No joke:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050929/ap_on_re_as/rita_india

Phil

something is very wrong with that picture. thousands of displaced and unemployed Americans due to the hurricanes, and help is outsourced to India. I am more concerned about the epidemic of mental disease that makes decisions like this.

While I am not a fan of "American" companies moving their jobs overseas, this sounds like a good utilization of an existing resource. I don’t see any GOOD reason to move American jobs over seas; I believe that American companies have a duty to the American people that outweighs cost savings… but I can go on and on about that issue, for another time.

A problem was identified and a quick and effective solution was found and utilized. Maybe if FEMA had thought of this solution instead of trying to up staff new call centers with new employees it would have made it easier for victims of Katrina to register for assistance via their 800 number…

While it's a shame...maybe even a crime... that call centers are a dying breed in North America, I do think what happened here can be used as a learning experience for emergency planners.

At all levels of government, emergency planners should be looking to establish agreements with call centers well outside their geographic area. The phone numbers of the centers could be published in the local news media as part of emergency preparedness and awareness programs. During a disaster, national and any local news media still active, could publish the numbers and make life a lot easier for a lot people, especially those who aren't so good at helping themselves.

Why? It's the same thing that got Rome in the end.

can you elaborate on that? I know some of the causes of the fall of Rome, but am I missing something?

Rome was founded as a Republic to start and became an empire based on military and economic might with an oligarchy of powerfull men under a string of emperors of mixed ability, many possibly brain damaged by lead vessels polluting their wine. Rome's economy was based on slave labour with most of the goods and services produced in outlying areas. The military itself became an almost mercenary force of foriegn troops often fighting their own people. In the end Rome even split into two empires with a single recognised official religion of christianity. I've always been a Vercingatorix and Boudicca supporter myself. Druids respect trees <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Unfortunatly its the same short term thinking that happens with any other call center or any other function that becomes outsourced. The company saves a bit of money by doing it and then the people who are left in the US start to have to take up the slack and in the end it ends up costing more in the long run. Nothing against India and its people, but but basically you can't effectively manage something that far away and in such a different time zone. I've managed to survive being outsourced a couple times and (and managed to not survive a couple other times but thats a different story) and I have had to clean up the mess that it caused.

I was laid off from a job that outsourced overseas. The company credit card I FINALLY qualified for after 8 years had a small balance and I missed a payment. I get a phone call from 'David' whos indian accent ( and I don't mean Catos or Kiowas) bled through the affected texan accent. Once I determined I was talking to Devendra we made arrangements for final payment and cancellation of my card. The prepaid envelope, another altuistic company courtesy came. I taped said postage paid card to a box, filled with the maximum 72lbs of a cut up tire, my cut up credit card and some lead scrap from my reloading days and promptly sent it to them <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The "savage Germananic hordes" we might have learned about in high school were mostly the "outsourced" military of the Romans. The reason why the Roman army couldn't stop them is becuase they were the ones raiding- grabbing what they could, not just art and monetary items, but scrolls and other knowledge repositories, before the econmic system totally collapsed under the weight of a beuracracy that lived only to make more possitions that we would call "paper pushing".

And people don't understand when I curse them with "A Pax, a Pax apon your house!". *sighs* At least here, people get that joke.