How does the rest of your quote change the fact that you were questioning his statement that “people are better fed/nourished in sub-Saharan Africa” which he based on reliable figures that he quoted?

And how the heck does your personal experience in Africa change the data that shows that there is significantly more hunger and malnourishment in India? Thats the usual desi irrational reasoning in which anecdotes trump statistics. There are parts of India that do better than others: the northeastern states and Kerala have significantly lower malnutrition rates than Gujarat and Maharashtra for example. The generalized point remains: India as a whole does worse than subsaharan Africa in feeding its children.

I must have completely imagined the sociopolitical hierarchy of the regions I worked in as well. Oh, silly me — because Amartya Sen has said it is worse in India, it must not be bad anywhere else. The last sentence was sarcasm, by the way. Would hate to have someone think I was “implying” anything different from that.

You cant seem to think rationally. Sen does not say that things arent bad in Africa or denies that it has occasional cases of famines etc in some regions. But when it comes to endemic hunger India’s record is far worse. Even within the subcontinent only Bangladesh compares to India’s abysmal record. Yet you keep callously insisting that the poor in India arent any worse off than the poor in China!

Also, with respect to Chicago, there is little to no empirical evidence (government-wise) of how many desis were employed in “non professional” fields in 1970 because they weren’t tracked. I checked.

That does not stop you from claiming that every desi in Chicago was a doctor or engineer. You have no evidence for claiming that.

My 2 cents

See, i’m all on board with you here

in a way that perhaps corporate lawyers and I bankers do not.

This is where you lose me …

Just for the record, I agree with Hema. But it was so nice to finally read something good about doctors on this site I disregarded that part.

In all seriousness, Physicians provide a valuable service to the country. You can’t even begin to compare their contribution to a lawyer, engineer or I banker. They save lives, people, and sacrifice most of their youth in order to do so. They deserve every cent.

I think the above is an important point.

To me, my “family” doctors (a couple who lived at the end of the street) back home in India, who still treat patients asking them to pay “as much as they can afford” are noble. They have this weird religious thing (starts with Tirupathi and I never really got the rest of the story) which makes them do that. But I really like that couple, I will call them noble. They are not alone, there are many like them—but none of them call themselves “noble”.

I also like doctors who see patients as puzzles to be solved—they like the job if not the people. I understand that and I always appreciate people who like what they do. They are the ones I trust the most. For their ego (not exactly ego, but those of you who are in jobs not because it pays the bills will get it), they will try their best.

The ones I can’t stand are the ones who think themselves noble—more often than not they are mediocre and mercenaries trying to convince themselves otherwise. Usually plastic surgeons as well. The truly noble, or the ones who like what they do and are good at it don’t speak of nobility.

And these desi’s choose the medical profession for these very noble reasons you speak of, right? If anything I think the medical profession has actually declined, though not necessarily the doctors fault, but the HMOs and pharma companies companies have simply made it impossible to treat people on an individual basis. Each doctor, it seems follows some rote “if then” logic like “if between 25 and 30 then prescribe antibiotic oxygloburlin” I’m sure Michael Moore’s SICKo will shed more light on this.

By the way. Without engineers to develop TCP/IP, you and I wouldn’t be having this discussion right now.