Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, we could just flag articles like this and leave them to other sites.
Yeah, like we organise a crowd-sourced taboo and censorship?
I thought the mods alone do that pretty well already?
Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
81–90 of 119 posts
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Corruption is everywhere. Pakistan is hardly different. Even in the UK you'll find corrupt politicians or entrepreneurs. Perhaps they are less so (or simply better at it?) but this simply won't stop any time soon. Education is an issue but only in the long term. Assuming Pakistan managed to overcome several of its other problems, uneducated would become Pakistan's most important resource. Uneducated people are what m…
> Corruption is everywhere Of course there is corruption everywhere, but in most countries it's nowhere near as endemic or systematic as it is in Pakistan (and India and China). I can get by in my life here in the UK without needing to bribe anyone, but bribery is a daily fact of my parents' life in India (and similarly for parts of the family in Pakistan). Deflecting this issue does you no credit. > Countries full o…
Saying "corruption is everywhere" demonstrates a lack of understanding of what corruption looks like outside one's own country
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#83great read - but in the process of painting a peachy picture for the future, he glosses over a huge core problem that pakistan has. The fact that a significant part of its identity is based on being the anti-india.
Historically, isn't the USA kinda based on being anti-British? Wasn't there some war thingy where you chaps booted us out? We get on now, don't we?
No. It is based on getting out from under British colonial control, not being anti-British. India and Pakistan aren't analogous in that India does not play the role of the British Empire. They were both parts of the same British colonial possession and the circumstances of the split and the constitutional nature of Pakistan are what is at issue here.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In turkey, you will be thrown in jail simply for dissent - http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145844105/for-turkish-journali... In Morocco, a court ordered a teenager to marry her rapist. She killed herself. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/03/moroccan-teenage... The Dubai Sheikh torture clip is infamous now. Amazing how you can torture a guy and not go to jail if you're a Sheikh. We know about this specific incid…
I can't believe you're trying to defend this position. I'm really quite shocked. Human rights abuses against local people for dissent happen all around the world, including the US and the UK. In Germany you can be jailed for denying the holocaust. In France you can be jailed for wearing a headscarf. Exercising common sense is generally a good thing to do anywhere you go, but the things you talk about occur around the…
> I can't believe you're trying to defend this position. I'm really quite shocked.
You may not realize it, but the main reason you're upset at asto is not sweeping unpleasant things under the rug of Political Correctness. Sadly, this is a very common phenomenon among white Western people.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#85great read - but in the process of painting a peachy picture for the future, he glosses over a huge core problem that pakistan has. The fact that a significant part of its identity is based on being the anti-india.
"The fact that a significant part of its identity is based on being the anti-india" Isn't that a relatively common situation for countries - especially those with a historical connection to a much larger neighbour? For example in the UK there is the well known "Anyone but the English" thing where people in Wales/Scotland/Ireland support teams in major sporting events based on this selection criteria. And the "unoffic…
us vs. them is a common situation, but you need to read about why Pakistan was created and what the concept for the new nation was, because that is not a garden variety "us vs. them." Comparing the India-Pakistan split to support of sports teams seems superficial.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you have to understand that corruption in the UK and in Pakistan are likely two different things. In the UK corruption, any corruption is about Greed. In Pakistan and similar countries not all corruption is about greed, it's about an alternative system of taxation. Your average police officer, or fireman or customs official probably gets paid a tiny amount of money per month maybe $30-$50. But as an official…
> In Pakistan and similar countries not all corruption is about greed, it's about an alternative system of taxation. What exactly is this "auxiliary taxation" about besides greed? It's not like the money they collect is used for the greater good.
It's not like the money which forms part of a policeman's salary is used for the greater good either.
Except insofar as it compensates the policeman for doing his job, and insofar as that job is for the greater good. (Although, I don't think everyone agrees that the moral justification for everything is a unitary 'greater good').
The problem isn't the policeman taking money, the problem is that he is taking money under the table and it is likely compromising how well and how fairly he does his job.
When bribery becomes so regular and highly routine, to the point where you can be seen to justly complain about the bribe being raised, the difference from a normal fee is entirely one of top-down regulation. Which is good and helpful for management. But the distinction is about the looseness of supervision and control (and the bad results that leads to) rather than the basic interaction.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please stop propaganda. There's no jail in France for the hidjab (or what this scarf is). It's a 150 euro fine. Not for wearing the hidjab, but for covering the face in public. Real jail time or corporal punishment is a different story, don't you agree? Let's say I had a few beers and took a leak on the street. Is there a difference between a few hundred bucks fine and having my weapon of crime chopped off? There's s…
"Remember what Christians were doing 600 years ago? Inquisition, Crusades, etc" Yeah Christians did it 600 YEARS AGO. But islamic countries do that kind of horror nowadays and AFAIK they did not developed in a bubble, isolated from the other countries. So it is perfectly relevant to judge them. Human Rights are universal, not a simple "cultural standard".
Where are Muslim Crusades currently being waged? Remember that the Crusades were a huge undertaking involving many entire nations engaged in full scale war.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. A lot of what you said rings true for my country too (South Africa). Thing is, you're both right! These countries are truly multi-faceted. There are rich, educated people with high technology and those without. Anyway, I'll be interested to see if technology and communications are the panacea to education problems that Schmidt says they are. If so that's good for South Africa, the Internet is growing tre…
I agree. South Africa spends large amounts on education has a huge amount of human potential that is being wasted because of the dysfunctional public school system (I speak as an almost-victim of that system). I don't see the grip of SADTU (the largest teacher union, and indirectly aligned to the ruling party) being weakened, and I expect a few more generations of mediocrity, unless something radical is done. Interes…
Does it fix the problem if there simply is no public school system, and everyone who isn't wealthy simply doesn't go to school?
South Africa is better compared to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa than to Denmark.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#89In terms of startups, Pakistan is being let down by the banking bureaucracy. Paypal doesn't work in Pakistan, and there is no official explanation of why it is so. Lacking a mode of easy/ secure online payments, startups are kind of dead in Pakistan at this time.
If you have a risky or nonexistent payment infrastructure, poor ability to enforce contracts, high inflation, high interest rates, and high risk due to corruption then it is going to be tough. Unfortunately these kinds of conditions cover most of the populated world.
Re: Eric Schmidt's thoughts about Pakistan
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't believe you're trying to defend this position. I'm really quite shocked. Human rights abuses against local people for dissent happen all around the world, including the US and the UK. In Germany you can be jailed for denying the holocaust. In France you can be jailed for wearing a headscarf. Exercising common sense is generally a good thing to do anywhere you go, but the things you talk about occur around the…
> I can't believe you're trying to defend this position. I'm really quite shocked. You may not realize it, but the main reason you're upset at asto is not sweeping unpleasant things under the rug of Political Correctness. Sadly, this is a very common phenomenon among white Western people.
I see where you're coming from but you're incorrect. It's not about sweeping things under the rug. It's the tarring of all 'muslim countries' (whatever that means) with the same brush, as though we ourselves in non 'muslim countries' don't have the same problems.
It's the perpetuation of all muslims as evil savages that leads to the idea that they're somehow subhuman. Just because some of the 'other' may (or may not) talk differently, have a beard, dress differently or not drink alcohol doesn't mean that they aren't people. And yes, all countries have their problems with human rights abuses, people being attacked for various reasons and so on, but it's important to separate the religious element from the culture of individual ethnic and tribal groups.
To tar all 'muslim countries' is to tar 'muslims' as being part of that, and that's a slippery slope some seem to be further down than others.