Tell em' to send our jobs back

Before coming here, I attended a dinner celebration for my best friend Stacy who'd just graduated from Medical School.  We were enjoying the festivities when another friend mentioned that I'd be leaving the following week for my summer abroad.  Her mother, a bank teller for almost thirty years, smiled and said: oh really?  Where you going?  I told her that I was going to India and...before I could finish her smile diminished as she said: oh yeah?  Well, tell em' to send our jobs back.  Like many Americans, she had just witnessed a huge downsizing at her bank, in which many of her friends and colleagues had lost their job because the bank had outsourced their jobs to India.  I gave an empathetic nod and returned to my baked chicken.

Upon arriving here, it is obvious to see one major difference between India and Africa.  India is busting at the seams with development. (Although, I'm sure several African countries are also.) Everywhere you look there is construction of some new condominium, office building or corporation being built.  My hostess is here on an assignment for General Motors.  Unfortunately, the closing of many factories in Michigan have proven to be fatal for the State.  Michigan is ranked among the highest in unemployment, crime and high school drop out.  A hard pill to swallow for those of us who love the city, were educated in the school system and whose factory jobs provided a means for our families to survive.  Sigh.

Well back to busting Bangalore.  This city is really thriving.  I believe in the next five years India, among other Asian countries will have come into their own and be a smooth oiled machine.  Nikki, who is a manager at General Motors spoke to how India is known as the IT valley and I must  say, all of the billboards for colleges speak towards getting an education in computers, engineerings, programming or something dealing with IT.  She spoke to how intelligent the people were and eager to learn, so....that's what they're doing.  

Now, I'm not a policy maker (actually, politics is one of my weaker areas of knowledge), however, can we hate on the uprising of developing countries?  Don't get me wrong, I'm an American too:  and I'll wave my flag and march with you for our right to be able to work and make a living.  However, we need to recognize and embrace the fact that we are in a time of change.  Hopefully, this November, we'll show that we're ready to take on the challenges associated with that.