Post by cuckoo4cocopuffs on Feb 19, 2012 8:14:31 GMT -6
I just completed a month of job interviews as a software developer in the Information Technology field. Some Russian colleagues of mine brought up at lunch several months ago that Indian managers in IT almost never hire non-Indians. I thought that maybe they were exaggerating, but that there certainly was some truth to that observation on their part. Now I think they weren't exaggerating. Over the past month I was getting the distinct impression in being interviewed by Indian IT professionals that the deck was stacked against me from the outset. I guess it is perhaps admirable that they want to look out for their own community (the Indian diaspora in America), on the other hand I find their prejudicial attitude to be extremely despicable, especially considering their being welcomed into our country and society. OK, enough of that rant. I just wanted to make my first point that inspired me to blog on this topic. That point is that Indian society like Chinese or Japanese society is a closed society. It does not matter how much you learn about their culture and languages or adopt the same, you are still an outsider in their eyes. Western culture, except for the upper strata of extreme wealth and privilege, is a far more open society. I am not sure about China or Japan, and I have not been to India since 1982, but I suspect that at least in India the society is gradually becoming less closed over time. That is due mainly to the cross pollination of their culture with Western culture. What I find encouraging about that (assuming my suspicion is not unfounded) is that on both sides of the divide of East and West, we can benefit from what our cultures have to offer and hopefully not be affected by the negative aspects of what comes from the other side of that divide. Leaving religious tradition aside for the sake of this discussion, I see people on both sides falling into two categories: Those who accept science and the empirical method as valid and those who are crazy people. There is no way to reason with a crazy person, hence the label we give such a person. Those we believe in the ideal of a high standard of living for all are decent people. Those who don't are just plain nasty and obtuse. There are both types of people on both sides of the divide. The unfortunate fact is that there are plenty people in positions of wealth and power that are of the latter type, and perhaps more of those people on the Eastern side of the divide. The even more unfortunate fact is that we are still the unevolved human species that we were 200,000 years ago in many respects. The silver lining is that we have the capability of abandoning those attitudes and behaviors that are detrimental to both ourselves and our planet.
