Desicritics Comments on The Onion Jokes About Indian Call Centers And Malaria

Comment by commonsense

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:57:28 EDT

temporal, I'm ON the wagon!! (just doesn't sound right to me, so I'm OFF the beer-wagon) not sure of the temporal dimension of this state on non-inebriation though!

Comment by temporal

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:36:01 EDT

cs: email me and will forward some emails for you begging to continue your errant ways - inebriation notwithstanding

Comment by commonsense

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:02:47 EDT

alas, due to the millions of emails I rec'd urging me to hang on, i have decided to hang on for a while. I wait for the wild applause and the boos from Ruvy. the bad news: just minor inverventions, unless my friend Reuven wants to argue....

Comment by commonsense

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:36:54 EDT

SS, Comes a time when my sabbatical is over and I have to attend to other things! The reality check! As no doubt you might have noticed, I am an obssessive person, like a dog that refuses to let go of the bone!! So, I'm letting loosening the grip on the bone! I will hang around, lurk, put in an assinine comment or two, but no real engagments or arguments! I love arguing too much but some "real" work suffers as a result! Best wishes, CS

Comment by smallsquirrel

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:17:15 EDT

eh common, what is the meaning of this?

Comment by commonsense

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:01:27 EDT

Temporal, I am temporarily off/on the DC wagon for a while. No doubt I will suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms, but I will have to deal with them by simply lurking. It was fun while it lasted and I did enjoy it a lot. Sincere apologies to everyone whom I have inadvertently or advertently (no such word), insulted, rubbed the wrong way or even the right way (sounds perverse/hentai). Take care folks! Peace! CS

Comment by commonsense

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:50:47 EDT

yep right you are about mixing "off" and "on" there....i could pretend too much senseless typing, not....as in this doggerel: I could pretend I always knew That "off the wagon" meant I was off the brew That I could be taught something new Is something that I never knew

Comment by temporal

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:24:12 EDT

i thought so unless you are mixing on and off which is also understandable ;) ________________ off the wagon, Slang. again drinking alcoholic beverages after a period of abstinence. on the wagon, Slang. abstaining from alcoholic beverages. Also, on the water wagon; British, on the water cart.

Comment by commonsense

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:34:59 EDT

Tempora(ri)l(y), I am off the wagon!

Comment by temporal

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:15:55 EDT

according to Prof CS the only freedom that should be cherished is the freedom to drink a 24 pack in peace any incursion in that peace is unconstituitonal - so help you (----) insert the atheist's replacement for bhagwan!

Comment by Deepti Lamba

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:35:17 EDT

Freedom of Speech also gives the right to protest peacefully.

Comment by Ambuj Saxena

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:11:20 EDT

"If freedom of speech means anything at all, it is the freedom to say things that people do not want to hear" -George Orwell

Comment by Deepti Lamba

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 13:50:18 EDT

Guess thats the thing with humor- matter of perspectives :)

Comment by Vivek

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 12:16:14 EDT

Well, i dont think this joke deserved to be looked at from a i'm-insulted-prism; its coming from the onion for god's sake, so be ready for anything! But just on the humour scale, this wasnt funnny - cuz if they wanted to poke fun of the whole god or malaria or call centre, then this doesn't fit. And thats all i would bother about - lame joke. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that the joke could have actually been changed to focus on the population problem. So Krishna (instead of vishnu) would be answering the call, with all his 'consorts'(?!)around him, saying - 'Please hold, I'm a little busy right now... 16000, 16001, 16002! :) My joke's even lamer eh?! Damn! Your jesus line was a little more funny though - dont ask me why!

Comment by Vibhash

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 15:35:10 EDT

point well made!!!

Comment by asuph

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:37:07 EDT

Come on! Isn't there anything sacred anymore? (I was talking about the Onion). btw, that Jesus line was funny too. cheers, asuph.

Comment by Deepti Lamba

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 12:56:53 EDT

And the Onion is a boob..so there!!

Comment by Deepti Lamba

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 12:53:15 EDT

Aditi,I am currently in a small world called Whoville;)

Comment by Aditi Nadkarni

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 12:04:55 EDT

Thankfully for us their tag line very correctly proclaims "Our Dumb World" :)

Comment by ushnishas

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 11:45:17 EDT

Gawker is right. Unfortunately our billionaires have not yet tackled these problems. In India, when the government takes over a task that spells ruin for that case, eg the coal mines in West Bengal. In America, the pharmaceutical and agricultural companies spend millions in research. Look at the benefits in biology alone, they have made so many fruits and vegetables immune to common dieases so that the yield is colossal compared to what it was before. None of our billionaires are interested in promoting agriculture, though now a world crisis is looming over our heads.

Comment by gawker

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:50:56 EDT

I hardly think this cartoon is merely about poking fun at our malaria. If you actually click on the link, the entire article reads as : "Mired by rising poverty levels, polluted groundwater that threatens the lives of millions and a rapidly crumbling infrastructure, the nation of India has every intention of addressing these problems just as soon as it finishes telling midwesterners how to install Windows XP on their home computer." For anyone who's ever read The Onion, it would be quite clear that this is more a commentary on Americans' blissful obliviousness to the "real" problems faced by the rest of the world as well as the irony of the the rest of the world telling America how to fix minor problems like installing Windows XP on a computer while being completely incapable of solving their own major problems.

Comment by Nikhil Narayanan

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 05:32:56 EDT

This "joke" was too much to take. Stop! Enough jokes on India being the back office!!!

Comment by Sandeep

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 05:04:17 EDT

On the spot, Deepti :-) Let's leave stinking Onions where they belong. There's more to thick skins than just this. Apparently, skin color matters despite what the Equalizers of the world say. I highly recommend Richard Crasta's "Impressing the Whites" to understand how this phenomenon still works. To extend Arun's point a little, is the joke on Indian call centers born out of derision? If yes, the joke is NOT funny. Well, maybe I'm spinning a conspiracy theory but hey, who said "there are no facts, only interpretations?"

Comment by Ruvy

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 04:39:03 EDT

Yeah, I can see where the cartoon is crass - but at least you guys are not rioting abut it - yet.

Comment by Arun

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 03:15:35 EDT

This cartoon dint strike me as funny, in fact I found it rather serious and touching. There are many who goes about yelling BPO revolution and India Shining when we do have enough cases Malaria perhaps matching a poor African country. I do not think Onion is very choosy about all this in term of political correctness, their take on Obama is: "Black Guy Asks Nation For Change"