Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 10:58:25 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: Arun Sharma <adsharma@sharmas.dhs.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why are people against GNU? WAS Re: 5.0 already? Message-ID: <20000517105825.A78159@physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <200005170210.TAA09486@usr05.primenet.com>; from tlambert@primenet.com on Wed, May 17, 2000 at 02:10:02AM %2B0000 References: <20000516183807.A25954@sharmas.dhs.org> <200005170210.TAA09486@usr05.primenet.com>
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Terry Lambert said on May 17, 2000 at 02:10:02: > > > > One prime example of this is the Indian state of Kerala, which has > > > > been ruled by communists within the framework of democracy. The state > > > > has the highest literacy in the country, no industries because of labor > > > > problems d and scores very well on most yard sticks of progress. > > > > > > > > On the other hand, many the other "capitalist" states in India have > > > > flourishing industries, but the average man on the street is worse off > > > > than the one in the communist state. > > > > > > It is well known that there is severe corruption in India. There > > > is much less severe corruption in the US. > > > > <snip> > > > > What does corruption have to do with the above discussion ? I'd think > > the communist state is less corrupt than the rest of the country, because > > the kind of corruption common in India is more due to poverty than greed. > > The communist state being better educated and idealistic, is less prone > > to corruption than other states. > > Education is no protection against corruption; look at the high > esteem in which people commonly hold the honor of lawyers... most > politicians are lawyers, and most corrupt politicians are corrupt > lawyers. > > This isn't to smear them all with the same brush, but the US has > more lawyers in the 5 county area surrounding the San Francisco > Bay than there are in all of Europe. > > You may very well be right that your isolated Communist regime > is in fact less corrupt than your isolated "Capitalist" regime > (quotes maintained intentionally). This doesn't prove that all > fish are trout. > > > Pointing to a corrupt regime that pays lip service to the idea of > Capitalism, but is in fact an ideological cesspool in no way proves > anything. I didn't get into this thread earlier, but I strongly disagree with Arun's assessment of Kerala. Yes, it is a highly literate state, but so is its neighbour Tamil Nadu which has little or no communist influence. Kerala's literacy rate shot up substantially from an already high value because of a concerted education drive some years ago. That in itself has little to do with communism, and more to do with the efforts of a group of committed people. And its high value earlier was for historical reasons. Till the 1980s, Indian economic policies were very left wing, and the difference in the economic performance of communist and non-communist states wasn't so great. That changed in the 1990s with the gradual opening of the economy. Kerala has been left far behind compared to its neighbours Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This has led to its share of troubles and social tensions in the state. I'd blame the communists entirely for that. The only other state with a notable communist presence, Bengal, isn't doing so great industrially or economically either. As for corruption, it exists but I think things are improving. I'd blame it on the old socialist ideas of Nehru, that civil servants should not be paid very much because they should do their jobs out of commitment. There are a huge number of local startups in various high-tech areas, hardly a week passes without a few new multinationals getting a presence here, and nearly all the big names in the computer industry are here already; I don't think problems with corruption are as serious as you make out, and I'm basically optimistic about the future. As for bureaucratic bungles, I've heard horror stories from the US and Europe too... Rahul. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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