India's launched a rocket to map the surface to the moon, joining the US, Russia, Japan and China as nations with serious space programs. This mission is a great source of pride for the Indian people, and it is yet another sign of the emergence of this nation as a player of great weight on the international scene.
I'm a bit of an India fan. I like the food, Bollywood movies, and the fact that nice young Indians are falling over themselves to learn English, adopt English names, and answer my credit card issues from call centers in Bangalore.
But I find myself wishing that India would spend less time on lunar missions and nuclear weapons, and more time on raising its $978 per capita GDP. This is a nation of GRINDING poverty, with a quarter of the country living on less than a dollar a day. Things are getting better, and liberalizing the economy has definitely increased prosperity...but I hardly think moon missions should be a priority.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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6 comments:
CW, have you ever really watched a Bollywood movie or have you given it 5 minutes, checked out the hot Indian chick and left after the 1st dance scene.
I LOVE Bollywood movies. Seriously.
I had the opportunity to accompany the first US diplomatic mission to India following a temporary severing of diplomatic relations during the Clinton administration. While there, we saw first hand why God created the word "abject" to enhance the word "poverty". We were also briefed that India has only a 60% adult literacy rate. When one of our State Department reps asked one of the Indian Interior Ministery officials how they could spend so much on defense when they had such a low literacy rate, I couldn't help but snicker when the official said in that very proper Oxford-educated Indian English, "India has taught 750 million people how to read. We are curious how the US, with only 300 million people, has ANY who still can't read." We didn't discuss literacy any further that day.
To answer the question the first anonymous posed:
I was a guest at the CW's command center one night and we actually watched "Bride and Prejudice" (IMDB it on your own).
I will reserve further comment as to not offend 3% of our population.
"I had the opportunity to accompany the first US diplomatic mission to India following a temporary severing of diplomatic relations during the Clinton administration."
Mudge, you must be kidding. Are you saying that during the Clinton presidency, there was a country that didn't love us? Didn't the Indians realize Clinton was a Democrat? Didn't the Indians realize that the reign of Barack Obama was a mere 10 years in the future?
Will they outsource the call center to Houston?
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