Baghdad residents were boogying for New Years Eve like they haven’t in years.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Terrific!! And the Islamic New Year is still 10 days away. If India is any example of how it will feel for Iraqis to have been liberated by our Western ways, well, hip hip horray!
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/pf/v8i30_prasad.pdf
Sedentary and stressful life style of these professionals is now leading to major health
problems–hypertension, heart ailments, gastroenterology problems for people in their
late 20’s and early 30’s even. But then every problem is a business opportunity. Now
emerged a new industry for keeping IT professionals fit through gyms, yoga, crash
courses on art of living and art of managing stress. Cyber-yoga is yoga designed
specifically for IT professionals of this cyberspace; desktop yoga deals with yogic
exercises that can be done while sitting in front of your desktop.
Mahatma Gandhi once said “the day a woman can walk freely on the roads, that day we can say that India achieved independence”. If you go to the major cities in India, you will find girls moving freely at midnight. It has gone further. In a country where talking (let alone doing) pre-marital sex is a sin, if the managements of call centers educate the employees on AIDS/HIV and safe sex; contemplate keeping condom machines in the office premises; and if the office airconditioners and toilets choke with used condoms–that is a small price to pay for boosting the economy of a developing country.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
And more to look forward to, also from http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/pf/v8i30_prasad.pdf
Branded shirts, branded shoes, dinners at Pizza huts and McDonalds, a new car every 2/3
years–life cannot be better. And, it is as if the whole economic growth is by them and for
them. When insurance agencies and banks announce new financial plans exclusively
targeting the IT professionals, when parents want that their daughter is married only to an
IT professional, when the real estate developers build homes exclusively for IT
professionals–you certainly feel that the Indian IT professional has made the greatest
impact on everything and everybody. It is as though all other industries are ancillary to
this industry.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Perhaps a bi of drunken revelry will do them a world of good?
January 5th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
If there’s a conceptual association to be made between the article you’ve linked and the subject of this post, it’s a bit more of a leap than I’m able to accomplish. Please help me make the connection between Indian IT workers and a safer, happier Baghdad.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Common thread: westernization. Difference: one is forced; the other, well it’s called freedom here. It’s not always a blessing to be liberated by the freedom lovers. Ask the Amerindians about that.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I thought I explained the connection in my first sentence in my first post.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
It’s the economy, smartie pants (don’t want to wax too meanly here), anyhow.
Economy trumps Iraq in election
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080105/pl_nm/usa_politics_iraq_dc_2
I just paid $3.18 for a gallon of gas. I thought that black gold we were to plunder from the Iraqis was to serve a two fold effect: pay for the war and keep prices reasonable at da pump. Another sign of the unhunkie dorieness of the economy:
“Subprime” is linguists word of the year, hip hip horray, let’s party like we’ve never done before! On these shores!
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imcJd2ELqieBlFxBLhBnP5k4juaAD8TVK4A00
Say it isn’t so, bloggie, Georgie boy for the second week running is, so let’s hear it from the freedom loving quarter once again. All indicators are that the economy is strong! No?
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imcJd2ELqieBlFxBLhBnP5k4juaAD8TVK4A00
January 5th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Still going in for the hard leftist notion that the various aboriginal societies populating the Americas were uniformly virtuous and peaceful and that the European Christian explorers and settlers were uniformly wicked and ruthless, I see.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
It is not a leftist notion. It is history. The various aboriginal societies (my what a nice way of putting it) generally had a right to their languages and culture and worldviews, but all was generally obliterated by the freedom lovers. A notion about some manifest destiny told them God (and therefore others’ blood) was on their side and in their hands. Just the facts, Sir Freedomlover. A great moment in Western civilization. Now I fully expect you to tell me to love it or leave it.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
No, that’s the beauty of the United States of America. You can continue to hate it and the principles comprising its foundation and stay right here. It’s done all the time. People with such worldviews even get elected to public office with horrifying regularity.
And it is a leftist notion. You don’t hear patriotic Americans who truly understand history and the nature of freedom and the exceptional place of Western civilization in the world say that stuff.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Ah, so now, in addition to wishing to see Indians and American indians remain underdeveloped - excuse me, “undefiled by greedy imperialist Western ways” - we want to see the U.S. economy do badly, eh?
How’s that again about this not being a leftist outlook?
January 6th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Who said “undefiled by greedy imperialist Western ways?”
Of course, being a unit of the economy here, why would I want to see it do badly. I know I love my country, if not always the history of the folks, including, guess what, me, within it.
Are you accusing me of being unpatriotic? Not with you, against you, I guess. There’s precedent for that kind of thinking.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Well, from what I can gather, you view your country’s history as basically shameful. Am I mistaken about that?
January 6th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Shame is in the eye of the beholder. You are free to think what you want. I am not against you, but apparently not with you either. Your reaction is beyond my control bloggie. Your love for country is different than mine. I never say you don’t love your country, but you sure fling that around when someone’s views differ from yours. Perhaps you march to the major drummer.