The Bangalore Butler

Dear Former Boundaries,

I was perusing the NY Times this wonderful fall morning and stumbled upon this article. Basically, the piece is describing the nascent stages of the second wave of global outsourcing.

This phenomenon began several years ago with what has been called the 'disassembly line'. In contrast to Ford's revolution, this new age means of building a product has, "shattered it into a thousand pieces and scattered the line around the world." In an effort to lower costs and time, the supply chain has been divvied up into specialized sub-assemblies. For example, a shirt that is made in a factory in Hunan province, could have the fabric weaved in Sichuan, the buttons molded in just outside of Beijing, and the labels sewn on in Shenzhen. Think of these processes as a pinball machine - going back and forth, back and forth until the final product is created. While China is the world's factory, India is increasingly becoming the world's back office.

Computer programming, call centres, info tech development are all jobs that have moved overseas to India viz the Internet. Much like China, it is cheaper and thus more attractive to companies in the West to get on board the outsourcing train. What the NY Times article is touching on however, is this expansion of outsourcing to consumer-related services...like butlering (well...personal assistance)! While some services like landscaping and hairdressing will always remain in country, those which can be done overseas will migrate elsewhere.

Take tutoring. Traditionally a job done face-to-face, can now not only be done online but a student in Vancouver can be helped by a teacher in Mumbai. Through the internet, VOIP, and the commonality of English this is all possible for usually 30% cheaper than companies that don't outsource. Don't worry though, if you can't quite handle the South Asian accent have no fear for workers now are being taught to speak English with American or British accents. The level of education of the outsourced workers is also a concern consumers should disregard for every year more engineers graduate from college in the state of Andhra Pradesh than in the USA as a whole.

This concept of exporting services is revolutionary because history has always shown that exports are goods. The ability to export services easily and cheaply has made offshoring and outsourcing the next logical step in the advancement of the global economy.

An unrelated peekture from Globe and Mail

Sources:
NY Times (Online)
The Elephant and the Dragon ~ Robyn Meredith

Beeblebox's Vortex of Ass

Dear Little Plastic Wrappers,

Let's play a little game. Its called 20 Questions. Ready? Go!

1) I float in the ocean.

2) I'm twice the size of Texas.

3) I'm 80% plastic.

4) I weigh 3.5 million tons (which is 7 000 000 000 pounds).

5) When I reach land I throw up on the beaches spewing garbage absolutely everywhere.

Nothing? Here's a hint it starts with 'I' and ends with '-sland of garbage floating around in the Pacific Ocean'.

Apparently this Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been in the works since the 1950s and is formed in an area known as the North Pacific sub-tropical gyre. In this particular stretch of ocean the water circulates in such a manner that currents force floating materials (i.e. trash) to the centre of the gyre, thereby allowing a mammoth build up of the recyclables. According to the Greenpeace website, there is an estimate six kilos of plastic to every one kilo of natural plankton. For the folks a little inept at math, plastic outnumbers plankton by SIX TIMES.

Because plastic doesn't tend to decompose, the debris remains floating in islands for decades before finally migrating down and making a new home in the bottom of the ocean. The majority of the waste is swept off land by wind or rain and is carried out to sea via rivers, fjords etc. (not really fjords, but I like that word and it seemed fitting). The remaining 20% comes from gigantic barges which either dispose of their unwanted goods to "illegally avoid the cost of proper disposal in port" or accidentally lose containers overboard in the stormy seas. Such incidents can add 29 000 rubber duckies, 34 000 hockey gloves and 33 000 basketball shoes to the sea in one go (LA Times).

Lastly, according to a study done by the U.N. there are about 46 000 pieces of plastic floating in the world's tub for every 1 square mile of water. That's a lot of plastic, and not so much water. Think about it. No...YOU think about it!

Faux Pas s

Dear the Line,

I would do a lot of things, venture into the unknown, and go there. Some call me an astronaut of life while others are simply speechless because they are so filled with wonder and awe. However, today I will try to make you realize that I'm a normal person like Jane next door (funny coinkidink, there is a Jane next door!) with my list of things I would never do...

1) Sing Karaoke

2) Watch people do Karaoke

3) Have a Karaoke party

4) Own a Karaoke machine

5) Run naked. Its weird, you get cold and I would probably get shin splints.