to Octavio n Babies of Beslan: on racism
Reader comment on article: [West Africa:] New Route to the West
in response to reader comment: What is racism?

Submitted by Anubhav Singh (India), Jun 13, 2006 at 04:09

Support of immigration in Western countries indeed kinda smacks of racism, when they want other ppl in their country to provide cheap labor. the recent debate over Mexcian immigrants in US kinda shows that. I dont think any country should allow more than probably 5% immigrants, or else all problems come to the fore. Europe/US will do itself a favor if it stops the mindless immigration that they r allowing. and immigrants who dont follow 'when in Rome be a Roman' should clearly be kicked out or put in place. I think only college/study visas and global firms recruiting from different college campuses across the world should be allowed.

*However, the case of Mittal's bid for Arcelor had shades of prejudices. Guy Dole (Arcelor CEO) made some comments on Indians, and then to defend he said the issues were of corporate governance (since Mittal owned majority stake in his firm). and finally Arcelor decided to be bought over by a Russian oligarch!!! (since when were Russian oligarchs the champions of corporate governance?). it doesnt matter whether Mittal has a British Passport. HIs name is Mittal. This was the case of a CEO of a global french based steel maker and not some angry jobless european, who is xenophobic. and this is the 3rd richest guy in the world who happens to be Indian and not some Indian from a poor village.

*regarding India making the most no of earthen pots? well we make a lot of other things too. we r growing at over 8%. but we got a lot more to do. we r the only 3rd world country which has produced top 1st, 2nd ranking guys in all Wall Street and technology firms consistently

*another minor case of prejudice is noise on 'outsourcing'. when Ford sells cars in India, its trade. when Indian auto manufacturers export auto components to Ford in Detroit, it becomes auto components outsourcing! regarding banning respective companies from India n EU. well we r net importer of goods from EU, so u lose business. and obviously we lose the machinery goods that we import. so we both r losers.

*regarding caste system in India. its a matter of skin color and social customs. it will take a long time to go. just like u can still find cases of Aussies dishing racist slurs to South African cricket team. ours is more wide spread though. but we r working on it.

*India is not middle-east. theres a difference between being different and being enemy.

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