India introduced electronic voting machines in 1989 on an experimental basis in a few constituencies and has increased it to 100% over the years.
What really amazes me is that Americans act in an arrogant manner and do not want to learn from others' experiences or appreciate others. This is the same attitude which is seen on this website when outsourcing is discussed.
To give you a neutral view, corruption and technology are two separate issues. Sure you can use technology to aid corruption, but you don't need technology to commit fraud. An example is the farcical US election in 2000. Only in America can people be hoodwinked easily because they are a brainwashed lot believing whatever has been told to them by tehir Government. This is the sad reality. Hopefully internet will give the Americans more exposure to the world and not just the propaganda given by their TV channels.
Had the farce of judges appointed by a former President appointing the son of that President happened in a third world country, you can imagine the propaganda that Americans would have unleashed. Somehow, Americans think that their system is the best and they are proud of their farce too!
In India, if we have disputes, the judges don't say "STOP COUNTING!" The judges say, "RECOUNT!" That is the difference between India and America.
The present malfunctioning of machines is tolerable. They are most likely not software glitches, but similar to a malfunctioning laptop. When you have hundreds of thousands of such machines being used, 191 malfunctioning machines is not much of an error. You techies should know that!
I agree with you but I am not the one bringing up the issue of race. Those who accuse indians of stealing their jobs are the ones bringing up the issue of race.
The difference is what constitutes education. In India, education is high on priority list. Indian civilization always stressed education as the noblest pursuit. In Islamic Pakistan and Bangladesh, they attend Madrasas and refuse to change. Note that Pakistan is a country set up solely because Muslims hated Hindus and refused to live peacefully in a pluralistic society. How can you expect fanatics to progress?
OTOH, in India, you have a tolerant and accomodative society with stress on education. Despite the backstabbing and violence, we indians are tolerant of other religious groups and our President is a Muslim.
In this culture, you will find poor Hindu children knocking on doors and begging for money in order to pay for their textbooks. They'll return next year with the previous year's report card.
You will find mothers starving to make sure that the kid gets a decent education. Movies which portray hard work in poor families usually show the protagonist studying late at night with a table lamp. That should tell you how indians view education.
When I went to school, there was only one thing on our minds. Compete with each other, do well and get admission into a brand name institute.
It was sheer bad luck that Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister and chose the Stalinist model of economy and pushed us into poverty and desperation. The Nehru family (Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and Indira's son, Rajiv gandhi were also Prime Ministers) is known as India's sorrow. The slow rate of growth due to the Nehruvian-Stalinist model is called Nehruvian Penalty.
Things are changing now with the Communists ejected out of academia and losing in the political arena. They have been reduced to whining from the sidelines abusing those of us who are for peace and free economy as "Hindu fascists" and "Hindu fundamentalists." They will be intellectually defeated.
Of course, this importance for learning has created an environment where Muslims and Christians too feel the peer pressure to succeed in education. So Indian Muslims and Christians are better than their Pakistani counterparts (Pakistan doesn't have Christians as it has killed them off.) Finally, I shouldn't take away credit from Muslim and Christian families. The tradition of giving importance to learning must have been handed down through the generations in their families too as their ancestors too were Hindus at some point of time.
Well, I must disagree about calling those whose politics you disagree with as monkeys. Without being abusive, and without dragging in all other political issues, let me give you my take on the topic.
IITs and IIMs developed their brand name solely by being choosy on the quality of their students. It is the selection process and the students who are responsible for their quality, not money.
While I am all for market forces and education in the private sector, I think that IF the Govt is going to run an educational institute, they had better make it accessible to the entire indian population instead of only the ultra-rich.
You yourself betray your politics (clearly you are a Communist) when you claim that Govt run institutes benefit only a small section of the middle class (who else treats middle class as villains?), but at the same time whinge when the Govt wants to bring down the fees!
... less helpful and overall less good at their jobs. With the obvious exception of cheaper labour, is there one single reason why Indian workers should have these jobs?
When you say "less good," it shows your level of English. The correct word is 'worse.' Seems that is one reason to outsource to India.
Experiment_626,
Let me attempt to answer this question for you. Education gets very high priority in India. Achievements for teenagers in India means academic achievements.
Most Hindus are brought up worshipping the Goddess of learning. While this may mean nothing on the surface, it is my belief that subliminally, it gives importance to education by raising it to a divine level.
Science and math fascinate a lot of kids. It is not a subculture. It is mainstream culture out in India. Pursuing science is the #1 choice. Liberal arts and commerce related streams get lower priority in India.
Science and those pursuing science get a lot of respect. Consider this fact. When a radio channel in Britain conducted a poll to determine who the greatest Briton was, the British voted for Diana. Indians voted for Newton.
I also see a lot of hostility everywhere in USA towards Indians. I feel sad for a lot of Americans but it is wrong to distinguish people by their race and brand them as people stealing jobs. For me, there is only one human race and I hope no individual has to suffer. I am dismayed to see that those who were extolling the virtues of free-market have suddenly decided that Stalinist ideas are the best! Such double standards are unacceptable.
High time some US citizen ran for Congress and demolished the RIAA through legislation.
Another action that can be taken is to boycott ONE movie at a time in order to hurt RIAA members and keep them guessing which movie will be picked on.
I have a proposal by which RIAA can be hurt if people follow the boycott calls. It is unrealistic to expect people to boycott music. Instead, why not boycott (some of) the movies made by their members or movies which use RIAA members for their music score?
It works like this - not all movies will be boycotted. A coordinator (slashdot perhaps?) lists down the name of a movie at random and emails are sent out to boycott it. Say, a movie is made with a huge budget and we pick on it and give out a boycott call AFTER it has been made, it will send them a clear message.
IF (very unlikely as it requires mass following) it succeeds, it will instill fear into the movie makers since the victims are RANDOMLY chosen! Besides, a blanket call for boycott is bound to fail. What do you guys say?:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you. In India too, fraud became lesser thanks to electronic voting machines.
What really amazes me is that Americans act in an arrogant manner and do not want to learn from others' experiences or appreciate others. This is the same attitude which is seen on this website when outsourcing is discussed.
To give you a neutral view, corruption and technology are two separate issues. Sure you can use technology to aid corruption, but you don't need technology to commit fraud. An example is the farcical US election in 2000. Only in America can people be hoodwinked easily because they are a brainwashed lot believing whatever has been told to them by tehir Government. This is the sad reality. Hopefully internet will give the Americans more exposure to the world and not just the propaganda given by their TV channels.
Had the farce of judges appointed by a former President appointing the son of that President happened in a third world country, you can imagine the propaganda that Americans would have unleashed. Somehow, Americans think that their system is the best and they are proud of their farce too!
In India, if we have disputes, the judges don't say "STOP COUNTING!" The judges say, "RECOUNT!" That is the difference between India and America.
The present malfunctioning of machines is tolerable. They are most likely not software glitches, but similar to a malfunctioning laptop. When you have hundreds of thousands of such machines being used, 191 malfunctioning machines is not much of an error. You techies should know that!
I agree with you but I am not the one bringing up the issue of race. Those who accuse indians of stealing their jobs are the ones bringing up the issue of race.
OTOH, in India, you have a tolerant and accomodative society with stress on education. Despite the backstabbing and violence, we indians are tolerant of other religious groups and our President is a Muslim.
In this culture, you will find poor Hindu children knocking on doors and begging for money in order to pay for their textbooks. They'll return next year with the previous year's report card.
You will find mothers starving to make sure that the kid gets a decent education. Movies which portray hard work in poor families usually show the protagonist studying late at night with a table lamp. That should tell you how indians view education.
When I went to school, there was only one thing on our minds. Compete with each other, do well and get admission into a brand name institute.
It was sheer bad luck that Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister and chose the Stalinist model of economy and pushed us into poverty and desperation. The Nehru family (Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and Indira's son, Rajiv gandhi were also Prime Ministers) is known as India's sorrow. The slow rate of growth due to the Nehruvian-Stalinist model is called Nehruvian Penalty.
Things are changing now with the Communists ejected out of academia and losing in the political arena. They have been reduced to whining from the sidelines abusing those of us who are for peace and free economy as "Hindu fascists" and "Hindu fundamentalists." They will be intellectually defeated.
Of course, this importance for learning has created an environment where Muslims and Christians too feel the peer pressure to succeed in education. So Indian Muslims and Christians are better than their Pakistani counterparts (Pakistan doesn't have Christians as it has killed them off.) Finally, I shouldn't take away credit from Muslim and Christian families. The tradition of giving importance to learning must have been handed down through the generations in their families too as their ancestors too were Hindus at some point of time.
IITs and IIMs developed their brand name solely by being choosy on the quality of their students. It is the selection process and the students who are responsible for their quality, not money.
While I am all for market forces and education in the private sector, I think that IF the Govt is going to run an educational institute, they had better make it accessible to the entire indian population instead of only the ultra-rich.
You yourself betray your politics (clearly you are a Communist) when you claim that Govt run institutes benefit only a small section of the middle class (who else treats middle class as villains?), but at the same time whinge when the Govt wants to bring down the fees!
Apple? I would say it is close to zero. The geeks prefer UNIX/Linux and Microsoft succeeds because it is Microsoft.
When you say "less good," it shows your level of English. The correct word is 'worse.' Seems that is one reason to outsource to India.
Experiment_626, Let me attempt to answer this question for you. Education gets very high priority in India. Achievements for teenagers in India means academic achievements. Most Hindus are brought up worshipping the Goddess of learning. While this may mean nothing on the surface, it is my belief that subliminally, it gives importance to education by raising it to a divine level. Science and math fascinate a lot of kids. It is not a subculture. It is mainstream culture out in India. Pursuing science is the #1 choice. Liberal arts and commerce related streams get lower priority in India. Science and those pursuing science get a lot of respect. Consider this fact. When a radio channel in Britain conducted a poll to determine who the greatest Briton was, the British voted for Diana. Indians voted for Newton. I also see a lot of hostility everywhere in USA towards Indians. I feel sad for a lot of Americans but it is wrong to distinguish people by their race and brand them as people stealing jobs. For me, there is only one human race and I hope no individual has to suffer. I am dismayed to see that those who were extolling the virtues of free-market have suddenly decided that Stalinist ideas are the best! Such double standards are unacceptable.
I have a simpler solution. Run for Congress. At the least the Congressperson will be scared of losing his/her seat and come over to your side.
High time some US citizen ran for Congress and demolished the RIAA through legislation. Another action that can be taken is to boycott ONE movie at a time in order to hurt RIAA members and keep them guessing which movie will be picked on.
I have a proposal by which RIAA can be hurt if people follow the boycott calls. It is unrealistic to expect people to boycott music. Instead, why not boycott (some of) the movies made by their members or movies which use RIAA members for their music score? It works like this - not all movies will be boycotted. A coordinator (slashdot perhaps?) lists down the name of a movie at random and emails are sent out to boycott it. Say, a movie is made with a huge budget and we pick on it and give out a boycott call AFTER it has been made, it will send them a clear message. IF (very unlikely as it requires mass following) it succeeds, it will instill fear into the movie makers since the victims are RANDOMLY chosen! Besides, a blanket call for boycott is bound to fail. What do you guys say? :-)