Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Jeez...that's a bit harsh: A story from the Telegraph (UK)

This article was from the Telegraph (UK):

Indian call centre workers told Australians are racist, alcoholic and backward

Australians are regarded by Indian call centre workers as racist, stupid alcoholics, a report into the workings of a call centre in Delhi has claimed.


By Bonnie Malkin, Sydney
4:21PM BST 26 Jul 2011

Andrew Marantz, a freelance American writer, spent three weeks in an Indian call centre earlier this year, where he discovered that attitudes towards Australians were particularly harsh.

During his training, a senior employee named Lekha, told staff joining the company that Australia was populated by dimwits.

"Just stating facts, guys," Lekha said, "Australia is known as the dumbest continent. Literally, college was unknown there until recently. So speak slowly."

When asked about other famous Australian traits he had one answer: racism.

"They are quite racist. They do not like Indians," he told the class.

"Their preferred term for us is please don't mind, ladies 'brown bastards.'

So if you hear that kind of language, you can just hang up the call."
Lekha went on to explain that Australians were "backward", with many owning outdated mobile phones.

He also cautioned new workers not to bother ringing Australia on a Friday night, because of the nation's love affair with alcohol.

"Australians drink constantly," he said. "If you call on a Friday night, they'll be smashed every time." In the tutorial, new staff were instructed in how to convince unwitting Australians to hand over their credit card details.

The revelations, published on political website motherjones.com, are unlikely to improve bilateral relations, which were damaged over the last two years by a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia which prompted furious reactions in India.

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There are so many comments that could be made about this artile but I'll hold my tongue.

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