of aid, fake-wars and techwaste

Call us developing, call us transforming — or just call us an inexplicable phenomenon, but it’s one hell of a challenge to find a single foreign conglomerate that isn’t showing interest in India. Blame it on the cost advantage, the cheaper skills or anything that comes to mind, but it’s impossible to deny that every significant milestone that the world comes up with — technology or otherwise — has an Indian hand that helped at some stage. In spite of everything we are (and everything we’re not), we get noticed, and that’s the last word.

Incidentally, these aren’t personal thoughts, but the views of many MNCs and foreign governments who share a mixed bag of emotions when they see the kind of mammoth change this nation undergoes. Most are excited as they see an opportunity yet envious of the growth in the subcontinent.

Or that’s what it seems from the crust. Everyone knows that with all our growth, we have underlying issues at the grassroots, and while India has prospered in the recent past, no growth can be sustained without a strong foundation. This calls for direct or indirect aid from the very international community that created the impression of Brand India.

Not that we are oh-so-desperate for foreign help — recent policies favour  trade over direct aid — but what cheeses me off is the generosity to Israel when there are folks who deserve it more. I mean, excuse me?

Condoleezza Rice’s new aid plan is ’tilted towards strife torn countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan’. With $2.4b for Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan have to share $1.85b. Now that is some seriously erect and upright tilt.

Why the overfeeding to Israel? Have the US taken outsourcing to a totally new level, by outsourcing their counter-terrorism tasks to Mossad? Is this the check they’re dishing out for those services? Have they fallen for the Muslim=Terrorist equation, hence rubbishing every act of terror that Tel Aviv inflicts on the Arab world? Yes, they have increased the funding to Iraq and Afghanistan (which the rest of the world is so happy about), but a quick reality check here — guess who actually went on-site and bombed those nations? Not us! You *ought* to clean up your fake-war mess after all, Uncle Sam.

While on the subject, it beats me as to why New Delhi has maintained close ties with Tel Aviv. As a nation, we only acknowledge the Palestinian struggle without recognizing it, and that’s a pity. Forget having the largest Muslim population in our backyard — considering that we as a nation rebelled against the occupants for our independence, we ought to relate. Yet, we turn a deaf ear to their call more often than not, because hey — Israel is a close buddy after all, isn’t it? Military might is the light after all.

Such acts of ignorance by the foreign office speak little of our national commitment to secularism and religious harmony. India is the perfect example — a billion people, a hundred-odd religions, yet the violence only sparks up in bits. Like Didier says in Shantaram, ‘If this were France, there would be rivers of blood everywhere’.

And as far as funding is concerned — give us a break. CEOs? Entrepreneurs? Call centers? Help desks? Support staff? Labourers? Skilled workers? Cleaners? Maids? Look around yourselves, and try and live a single day of your life without a ‘brown’ man getting involved. Just try.

Hence, a message for the arrogant who look down upon us as Third World ugly — here we are. Fund us or not, and with all our national issues that pull us down — we’re still steamrolling ahead. And since you’ve recognized our ‘fast-growing’ economy after all, it’s time you stop referring to us as ‘cheap labour’, and as a techie, it’s time you stop dumping your techwaste into what you think is — and what you’ve crafted — a software dump.