste they were born to. The caste system is a primitive system which results in barbarism.
The caste system in India is a primitive, barbaric system. The killing of baby girls in China due to an overwhelming national preference for males is also the result of a primitive, barbaric system. Do you think I am a racist for saying that as well? Or can we agree that the killing of baby girls in China is an atrocity that is the result of a primitive practise in the modern world?
I never said "subhuman", which is a deliberate semantic twisting of my words to paint me as a racist. My arguments that all people are the sa
I cannot bring myself to like Caucasians, who are answerable for the crimes of their forebearers.
As an American, who would my forebearers be? We are a former English colony, but we've had significant immigration from countries all over the world. I am of such a mixed lineage that I cannot point to one country or continent and say all my ancestors came from there. I am part English, Irish, German, Danish, and Native American. Yet, those are just the ancestry I know because I haven't taken the time to memorize it all.
Secondly, if it was possible to pinpoint my forebearers, why should I be "responsible" for their actions and decisions? The idea is laughable. My only responsibility is to correct their mistakes and make sure they are not repeated.
You, on the other hand, are something far more dangerous and sinister, Sir. You, are a racial supremacist, worse than the rednecks you disown above.
I almost didn't respond to you because of this flamebait. Where is your proof? What did I write that makes me not only a racist, but a supremist?
You make the conclusion from my arguments that I am 100% white. My great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian - that's Indian as in Native American. That makes my grandfather 1/2 Cherokee, my father 1/4, and me 1/8. That also makes half my family part Cherokee as well.
Since the majority of whites choose not to breed outside their race, the process of inbreeding-induced Darwinian selection will render your people extinct in a few thousand years, and the rest of humanity will not have to worry about you.
News flash: most people do not "breed" outside their "race". This is not limited to white people.
Even so, I still take exception to this. I am a product of mixed ancestry between White and Native American. One of my best friends is half Italian and half Korean. His sister is engaged to a Filipino. Most black people you see in America aren't dark, "African" black because they had a white ancestor at some point.
If America does indeed die out, I believe it will be because the only people having more than 2-3 kids are the religious fanatics. These are the people who believe that sex is only for procreation and that condom usage or birth control is morally wrong. The 6-10 kids they have per generation will eventually drown out the less religious in our society.
Tell that to the average African-American or Hispanic person who can't get a well-paying job because your people refuse to enter him/her in the better schools despite his/her merits, then drive him/her into poverty.
Until the last few years, the US had an affirmative action system for 30 years. Under that system, non-white people were given preferential admission to colleges and universities. Even after being struck down as being blatantly unconstitutional, certain educational institutions still attempt to enforce the affirmative action rules.
Ask the average non-white US citizen if he or she has the same opportunities in life as a white man, and he or she will tell you of the crappy jobs they have to do and that they get paid significantly less than their Caucasian counterparts.
My grandfather is part Native American. Despite not getting a high school diploma, he was able to work at Ford on their assembly line. He even got up to foreman-level, supervising other workers - including white people.
My father ended up going into the Army and using the GI Bill to receive two masters degrees. He now makes about $230,000 a year working in medicine in El Paso.
One of my good friends came to Washington with his family from Mexico. He ended up earning a high school diploma here. I attended college with him, taking computer science classes. He's now being courted by a company in Connecticut that's interested in him for their Chief of Technology officer for $95,000 a year. That's the amount he said he w
simplistic mind of the white man
...herded people into concentration camps and butchered them like cattle, as your kindred folk have done to Jewish people countless times for no sensible reason other than pure unadulterated hatred (and not just during the Third Reich; then your ilk even went so far as to pervert OUR religious symbol and call it your own!
Excuse me? THAT is outright racism. THAT is exactly what I fought against in Texas against the white rednecks using terms like "nigger" and "spick" and "wetback".
So now your true colors come out. You can't win an argument fairly, so you resort to name calling. Bravo.
The caste system has been perverted and degraded to dogma by many upper-caste fanatics since the collapse of the Gupta Empire and the rise of the Shaivite/Vaishnavite movements in the 7th Century, but in it's purest and most fundamental form, it has been designed scientifically and methodically during the heyday of the Mauryan Emperors in order to keep people civilized and preserve the foundations of society, providing professional niches and a system of assigning a division of labor to negate the effects of class-bias (on the basis of wealth).
The idea that you can "scientifically" design a caste system is "pure horseshit". There was no scientific proof then, just like there's no scientific proof now, that one person is born better at a specific job than another. I need no further study. Scientists have already examined these topics exhaustively and concluded that the claims are preposterous. Therefore, caste systems in general are "horseshit".
Due to this caste system you condemn without thinking, our people have NEVER, in over 6000 years of history, EVER resorted to the utterly barbaric act of mass slavery (unlike the Europeans/Americans, who have been doing so to the African people since the time of the Romans)
Nice change of topic. Slavery was in our past and ergo India's caste system is ok? What kind of illogic is that?! The fact that you're still defending it is completely laughable.
Yes, America had slavery in it's past. Yes, the practise was completely dispicable. I make no excuses about it. And I certainly hope that none of my ancestors participated in it.
That said, the fact that America had slavery 150 years ago is no excuse for the fact that India follows a caste system in the present.
I find it utterly barbaric that members of lower caste classes starve to death when food is freely available. However, the fact that you can't kill the cows freely roaming the streets goes against religion - another primitive system that not even the west has completely kicked yet.
Excuse me? When has America done this? If you recall, it was America who established a home land in the middle east for the Jews out of compassion and remorse for a crimes of the Germans during WW2.
When the bubonic plague spread in Europe
The middle ages? You're bringing up stuff from what, 600-700 years ago? Let me clue you in: those primitives from our distant past are nothing like we are now. Caste discrimination is occuring in India now. I can't believe you have the balls to defend it.
How dare you imply that we are an inferior race
Exactly when did I say that? First off, I would not say that because I know it's not scientifically true. We are actually the same race, but maybe different "breeds". Second off, the whole idea that people from your country are inferior is "horseshit". Primitive maybe, inferior no. Again, refer to the scientific studies on the topic.
The crimes against humanity perpetrated by white christians are NOT the actions of a few extremists, but a broad social trend seen among millions of your kind that demonstrate the influence of Nordo-Celtic and Odinistic beliefs of master-race style supremacy in White thinking prevale
Yeah, the key point is 10-20 years. Hardly boom times again.
I havent spent that much on Microsoft. When I built my computer I bough t a copy of XP Home and haven't given them another dime.
What'd you pay for XP Home, $100? That copy cost about $15 to make.
I know MS makes tons from corporations.
Surprise! Corporations at least get bulk discounts. Unless you buy directly from another big corporation, MS actually makes a bigger percentage of profit from people like you.
This is probably one reason why Microsoft is increasing office space (a good hint at increased hiring if they're making room for thousands of extra workers).
I'll believe it when I see it. MS recently gave up it's option to buy land in nearby Issaquah. To me, that says they aren't as interested in expanding as they used to be.
This does sound like the company about 4-5 years ago. Back then MS employees worked 80+ hours per week. Mothers would bring their children to the office to visit their fathers since they never saw them. People would literally sleep under their desk.
Up until then, MS was out to change the world. And their employees seriously thought they could. They attracted the best and the brightest considering their stock was going through the roof. Just working there for a few years would make you a millionaire.
But that was a different time and a different Microsoft. MS today is just another software company like all the rest. Employees work a standard 8 hour shift unless they're near a release. The stock price is now the same as it was in 2000. Any thought of getting rich after a few years is now laughable.
MS sold $40 billion worth of goods last year. Even after the $3 per share dividend distribution last month, they still have $35 billion in the bank. They're not going away any time soon. Management knows it and the employees know it.
Microsoft isn't the lean, starving underdog anymore - they certainly aren't acting like it either.
Me: The "white news media" that I've seen, namely the US media and the BBC, are mostly liberal.
You: Ever watch Fox news? It might as well be run by the Ku-Klux-Klan!
That's why I said mostly. Fox is a well known conservative news network. Talk radio is also fairly conservative. However, that does not change the fact that the majority of the news sources are liberal.
When rednecks refer to "Indians" with their lips, the inflexions scream the N-Word and various other racial epithets... I've heard broadcasts from the Aryan Nations that are hijacked from regular network television here in Texas that clarify this point with nauseating accuracy.
I had the displeasure of attending college in Texas. I do understand what you're talking about and I certainly sympathize. Yes, racism is a large problem there, although most Texans would proclaim they are not racist. As a white person in Texas, I heard every derogatory term from my white friends including "nigger", "wetback", "chink", etc. I couldn't stand the hypocracy any more and ended up moving to Seattle. In the seven years since I've moved here, I haven't heard any of those terms uttered from any of my white friends - not once!
Rednecks are a small minority of the population outside of the US south. But, there are a lot of them still living in the south-eastern states. The south is an odd place where the US Civil War is still called the "War of Northern Aggression". Everywhere else in the US the Civil War is referred to as the time when slavery of our black population ended. In some ways, I still think the south would like to go back to that time. However, there are a lot of people, white people included, who violently disagree with them.
As for the twisting of the regular network television by the Aryan Nations, you have to remember that they purposefully take things out of context and warp them. That certainly doesn't make the original news source bad or non-liberal. That doesn't mean that all or even the majority of the Slashdotters talking about Indian citizens are conservative, racist, rednecks.
Given all that, I still stand by my argument that talk about Indians is not racism just like talk about Canadians or Americans is not racism. Nationality is separate from race.
I've seen doctored programs on National Geographic that describe Indians as cannibals, necrophiles, rapists, and generally less than human.
Where? This is all news to me. National Geographic is a well respected association. You said these where doctored. I'm assuming that they where edited by some racist with an agenda?
Also, witness the now-legendary "Tsunami Song" that targets at East-Asians as well as South-Asians and The 'Rat-Eaters' broadcast.
Sorry, I can't comment on that yet. I'll have to look at those when I get home.
The yanks make fun of our caste system, but the truth is that the racial and anti-semetic bigotry and hatred in this country is an order of magnitude more than in any other Asian Country (Surpassed only by Western Europe).
That is ridiculous. I've read a news reports of the tsunami-sticken area where members of India's Untouchable class are told to "go away" and they "will be fed only if there is extra food". People are literally dying because this bullshit, primitive caste system. I can't believe you would actually defend it. There they said there is "no deliberate caste discrimination". However, to me that sounds just like those white people from Texas who say they aren't racist and then say "nigger" and "wetback".
There is a large difference between our countries. When a natural disaster hits Texas or Florida, people don't die from lack of food because they're black or hispanic. If you remember, Florida was hit by hurricanes four times last year. Even though there are a number of racists in those areas, there are also a number of good people who aren't racist who made sure everyone got what they needed.
Lol... then where would they find the one to mod up?
In 2004, video games flew off the shelves as eight titles were sold per second per day throughout the year, evidence of the continuing vast popularity of games among consumers of all ages. This industry remains strong and poised for renewed double digit growth over the next five years as we enter a new cycle of video game console launches. The future could not be brighter.
If that is true, which I am not disputing, then why are game companies always bitching about not making enough money?
Mod parent UP! That was damn good. Here, here!
Combine that with the white news media, desirous of reaffirming their cultural myths of racial superiority, choosing to focus on the status of the latter as a means of defaming our people, and it is not hard to realize why ignorant low-class westerners, who parochially prefer to view their native sources of information, have such a stereotyped view of our people.
The "white news media" that I've seen, namely the US media and the BBC, are mostly liberal. That is liberal as in anti-racism, particularly since the time of Dr Martin Luther King in the 1960's. The "white news media" takes great effort to remove all references of race from a report unless it is integral to the story. Likewise, they are extremely sensitive about removing all bias from reports. Although, since they are liberal, some of those views including anti-racism do slip through.
Further, when the news media and most people on Slashdot refer to "Indians" in this context, they are speaking about citizens from the country India. It very seldom has anything to do with race. This is just like when the media refers to Canadians, Americans, or Mexicans. All three countries contain mostly white people of European ancestry. (Although Canada and America also have significant minority populations.) But, when the media calls someone a Canadian, they are referring to his nationality, not his race. Very often Indians forget or don't realize that in these discussions and start making calls of racism.
As for your last comment regarding my "parochial" views... I do occasionally read the Times of India website. Some of the stories are interesting to me. However, most reports concerning local events or politics hold no interest to me, if I even know who they're talking about. You also must consider that unlike India, most countries do not post their news in English. I'm not about to learn another language just so I can catch up on the news. And finally, if I could, who has time to read all these foreign sources of news? Which ones would I pick? A paper in Moscow might be good. Maybe Taiwan. Maybe Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, or Rio de Janeiro. There are literally thousands of newspapers I could read. I don't know about you, but I don't normally have the time for that.
tell me how many people in the western world actually pay for windows?, a huge chunk of people use an illegal copy.
Most hardware suppliers (Dell, HP, Gateway) bundle the OS with computer purchases. A few people build their own computers and may be tempted to install an illegal copy. People upgrading to the latest OS may also be tempted to install an illegal copy. But the people who build and upgrade are a little more saavy than the average user, thus being a minority. I'd say most average users in the western world own a legitimate copy of their OS.
you don't know shit about india, so don't talk.
I know the average annual salary for someone living in India was $450 a couple years ago. The dollar's decline against foreign currencies may have recently inflated that a little. However, I don't see how the average Indian can lay down $100 for a legitimate copy of Windows XP Home or $200 for Pro.
Like Chewbacca, that doesn't make sense.
The majority of American people are lazy.
Don't feel bad America, stay lazy, make sloppy code, and become a virtual despot.
Excuse me? Can someone please mark the parent flamebait? Even if you had a good point elsewhere in your statement, I can't get past the obvious problems with the two statements above.
Americans work longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized world. Americans also get the least time off. Americans are the most productive as well.
Besides those points, let's look at the American's accomplishments. Americans founded and built IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Oracle, Sun, HP, etc... Basically all the big names in the technology field. Americans invented the telephone. That paved the way for AT&T to invent switches to replace human telephone operators. Americans invented the first modern computer, Eniac. Since then, we've invented the mainframe, internet, the PC, routers, etc. Shall I continue?
Americans aren't interested in Linux because they use Windows at work. Why install a different operating system on your home computer that you don't know? Windows works just fine for most people and it's only $100. Most Americans can easily spend that much cash. Hell, most hardware companies bundle Windows with your computer purchase, so in effect consumers think they're getting it for free when they buy a whole system.
Businesses use Windows because that's what they've used since Windows 3.1 and they don't want the hassle and expense of retraining their employees for Linux. The same could be said for Microsoft Office.
If Americans don't "get on the bandwagon", then it's a direct result of the cheap companies they work for afraid to leave Windows or the fact that Windows comes "free" on the computers they purchase.