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Did you know the global recession is caused because women have chosen to go to work instead of staying at home and creating babies? Well, if you think this is a joke as I did when I heard it first, think again! Many men, including some who had been laid off actually think this is true and Irish Times published an opinion piece titled Working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch. Ive been writing about how bad government policies denying resources for the productive sector, use of political pull in mixed economies, rising protectionism and governments telling businesspeople how to run businesses over the years has caused recession. It never occurred to me that for many instead of doing research and tracking down where the money is disappearing, it would be much easier to blame the women, especially women techies.

Blame Game
The attitude of blaming the women, especially working women, for every problem is becoming more and more common, even in India. Recently, on a televised debate on a private TV channel, majority of the men who had appeared on the show said they wouldnt consider marrying women with an engineering degree for two reasonsthey deprive other men of jobs and because women engineers are culturally depraved! The argument was cleverif women engineers stopped working, then male engineers would get the job and therefore many more families would be supported during a recession, as incomes would be more fairly distributed! One actually suggested women techies are responsible largely for causing the stock market to fail! I could not believe the nonsense I was hearing. Nobody questioned the false premise that somehow a womens income doesnt go toward the upkeep of the family. I was astonished, such irrationality actually makes sense to many people and goes uncontested.

Only this time this is a worldwide view held by many people. However, does this automatically make it true?

Talibans New Faces
On deeper reflection, I realised the argument was not new as others use income group, religion, region, race, nationality, etc, instead of gender. President Obama had said the same thing except he phrased it differentlyhe was prioritising nationality (Americans) instead of gender. Osama had prioritised religion. Hitler had done it with race. Europeans have persecuted gypsies over the ages, and Indian politicians have used the caste card. Then there are socialists who prioritise income groups. And communists who prioritise collective good. They are the new faces of the Taliban except they might not seem like the Taliban though they are using the same principlebe it Obama, Osama or Indian politicians or Chinese Communist leaders or the Socialist leaders of Europe or tribal chiefs of Africa or revolutionary leaders of South America. This might seem atrocious to many of you but think about it. What is the reason for Obamas protectionism and how does he implement it? According to him, Americans need the money and therefore American businesses cannot hire people of the best ability but only people who are American citizens. This is government telling the corporations what to do and Need takes priority over Ability. The cut in H1B visas is similar to the quota system in India.

In China, the government has told its citizens they should smoke a certain number of cigarettes per day, to keep some of the Chinese people employed. If they dont, they will be punished. It doesnt matter if it is bad for health. Again Need of some (usually the mythical majority) takes priority over human rights of others.

Ability vs Need
What happens when Need takes priority over Ability? It leads to nationalism, socialism, protectionism and xenophobia. It is not for nothing that Nazi was short for Nationalist Socialism.

We dont have to look very far in Indian history as Indian government in the 70s and 80s was protectionist. The Indian government tried this socialistic policy in the 80s and it failed. It even had a catchy slogan to itBe Indian, Buy Indian. It only ended up increasing black market sales and black money as people want the best at a reasonable rate and when the best isnt available in the market because of government regulations, the government loses both brains and revenue. It increased the amount of black money as people were forced by the government to do certain things for their own good. It was the period of the highest brain drain in India. The two things the Indian government got in return were corrupt administration and decline in tax collection. However, the countries that benefited the most during the 80s were the USA and UK due to the brain drain in India. There was no way you could stop Indians from getting out of the country, as the best brains were too miserable to live here. When Obama implements his protectionist policies, then India stands to gain most from itnot just reverse brain drain but brain drain in the US.

Human Rights vs Need
When you examine it more closely, you realise all of the abovebe it income group, gender, profession, religion, nationality, region, caste, raceuse the same underlying agenda to persecute. Simply put, the Need of X is more important than the Rights of Y to do the same thing. So X will be given priority over Y. However, what about the human rights of Y? Well, the rights of Y can be violated as long as the need of X is fulfilled. Simply put, there is no such thing as equal rights for all. This principle can work only by violating the rights of one group which is usually a minoritybe it people of a particular caste, income group, region, nationality, gender, profession or race versus the need of a larger group. These so-called champions of Need of X violate the rights of another, either in the name of social good (common good, collective need, greater good, etc, being the other variants) or by force (terrorism, xenophobic crimes, persecution) to promote their own agenda.

Age of Irrationality?
Why is this important for engineers? Techies have to be logical in their work but cannot afford to be illogical in life. Techies and Technology is the first line of defence against these insecurity mongers. If we dont fight back this hate campaign, then we will never have a chance in the age of irrationality that is likely to follow. What will it be like? Imagine waking up one day and having no Internet because it is not as useful as farming, which will help feed those starving of hunger worldwide. The governments might demand that more people become farmers, as there are more starving people in the world. Some young politician might think it is fair distribution as the need of those starving people than the productivity or rights of engineers to work in the job they enjoy as it is less important than feeding the hungry. Safeguarding your human rights is important as you have an equal right to exist as the hate mongering politicians or irrationality championing intellectuals.

Currently, women engineers are targetedeither assaulted in public places or mocked at by mediaas not having a right to work. Next, it will be just engineers or another group. Be alert or say hello to the Age of Irrationality that promises to be worse than the Dark Ages.

Deepa Kandaswamy
The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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