CAFTA, global warming, peak oil, Intelligent Design, chicken flu, bubonic plague...Sometimes I wonder if half the folks around here had their heads cut off and don't know it. I also wonder why so many fellow liberals seem like they are standing in a corner with warm piss dribbling down their legs.
How are we going to win if we don't embrace a positive vision for the future? I'm not talking about head in the sand shit - but a real, constructive vision for the future as an alternative to GOP dystopia. Just pointing out problems and whining about it is not a path to victory. I sure wouldn't vote for it.
Opposition is not just about opposing. If it was, the Tories would have beaten Labour already. Supposedly, we're the party that is comfortable with change, with the unknown, with the different. But you wouldn't know it from all the Chicken Little-ing.
Screw that. I like the future - and can't wait to build it.
Earlier this week, the NY Times had an
article about American MBA students bypassing Wall Street for internships in...India:
Infosys Technologies, the country's second-largest outsourcing firm after Tata Consultancy Services, discovered how popular India had become as an internship destination for Americans when the company began recruiting: for the 40 intern spots at its Bangalore headquarters, the company received 9,000 applications. Only those with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.6 or more made it to a short list, and then they were put through two rounds of interviews.
9,000 applicants for 40 spots. Think about that - and these were students from places like MIT, Kellogg and Wharton. They could chosen a sweet gig at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan. Instead, they chose the future.
[Intern] Mr. Burwell said that, since arriving in India, he had developed a better grasp of the workings of the global economy and the logic behind the choices companies and countries make. "Being here is a powerful experience; it is impossible not to think differently," he said.
Also, his attitude toward outsourcing has changed since meeting Indian employees, who he said work very hard and care a great deal about the quality of their work. "To come here, meet these people, and to return home and turn your back on outsourcing is hard," he said.
Remember when we used to bring Soviet exchange students here in the hopes that they would go back home and tell their friends and neighbors about how America was not the devil incarnate, about how a free, democratic, market-oriented society was vastly superior to an autocratic, Communist regime?
Shoes are the other foot it seems. And now, the outsourcing is going the other way:
Meanwhile, Indian companies are looking at summer internships as a way of building a diverse work culture.
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Other companies, and even the schools themselves, are looking at internships as a step toward attracting bright young Americans to work in India. Infosys, for instance, hired Joshua Bornstein, a former intern from Claremont McKenna College in California, nearly two years ago as its first American employee based in India.
While not the biggest fan of CAFTA for reasons related to the specific terms of the agreement, I am a pro-free trader. I believe "fair trade" is just a nice way to say "protectionism." I don't fear outsourcing - the mobility of capital and labor will bring many long-term benefits to our society. I am overjoyed that India is prospering - they have been poor for far too long. And as they continue to grow, they will join the ranks of the developed nations, contribute to our global economy and create jobs, not just for Indians, but for all. The Japanese car makers, after all, eventually grew to the point of making cars (and jobs) in America.
The transitions are hard - and our government should play a role in helping those ill-equipped to handle the transition acquire the skills and experience necessary to adapt to the new order. But attempting to stop it is a fool's errand and fraught with ethical complexities.
Too many on this planet live unfufilled lives, drastically short of the full possibilities they deserve as human beings, merely by stint of the misfortune of being born in a poor, underdeveloped nation. We are one world - and we cannot piss on them on one side and then expect them to support us on issues like global warming or oil conservation. That's not what being a liberal should mean.
They are my fellow man and deserve opportunity as much as I do. I will not stand in their way and I will support whatever assists them in that endeavor, BECAUSE I am a liberal.
Bubba saw that bridge to the 21st century as a most important challenge. It was a hokey turn of phrase, but true nonetheless. If Democrats are going to lead, then they need to LEAD. And that means embracing the future and building it. To paraphrase JFK, what will we do for the freedom of man?