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	Name:	MartiniMan -
	Subject:	Mr. Hodja: This week I have you beat
	Date:	1/9/2011 12:37:22 PM

It is a country of great contradictions. You have a class of people that are very business oriented and progressive that are fascinated with the west and strongly desirous of progress and success of the country and millions of others mired in abject poverty and ignorance. I spent a couple of hours tonight drinking expensive wine at the house of a CEO that owns a very large oil company. He had several interesting observations. India is a country more inclined toward know who than know how. More so than any other country he has seen in the world. The people work incredibly hard. seven days per week and all hours of the day.

My general observation is that they are beautiful people that are so incredibly friendly and accomodating but because labor is so cheap and accessible that they tend to take it for granted and don't treat them very well. You can hire a car and driver for 3 days for 2,400 rupees ($50-$60) including gas, a typical tip is 50 rupees (about $1). You don't do anything for yourself because someone wants to do it for you. New Delhi is incredibly cramped and dirty, constant honking of horns, traffic jams, crazy driving, etc. Believe it or not the nicest place I visited (not the nicest place in the country by any means) was Bhopal. We drove by the Union Carbide plant which after 26 years has still not been cleaned up despite the government having $600M set aside to do so (one of the reasons we were there). But we could not get out because they are so angry about the tragedy (one almost entirely of their own making) that any westerner would at best create a media firestorm and at worst be at risk of being associated with Union Carbide that we could not even get out of the car.

So much more to the trip but there are tremendous opportunities for business and they are thirsty for western ideas, knowledge and relationships. We met with a very successful manufacturer of herbal products who in essence told me that if I wanted to be the sole distributor of their product in the U.S. they would drop their current distribution channel. Just bizarre. The economy is growing at a 10% rate and the infrastructure and other aspects of their society are so far behind the west. But it is also a weird contradiction of safety and danger. I would have no problem walking down a street in the worst part of town and yet they have armed guards, metal detectors and they wand you to get into a nice hotel. Just a fascinating place to visit.

Other messages in this thread:

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No Hypocrisy here.... - comrade - 1/8/2011 12:20:25 AM

No Hypocrisy here.... - Talullahhound - 1/8/2011 8:29:20 AM

No Hypocrisy here.... - MartiniMan - 1/9/2011 12:25:46 AM

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