He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Grasshopper said:
Not sure I buy this at all.

We've been shipping white-collar/IT jobs to India for several years now, and it is a false economy - mainly because (huge generalisation coming) the Indians are bloody hopeless when it comes to many such jobs.
Click to expand...
In my experience they are just as good as we are, or we are as bad as them!
 
Not quite sure why SC made such a sudden about-turn in the subject matter, so instead of talking about how appalling Muslims are, we're talking about how wonderful China is? Should we have another sub-section, called Wild Conjectures and Generalisations? :D
 
Last edited:
Krizon and grass are right....at the same time...which is a millenium event

It is also worth looking at the other side of China. Rampant corruption, dreadful legal system, increasing social unrest and the threat to their manufacturing base (which is what the economy is based on) from other countries slowly getting their act togther

I can tell you from experience that China is considered a country you only do business with if you have to and for the record it is ranked very low in the widely accepted world bank stats for "ease of business' on a number of levels (think its about 90 out of 160...uk is number 2)
 
krizon said:
Not quite sure why SC made such a sudden about-turn in the subject matter, so instead of talking about how appalling Muslims are, we're talking about how wonderful China is? Should we have another sub-section, called Wild Conjectures and Generalisations? :D
Click to expand...

:lol:
This is exactly what I was thinking Kri - This was supposed to be about my good friends ethos on how to bring the many Muslim countries out of the 'Dark Ages' the next time I speak with him I'll invite him on here - meanwhile lets get back on track with his latest piece.

Ashoura - The champions of self-flagellation!

By iqbal.latif

Some people are champions of self-flagellation, Hezbollah is unquestionably one. Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, forgetting the results of his 2006 incursion into violence in the region, reiterated and talked about arms and militia and venom. He spoke to the crowd in a rare public appearance during a rally to mark the Muslim holy day of Ashoura, in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday Dec. 6, 2011. Hezbollah is an armed 'state' within the state of Lebanon. What Ashoura needed was not more venom but a different sermon of love!

Severe self-administered physical punishment, used as an act of penance during Ashoura, often in the form of beatings or floggings has also become part of political strategy. Once in a while customary self thrashing is considered as ritualistic cleansing of sins ordained by Allah. Hezbollah forces invite upon the Lebanese nation by a strange mix of religious vigour and political provocation the wrath of Lebanon's northern neighbour. Hezbollah acts as a proxy of Iran and Syria. Middle East Syrian-Iran axis based politics impacts Hezbollah fortunes directly. The fall of the Assad regime will change the nature of Lebanon completely. Iran will be unable to find the geographical leverage of proximity to the ultimate hotspot of Middle East.

Nasrallah has rarely been seen in public since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a month long war in 2006, fearing Israeli assassination. Nasrallah's emergence on Ashoura that marks the anniversary of the death in the seventh century of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. His death in a battle outside of the Iraqi city of Karbala sealed Islam's historical Sunni-Shiite gash, which is still a continual source of problems in the Middle East. Ashoura is one of the holiest days of the Muslim Shiite calendar. Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah was "here to stay" and would never compromise on its weapons. Nasrallah's unexpected manifestation defying shadows of Israeli assassination attempt may also be tied to stem the deteriorating morale of his people as the reality of declining fate of Assad in Syria sets in.

Nasrallah said. "And for those who are betting that our weapons are rusting, we say that our weapons are being renewed." I wish he grasps that rusting weapons are good if wits of nation is not rusting; he is leading the collective corrosion of the mind of his nation. He said that his militant group is acquiring additional weapons and militant members. He then left the podium, smiling and telling tens of thousands of supporters he will reappear in few minutes on a giant screen for a longer speech. He was probably worried about a launch from Israel.

"We are growing in numbers, our training is getting better and our weapons are increasing." I wished he would have said that his nation is growing in knowledge and research, leading the word of innovation and reconstruction of mankind's edifice. No, he had no such thing to say. What he said was more arms, more destruction, more death! In his public appearance, he said, this is a message to those who believe they can "threaten us," as many in the crowds shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Nasrallah reiterated his support for Assad's regime on Tuesday, accusing the United States of seeking to destroy Syria "to make up for its defeat in Iraq."

Syrians and Arabs gave prominence to Nasrallah and raised him to the status of a nationalist hero after his guerrillas' 2006 war with Israel. Now Syrian masses have set free their resentment at Hezbollah over its direct support for the regime of President Bashar Assad. Syrians recently have set fire to the yellow flag of Hezbollah and pictures of Nasrallah. Syrian and Hezbollah Nexus is considered by many as the cabal that eliminated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Rafik Hariri's liquidation was a classical Regicide a la Baath. The concept of regicide sits deep in the conscious of the cliché that rules Syria. Hariri, as a popular leader, was the king of hearts. Syrian bare proxy, Hezbollah, is suspected of carrying out the orders. Lebanon is deeply divided over the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating who was behind the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Hariri. Hezbollah and its allies reject the probe as biased.

Assad alignment with Iran and total reliance on Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad is at the risk of being toppled. The 'troika of instability' so far had a great nuisance value, too much political capital was wasted and too much destruction achieved with no results. The populace of the region caught in this conflict of ideological pre-eminence, after great wars, are still unsure as to the benefits of sacrifices of their houses and villages. The claims of neutralising the might of the Israeli Army is quite shallow when contrasted to the ruins of Lebanon.

Hezbollah conscience and Hamas's political pragmatism should take lessons from 1948, 1967 and 1973. All wars have only helped in making Israel a bigger and stronger nation and left them to live in squalid conditions. Palestinians and Lebanese do not deserve it. And what does Iran have to do with it? Iran is only using the Palestinians and the Shiites in Southern Lebanon for harbouring their own agenda in the Persian Gulf.

I crave that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah recognizes for the good of his nation that destiny of his people can only improve if they accrue knowledge and ingenuousness, not weapons and ragtag militias. Locked and rationally closed nations are a disconnect with the popular conventional wisdom that rules the world, lamentably closed minds will only lead to more destruction and a journey backwards in time.

What Ashoura needed was a sermon of intellect and a commencement address like 'Stay Foolish Stay Hungry Lebanon,' go and conquer the world with your knowledge. That hope was deferred by the Sheikh to life after death. Alas, like all Ashouras, the emphasis was on martyrdom, self immolation and self killing so that the next world becomes an everlasting perpetual heavenly hangabout. Last time in 2006, such words of bigotry and collection of arms and militias resulted in the following: http://www.iranian.com/IqbalLatif/2006/July/Hezbollah/index.html
 
Last edited:
and China will become a major innovator.
Click to expand...

That wil be the biggest shock of all because there has been about zero sign of it so far

if we see the next Apple or Google or any other leading innovation come from China, i will be more than surprised
 
Grasshopper said:
Not sure I buy this at all.

We've been shipping white-collar/IT jobs to India for several years now, and it is a false economy - mainly because (huge generalisation coming) the Indians are bloody hopeless when it comes to many such jobs.

In the IT field, the only lukewarm success story is in coding work, but large enterprises are making nowhere near their planned margins, mainly because it takes twice as long to get code tested, and thrice as long to get signed-off. The Call Centre game is largely a washout in terms of anticipated volumes that could be off-shored, mainly through the amount of complaints received by Corporates about the absolutely dreadful service. Other jobs in IT tend not the lend themselves to off-shoring, as large UK-based bluechips are running their Core infrastructure and systems in the UK -and there are technical constraints which mean they can't relocate that.

I think the spectre of mass transfer of white-collar jobs is bogus myself. Indeed, with English the de-facto language of the internet, corporate growth in the developing giant economies could actually lead to job creation in the UK; as growing companies in these nations seek to draw on Western expertise - particularly in the IT sector.

I am the eternal optimist though.
Click to expand...

In my experience, there's been little benefit achieved with outsourcing of coding to India. Whilst there's no doubt that the code is well-tested and to specification in general, that's often the problem - if there's an error in the spec it never seems to get spotted when a project is coded in our Indian division. However, if it comes to us in Belfast, any errors in the spec are usually spotted and sent back to the source with a "what a load of bollocks" email attached.
 
Clive
I seem to remember that your current view of the capablities of the Chinese is similar to that people once held of the Japanese and were proved wrong.
 
Not sure, TS, of modern Japanese innovations? They've absolutely improved their manufacturing qualities and quantities vastly from the shoddy copies of the 1950s, but regardless of how much the country makes and exports that is of quality, which of the goods are actually innovative?
 
Fairly true and although im no IT person, it would appear that in that arena they have certainly been left behind.

Not only that, with greater movability the west will always attract the very best talent from China and so on (if required) Not only will the rewards be greater in financial terms but the attraction of working in a free prosperous state rather than a totalitarian polluted shithole will win out comfortably
 
:lol::lol: Hmm, lemme see... totalitarian polluted shithole, or democratic free market with mains sewers and clean water on tap... just give me a minute...
 
I'm not sure China's growing and growing
As much as the West is plateauing,
Though the words to our ears
For the last two or three years
Said China's economy was speeding -
(Well, that was the usual reading).

But is it a hit, or is it a myth?
Are those economists taking the pith?

Is China this tiger, this animal rare -
Will it turn out to be a load of bull - or a bear? :blink:

We're told that China's buying up Chelsea,
Kensington, and Notting Hill,
Russia already hoovered up half of the Wharf -
And, yo chico, don't talk about Brazil!

So where is the truth, or is it a lie?
Is it the real deal, or crispy noodles in the sky? :confused:

Don't ask me, guv, I ain't got a clue - :whistle:
It's more than enough to make this
Little rhyme for you!
 
:lol:

Kind words, this ode doth bring a smile
Reflective in its honesty
Indulgent and yet perchance
Zestful and forsooth
Omniscient to all men
Now I Dig-You-Good-Den
 
Last edited:
Oh, dat Shakespeare! I wuz tinkin you tawkin bout da Willster dere but it mustabin dother wun who is hangin wid hiz right crew inda hood, coz many a time and oft I bin seein him inda Rialto, innit?
 
krizon said:
Oh, dat Shakespeare! I wuz tinkin you tawkin bout da Willster dere but it mustabin dother wun who is hangin wid hiz right crew inda hood, coz many a time and oft I bin seein him inda Rialto, innit?
Click to expand...

Please read the first letter of each sentence in my ode, from top to bottom - twas written in thine honour. :<3:
 
No, zir, kan't see it no how! Outstanding work, Monsieur le Chef - I hereby name you Cryptopoet of the Year!
 
Back
Top