Hints of bias.
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| avasaralak Feb 11, 2006 4:04 PM EDT |
The press release regarding India taking leadership in the Open Source field should taken as what it is, a PR exercise. I am surprised however by the vitriolic responses to the hyperbole in the press release. I think that something other than reason and logic is driving the responses.
India as a nation in the current form is young. It obtained its independence from colonial rule in 1947 after it went through a traumatic partition and emerged as country with a democracy strong enough to hold the country together and yet flexible enough for the diverse groups to live together as one country.
I certainly agree that India has a lot of problems. The huge population and India's inability to control it stem from the fact that India is a democracy and coercive population control methods like (forced sterilization and abortion) cannot be used against the will of the people.
Evey nation has gone through a phase, where of groups of people are marginalized based on often a trivial a reason as their colour and yet eventually the marginalization comes to an end. As I have said India is a young nation, yet right from its birth it has recognized that a country cannot progress if a large sections of its people are marginalized. Hence, it has laws and constitutional provisions that provide for protection of the socially and economically weaker sections and these are gradually bringing a change for the better.
The other problems can be attributed either directly or indirectly to the burden of the 3 times of the population of US in a country 1/3 the size of it. |
| tadelste Feb 11, 2006 4:32 PM EDT |
avasaralak: I'm not sure that we made vitriolic responses to the hyperbole in the press release. But, that's open to interpretation. You say that "Every nation has gone through a phase, where groups of people are marginalized based on often a trivial a reason as their colour and yet eventually the marginalization comes to an end". I'm not sure every nation has gone through that phase. In fact, India may be the oldest civilization on the planet. Certainly, Sanscrit is still the most advanced alphabet. You say the nation is only 58 years old, but the culture is quite ancient and the culture has marginalized people for thousands of years. I'm glad you want to start with a clean slate, but even you must know that with your laws against segregation that it persists so openly that no one walking the streets of Delhi would ever believe such laws exist. You can use any excuse that you find convenient, but India's social institutions have no commitment to helping the poor. |
| avasaralak Feb 11, 2006 5:40 PM EDT |
I do accept that I do not know about every country on the planet. I was implying to the countries that I knew had gone through that phase and which now are beacons are democracy, freedom and liberty. Every culture has marginalized sections of populations based on class, religion, branch of religion etc. However, I do not want to give specific names as those chapters are sensitive and could be offensive to other members of of this forum. The effectiveness of laws and constitutional provisions against segregation can be measured from the representation in the Indian parliament and the political power these sections are now beginning to enjoy. The last time I have been to Delhi I could not find any segregated roads, trains, buses or other areas, maybe things have changed and you know better. In fact the urban areas of India are one place where the segregation on caste lines has ceased to exist. Whatever segregation that exists is strictly based on economics and class. I certainly am not making excuses for the imperfect state of institutions in India. However, I would like to point that India does try to take care of its weaker sections with whatever resources it has, for example it has a scheme where the economically weaker sections are provided subsidized food staples and kerosene for cooking. Also, every citizen has a right to free primary education and the marginalized sections are provided with 50% of seats in institutions of higher education (both government and private) along with a subsidy. Now I would be the first person to agree that these are not perfect. However the root cause of the imperfections can largely be traced to the large population that has to be supported and the insufficient resources at disposal of the government a few years back (due a closed and socialistic economic model). I would to point out that I am not wary of facing the past since the lessons the past teaches us will certainly be useful in facing the future. Also, I would like to commend you for your humanitarian concern towards the poor and marginalized in India. |
| bstadil Feb 11, 2006 6:29 PM EDT |
Indus valley is the only area that managed to loose completely the ability to read and write once discovered. Sanskrit is by the way fairly recent and of Indo European decent. . Candidates for oldest writing is Hieroglyphs in Egypt, Cuneiform in Mesopotamia and the defunct Harappa in India. |
| jboyd Feb 11, 2006 8:05 PM EDT |
Hello again tadelste ... and abe, It is interesting that my firefox browser is set to open lxer.com on startup, and your (tadelste) writings is one of the main reasons for this. However I must agree with avasaralak on the following point "I am surprised however by the vitriolic responses to the hyperbole in the press release." I was taken aback and yes according to you it is open to interpretation, and my interpretation is that it was vitrolic and hints at bias. I am prepared to be proven wrong . In fact it was your response that got me on this track. Note that I am not Indian, not born in India but I would suggest that abe visit the following sites to find out more about India: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_india http://www.indiaonestop.com/economy-macro-nuclear.htm http://www.indiaonestop.com/economy-link.htm |
| Abe Feb 11, 2006 8:51 PM EDT |
Quoting:Wrest - To obtain by or as if by pulling with violent twisting movements wrester - someone who obtains something by pulling it violently with twisting movements May be who ever used the word didn't know its meaning. To me it sounded like FOSS is there to be grabed/snatched, well it is not. It is available to everyone to share, take from, and give back. When the Indian elites, the ones who seem to be the "wrester", don't care about their own people, how do we expect them to give back to the FOSS Community? FOSS is a global effort for humanity not to be snatched by anyone. Using this word showed the Indian elites' business mentality. Few Personal experience proves it. My point is, before they make any snatching, they should understand its purpose better and be willing to participate and contribute. For those who live in India, look around you, do you see some caring for the poor or anyone trying to do something about the suffering? |
| jboyd Feb 12, 2006 4:22 AM EDT |
Well it was fun (not), I must bid this thread farewell, this thread will do me no good, I am in the process of putting together a Point Of Sale system using Openoffice (frontend),Postgresql(backend) on my Fedora Core 4 box. Later. |
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