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From: raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghu Ramakrishnan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Brain Drain
Message-ID: <4502@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Mar-86 17:44:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.4502
Posted: Sat Mar 22 17:44:32 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Mar-86 03:38:30 EST
References: <614@philabs.UUCP> <633@epistemi.UUCP> <642@cheviot.uucp>
Reply-To: raghu@sally.UUCP (Raghu Ramakrishnan)
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 40
Summary: On the Unimportance of Being Ethical

In article <642@cheviot.uucp> santosh@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk (Santosh Shrivatava) writes:

>the brain drain. I have no solution though.

>Santosh Shrivastava

Nor do I.

But this discussion (btw, I think this is round 2 - we went over all this a
long time ago) has so far focussed on the "morality" of benefitting from 
Indian education and using that to fatten one's (American) bank balance.
With all respect, I think that this is both simplistic and futile.

Few (excepting intrepid souls like Ali :-) would argue that settling in the
US after taking advantage of (scarce!) Indian resources is ethically less
than admirable. But frankly, few give a damn about ethics. It has been
my experience that people are essentially selfish. I merely state this as
a probable fact. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but let's not get
into another futile discussion!

What influence the average person are his personal concerns - depending on
his priorities and tastes, the company, the culture, family, professional
opportunities, and of course, money. Patriotism and ethics, you will notice,
are not high on this list. They rarely even make it there (or maybe they
do - those occasional twinges, you know. But perhaps their importance in
rhetoric balances their absence in pragmatics.). If you want those "talented",
"motivated" people, you must give their talents an outlet, and you must
give them the motives they need. C'est la vie. Dammit, you expect patriotism
and ethics to influence a decision that affect's one's life and career when
they rarely succeed in making you pay the correct customs duty?

The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind; but at least, let's 
be honest with ourselves. And incidentally, note that I have not limited
my cynicism to Indians - I think everyone is equally selfish (but of course,
some are more selfish that others :~).

For the record, I enjoyed the privilege (for once, no sarcasm intended)
of attending IIT Madras. If I go back, it will be due to family reasons.

                                      - raghu ramakrishnan