Andy Mukherjee’s Poverty

Andy Mukherjee – On The American Stimulus Package

Andy Mukherjee, on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, in his syndicated column used his Asian background with devastating effect. Devastating to his (at least, partly Indian) background.

He writes, “the stimulus package that has been put together to keep the U.S. economy from tipping into a recession”.

Just what is the problem with that. In the current economic thinking, all Governments are expected to create these ‘stimulus’ package.

Andy Still Talks Of Aid

He further writes,

“At $168 billion, the largesse is almost three-fifths more generous … than the record $107 billion that 22 rich nations together gave out as official foreign aid in 2005 …” (ellipsis mine)

I thought every country has a right – and as per current acceptable political philosophy, it is the bounden duty of Governments to be generous to their citizens. What exactly is the objection that Andy has to the US Government’s ‘largesse’ and ‘munificence’, (his words)? I am unclear about on that till now.

Which planet is Andy on? Since he is writing a business and finance columns, is he aware (I hope he is) of the large body of research that shows how aid has in fact creates problems – and doesn’t solve any. The notorious PL-480 was abandoned because it elongated the cycle of food scarcity.

Low self esteem, Andy?

He advises,

“Middle-class Asians ought to turn green with envy at the “home bias” implicit in the munificence of President George W. Bush’s administration.”

So what does Andy expect – Uncle Sam should be more liberal to Asians than to Americans? Does he expect Americans to earn and be taxed for the benefit of Asians? And just why does he think that Asians (at least Indians) will turn green with envy.

I am sure that Asia wishes to compete with the largest, best, competitive economies – but surely there is no envy involved (exceptions apart). I am also sure (unlike Andy) that, in time, we will create a level playing field (more important and more on that later) and Americans will want to be born in Asia (and most probably, India).

Andy’s Cheques by mail programme

Unlike the 111 million US households that will enjoy some tax rebate, there won’t be any cheques in the mailbox for the Asian workers.

And who exactly does Andy think, is going to send cheques by mail to Asians? Americans? Just why will Americans do that? How does Andy think Americans will fund this Andy’s ‘cheques by mail’ programme? Does Andy think that 60-80 million working Americans can suport 3 billion Asians?

And why does Andy think that Asians will queue up to take this charity? Just why is Andy’s opinion of Asians so low? Is is it because of his own low self esteem?

Asians Are Funding the US Stimulus Plan

Asia lost last year (my estimate) more than US$300 billion dollars due to the monetary policy of the USA. Deliberate, well thought out monetary policy by the USA Government.

The truth my dear Andy, is that American lifestyle is being maintained due to Asian stupidity. The Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and other ASEAN countries have lent the USA – which is in the hock, by over US$4trillion dollars. They will lose US$ 300 billion for the privilege of lending US$4 trillion to the USA.

What? Asians Fund The USA …

Why? Because the system is fixed. Go back to Bretton Woods! The Anglo Saxon Bloc controlled 80% of the world’s gold production and reserves. Hence, only they could underpin their currency with gold- which the world accepted. It is separate story that they defrauded the world – and the system unravelled within a short 20 years.

And the world has been paying a price for that moment of folly.

What Does Asia Need

Asians need to create a new financial system. That is what Asia needs – and that is what US has been sabotaging for years now.

And a case for that is what I would have expected from you, Andy – or is that too much too ask for!

Indian Software Success – How Come?

A 35 year old Indian advertising executive (after a short London based assignment, at Car Phone Warehouse) had an interesting observation.

There is a transfer effect! We Indians, get respect in some parts of the world today, because we are Indians. Earlier perception of Indians was based on the individual. Indians were not respected for their nationality. Now, Indians gets some respect because they are Indian.

How Did This Happen

And the Indian image makeover was due to the work done by the software guys on the Y2K problem – this advertising executive claimed. The Y2K was predicted to be a major disaster – waiting to happen! The world waited with bated breath – for planes to crash; banks feared billion dollar frauds; Generals were afraid that defence systems would go on a blink. Indian software companies got the Y2K contract by the truckloads. The whole world piled on to Indian software companies – as there were few credible alternatives.

Come Y2k, nothing happened. The world over!

It just another day. It was the biggest triumph for the Indian software community. Done at a cost of a few billion dollars. The Y2K meteor did not crash onto mother earth – it was detonated at the time of entry into the earth’s atmosphere by Indian software programmers. As usual Indians do not celebrate their major successes. (Instead they make a big deal of the 20:20 world cup)

India’s software success has many claimants – and all of them have had a role to play. And in this crush, one small thing escaped everybody’s notice.

Why Did Software Become Such A Big Thing

Why is it that software became such a big thing in India? How come Indian engineers with such low levels of prior exposure to computers could ramp up so quickly and tackle such a complex problem? How could a country with the lowest computer penetration become the largest expeorter of software in less than 10 years.

The answer goes back to 5000 years ago.

When Sanskrit language was invented. Yes. Invented.

What!! What Has Sanskrit Got To Do With This

Sanskrit is an artificial, synthetic, revolutionary language – unlike all other languages in the world; which are Prakrit (natural and evolutionary). The next set of artificial languages came into this world after 5000 years later.

About 50-75 years ago, the next set of artificial languages were invented. These are the computer languages. Between the invention of Sanskrit and the computer languages , there was no other culture which created an artificial language system.

What is special about Sanskrit?

Sanskrit is nothing but a database system with millions of database tables and a system of linking concatenated data records. Every word is a table (I studied Sanskrit 30 years ago, and if I remember correctly, it is a 3 column x 8 row table). And all words then combine with each other as per these table rules.

And all Indian languages are derived from Sanskrit.

While most of us do not know Sanskrit or understand it’s structure consciously, we all use Sanskritic structures everyday. It is easy for us to learn another “Sanskritic” language! Hence, for all those brilliant engineers, their base in Sanskritic languages gave them a head start.

And the rest, as they say, is history!

PS – Most malware, denial of service attacks, co-ordinated system attacks seems to be coming out of Eastern Europe, Russia and now China also. India – nix. In spite of being a software super power, our negative contibutions seem negligible. There is something to this …