LadyEllen
Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006 From: Stourport-England Status: offline
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Very interesting programme on Channel 4 (UK) this evening, regarding the lowest caste in Indian society - those previously known as "untouchables". Now the Indian government long since passed legislation forbidding discrimination against this group in all aspects of life - the problem though is that those charged with enforcing these laws are from the castes above and the laws dont get enforced. If an "untouchable" does make a complaint, he/she or his/her whole family is subject to a good beating to deter them taking it any further. They are treated worse than animals, and told so to their face that this is how they are regarded, even their little children at school by the teachers, of all people - teachers again, who are drawn from the higher castes. 16% of government and municipal employment is reserved for them - yet they are allocated the lowest, most menial, poorly paid work which is unacceptable to higher castes - clearing out human excrement from toilets (not the flushing kind) and sewers for instance - by hand. Even though this practice of manual removal is outlawed, it is a common employment for "untouchables" - when the local administration was questioned over it - after a man died doing the job down a blocked sewer, it denied that any such form of employment or work existed. Meanwhile, "untouchables" are forcibly segregated from the higher castes in terms of where they may live - a beating awaits them if they stray into the wrong part of town (unless theyre cleaning toilets by hand, of course); as active a form of apartheid as any that has existed based on a person's origins. Now India of course is a booming economy - made so to no small extent by all the outsourcing we in the west have made there; particularly our financial institutions but all manner of industries have chosen to relocate employment to India where salaries are much cheaper. The "untouchables" of course see none of this wealth, held down by those higher up the caste system. The question then, is should we not enforce the same sort of embargo on Indian products and services and indeed on western companies who outsource from there, as we formerly did against South Africa in the days of their apartheid, until this dreadful and unjust situation is rectified? Or do we take the approach that this is a "cultural difference" we must respect for fear of being thought racist? E
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In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.
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