phil hunt wrote:

Some people wrote ;

Didn't people use to say that about Japan?

I don't know. If they did, I wasn't one of them.

Yes, they did, in the '50s and early '60s, at least. their products were
generally laughed at in the U.S. as poorly made rubbish, often cheap plastic
toys and the like. But times change.

And in the 70s and 80s they said the same things about Hong Kong.
Now it's China's turn.

I wonder who'll be next? India?

Been there ( Bombay - Mumbai ) - done that.

India has great aspirations.

Trouble is - they keep thinking they know better than us ( westerners ). In the UK, the BBC
produced a hilarious sitcom called the Kumars at #42 ( number 42 - street number - we don't
have like 2062 street numbers in the UK ).

The programme made a certain amount of fun of the Indian self-obseession with being right
about everything. That might sound racist. Funny thing is - it was immigrant Indians who
loved it best ! They just found it so funny to see this side of them revealed in its true
glory.

( a bit like - the best jewish jokes are told by jews )

Advice - getting any task acheived in India is measured in units of 3 months. It doesn't take
3 months of course. I takes 1 month to talk about it - 1 month for the Indians to say the
project was delayed for unknown / unspecified reasons - a bit more to explain it was delayed
a bit more - then it gets done ( normally a month late ) in a few weeks.

Oh - and it gets done with errors.

The errors are the fault of *someone else* of course ( Indians are always right ) . If
pressed - the spec will be examined to the bone - criticised and the client told they were
wrong.

*Real story* - a ( very competent ) friend of mine was pressed into agreeing to work with an
Indian sub-contractor on a software project ( Indians are meant to be good at software ).

I warned him about the tricks they play - and - sure enough - he had every single one pulled
on him. The Indian company finally managed to conspire to convince his employer to relieve
him of the project !

My advice - don't touch India with a bargepole.

The Chinese are far more co-operative. I suspect that they are sensible enought to realise
that *don't* know better than us and want to learn - at which point we become redundant !


Graham