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A Reader Reports Googling On The White House

A Reader Tells Leslie Stahl About Indians

Tim Aaronson writes from El Cerrito, CA, copying VDARE.COM

TO: Leslie Stahl LesleyStahl@cbsnews.com

Re: "Imported from India", by Joe Guzzardi (60 Minutes January 12, 2003).

Your piece on 60 Minutes was warm and fuzzy, but only advances the New Mythology about Indian contribution to Silicon Valley.

Yes, many Indians work in Silicon Valley. But one of the featured interviews was with a principal of Sun Microsystems. This company is currently being sued for its ruthless hiring practices - firing U.S. workers and replacing them with cheaper H-1B workers - many from India. I encourage you to update the H-1B story 60 Minutes did some years ago. There are many more unemployed Americans to interview today.

The New Mythology has it that Indians created the technology boom. Would it not be logical, then, to conclude that these same entrepreneurial geniuses must be responsible for the current slump? The truth is that like bacteria landing on a fertile petri dish they multiplied and prospered. Says more about the nutrient-rich media than the bacteria to me.

I applaud the pride this small minority of Indians take in their success. However, it doesn't go very far in erasing the images I recall from earlier 60 Minutes pieces on the hundreds of millions of Untouchables still treated like dirt or the horrific practice of dowry burnings.

I would be more impressed if these folks returned home to make a difference in Indian life.

Tim Aaronson is the author of “ On Teachable Moments (about billboards)”, an exchange with an Hispanic teacher about ProjectUSA’s brilliant billboard campaign,

The Social Contract, Spring 2000,

January 21, 2003