US tourism ‘losing billions because of image’

[Darwin]

I'm reminded of the stories (jokes?) about how European visitors expected to cowboys and shoot outs on every corner in every town in the 1950s.

It's no joke. There was a French girl in my American History class in high school, and she said that she truly believed that every American man carried a pistol in one hip pocket and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

[Darwin]

I've only really noticed these reports since after Canada refused to go to Iraq, seems like it is a pretty new thing this hatred of Canada (how anyone could have the time to hate Canada is beyond me, you have to be pretty miserable, "bloody Belgians...").

No no, that's just silly. Americans are not going to remember your country's position on Iraq. All they know about Canada is that stores won't accept your pennies.

The one thing you have to remember about the US is that we are barely aware of your existence. We are far less likely to attack your country as we are to accidentally sit on it.

I was going to post this on the original thread, but thought it fit here even better:

D'Arcy McGee

Father of Confederation

What on earth are you talking about?

[Darwin]

Michael Moore planted the seeds for this scare among Canadians.

I thought that it was Alan Alda.

[Walden]

Because we don't want to destroy Mexico.

What do you mean "we", White man?

Oops! Sorry...

We, the people of the United States of America...err... that sounds familiar.

Legally, though, I am a dual citizen, both of the United States and the Cherokee Nation... Tonto.

Michael Moore planted the seeds for this scare among Canadians.

I thought that it was Alan Alda.

Good old President Hawkeye.

[Wormdiet]

Hi

As a non American I had a look at what was expected of me if I wanted to go to America on holiday on the embassy website.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukembabt.html

I love questions like: "Do you seek to enter the United States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, or any other unlawful purpose? Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization as currently designated by the U.S. Secretary of State? Have you ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany; or have you ever participated in genocide?"

I wonder if anyone has ever answered "Yes".

Maybe the rationale not to actually catch anyone, but to set up a perjury charge or similar if they get caught redhanded. Just a guess.



Does anyone else remember all the anti-French propaganda of a few years ago? Freedom Fries and all that?

[spittin_in_the_wind]

Tonto ?!!


Robin

[Flyingcursor]

I called the president Chimpy McFlightsuit. Nobody flung americrap at me. Of course I'm a citizen.

[dwinterfield]

I'm reminded of the stories (jokes?) about how European visitors expected to cowboys and shoot outs on every corner in every town in the 1950s.

It's no joke. There was a French girl in my American History class in high school, and she said that she truly believed that every American man carried a pistol in one hip pocket and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

I thought we were only expected to do that on Friday nights!!!

[Caj]

What is interesting is, that my sister, who is Director of International Student Registration, has had a whopping increase of inquiries from China, Korea, Japan, Germany, etc for post graduate and doctoral studies and research programs.

Yeah, that's a nationwide phenomenon. Enrollment of foreign students took a serious dive at US universities, because it is harder for them to come here and harder for them to stay. They're applying instead to schools in Europe or up North.

If you folks in Canuckistan play your cards right, the next Microsoft will be up there.

Caj

[Martin Milner]

I never felt unwelcome in America in 2004, and found it very easy to book flights to get there. There was some immigration delay, but no more than Americans face entering the UK.

I'll be going again in a couple of weeks, so it'll be interesting to see if there are any differences.

[Cynth]

Well, if the immigration and customs people are surly at the airport don't take it personally.

Coming back from Canada last summer, I just couldn't believe how unfriendly those people were----to the point of rudeness. I mean, could they at least smile and say hello? Or even just say hello? There was one woman who was nice and I made a big point of thanking her for her courtesy. I was really mad.

Imagine people who don't speak English well having to deal with these scary types whom I could scarcely understand myself. Of course, you don't want to mess with them so I just contained myself and acted very subservient.

[MarkB]

They have already arrived Caj!

From Automotive News:

Target: GM
Pumped up on offshore outsourcing profits, India's software giants go all-out for a share of GM's $15 billion tech prize

By Ralph Kisiel
Automotive News / May 02, 2005

Eye on India
Key facts about automotive information technology outsourcing to Indian companies


The U.S. auto industry spends $750 million annually on software and services from Indian firms.

Spending is increasing 10% to 15% annually.

2 of the biggest players, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies, each have annual revenue in excess of $1 billion. Source: AMR Research

DETROIT -- When Wipro Technologies set up an office in North America in 2002, it chose a site in Windsor, Ontario (I can see their office from my balcony), directly across the Detroit River from General Motors' towering global headquarters.

That was no accident. The Indian software giant has GM in its sights.

Wipro is one of the big Indian information technology firms that have fattened up on offshore outsourcing profits. Now at least three of the companies have moved into the Detroit area, pursuing one of the biggest prizes in the tech world: a share of the $15 billion in business GM will put up for bids next year.

The Indian companies are building up resources in the Motor City. And they threaten to take business away from big-time automotive software players such as EDS Corp. and IBM Corp.

Clock is ticking

EDS has the most to lose. Its gigantic 10-year information technology contract with GM expires next year. But IBM and Accenture Inc. also expect stiff competition from Indian upstarts.

"Everybody who's anybody in IT is interested in that pie," says Srinivas Rao, general manager of automotive solutions for Wipro.

Wipro's pitch: low prices made possible by using legions of low-paid software technicians back home in Bangalore, India. Wipro says it can begin a project in Detroit and then hand it off quickly to colleagues overseas.

Wipro and other fast-growing Indian companies have changed the dynamic in the software business in recent years by offering low-cost Web-delivered services from abroad.

The companies gained a foothold here during the Y2K scare, when U.S. corporations sought ways to manage the added burden on their IT departments. Since then the amount of IT work done in India and e-mailed back to the United States has increased dramatically.

The U.S. Commerce Department has reported that the number of IT workers employed in all industries has declined by 8 percent since 2000.

AMR Research Inc., a Boston IT consulting firm, says the U.S. auto industry spends $750 million annually on software and services in India. That figure is growing by 10 percent to 15 percent annually.

GM needs contractors to create the software that drives everything from supply chain communications at assembly plants to customer assistance centers. The automaker says it is up to its IT suppliers to decide where to do the work.

$6 an hour

India's software technicians are well educated, and they work cheap. An experienced programmer in India earns about $6 per hour, according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. A U.S. programmer can earn 10 times that amount.

The Indian companies offer a range of services, such as writing programs, handling upgrades and doing IT consulting to computer-based parts-simulation work.

For example, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. creates software that automakers use to keep track of parts and accessories. In addition to writing code, Wipro also consults on the integration of new software with existing systems. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., which has a new office in the Detroit suburb of Troy, Mich., offers engineering services in addition to IT work. The company is part of Tata Group, the Indian conglomerate that includes automaker Tata Motors

U.S. IT vendors are feeling the heat.

Indian firms use a "body-shop approach - throw more bodies at it at a cheap rate to get into the market," says Dave Colburn, vice president of global manufacturing industry for EDS.

"They don't have the global footprints that many of the corporations have," Colburn says.

And the Americans have their own offshore outsourcing strategies.

Kevin Campbell, Accenture's global managing director for business process outsourcing, says Accenture has more than doubled its Indian work force during the last year to 12,000.

Meanwhile, Accenture says its worldwide employment rose from 83,000 in 2003 to 100,000 last year.

"Being able to blend the best of onshore and offshore and multiple-shore locations is part of the advantage we have," Campbell says.

Tom Ruch, vice president of automotive and aerospace industries for IBM Global Services, says IBM customers "are really surprised when I talk to them about the depth and breadth of the offshore capabilities that IBM has."

Outsourcing solely to cut costs has drawbacks, says Kevin Mixer, automotive research director at AMR Research.

"You never cost-cut yourself to greatness," Mixer says.

The Indian firms see things differently. "I do not think the automotive companies have fully tapped the offshore potential yet, like some of the other industries have done already," Wipro's Rao says.

"So that gives rise to optimism that there will be more outsourcing happening."

Wipro, owned by India's wealthiest man, Azim Premji, has more than $1 billion in annual revenues. Premji transformed Wipro from a vegetable oil processing company into India's third-largest software exporter.

Expanding office

The company opened its Windsor office mainly to write software programs. Now Wipro is expanding the office, turning it into what the company calls a "center of automotive excellence."

It will be a base from which Wipro can demonstrate its technology and market to automakers and suppliers.

Wipro already counts GM as a customer. Three years ago it helped GM write the software that runs the DealerWorld Internet portal. U.S. dealerships can use the portal to locate vehicles on other dealership lots. They also can exchange data with the factory.

The U.S. auto industry "can see the value that we bring in through this offshore delivery model," says Subu Subramanian, director of manufacturing and automotive for Indian software firm Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

"No longer are they challenging whether to go offshore," Subramanian says.

Satyam plans to open an office in the Detroit area this year.

Tata Consultancy Services opened its Automotive Center of Excellence in Troy, Mich., a year ago.

Tata tried not to make a big splash; 2004 was an election year, and outsourcing of U.S. work to foreign companies was a political hot potato.

But Tata no longer is keeping quiet. Last week it began taping a promotional video that will be shown repeatedly during the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich., in August.

Tata has hired John Waraniak to head the center.

Waraniak is a former Johnson Controls Inc. executive who is well known in IT circles. "Think of us as a sleeping giant," says Waraniak. "We are waking up."

How do you say "I would like a job in Hindi?"

MarkB

[MarkB]

Cynth wrote:

Well, if the immigration and customs people are surly at the airport don't take it personally.

Coming back from Canada last summer, I just couldn't believe how unfriendly those people were----to the point of rudeness. I mean, could they at least smile and say hello? Or even just say hello? There was one woman who was nice and I made a big point of thanking her for her courtesy. I was really mad.

I was married to an American woman at one time not to far into the distant pass and one time she had a doctor's appointment with her Detroit suburban doctor and I had to accompany her to this appointment.

We were at the US customs station at the US end of the Windsor/Detroit tunnel, which we crossed almost twice every week together, and she everyday to work. This day though the US customs agent had a burr in his butt and was just mean spirited towards her (she was the driver, I the passenger), he ragged her about lowering herself to marry an alien, ragged about how could she give up her US citizenship, which she hadn't (dual citizenship is allowed in Canada and he knew that). This dragged on to the point that we were going to be late for her appointment.

When crossing the border always let the driver (captain of the starship) do the talking for everybody unless asked personally. I just sat there and kept my mouth shut when he started screaming at me "Do you know sir that I can ban you from the United States for five years, just because I don't like you wife! With no recourse to a court or a lawyer or anything!" Do you!" Yes sir!" I stumpled out. With that he sent us to secondary for Immigration. We sat there for two hours, while we were searched, our car was searched all by customs agents. Then the US Immigration officer came over and asked what was going on, told the customs agents to back off and then just let us go with no apology.

And that was before 9/11! They, US Customs are even nastier now, especially to US citizens that live in Canada and hold dual citizenship.

Yes US customs can automatically ban any alien from the United States for five years for no other reason than he/she doesn't like the way you smile or smell. And there is no recourse to this situation, no court of appeal etc. And they throw this around with impunity! Or let you know they can!

Since my divorce I have curtailed my time spent over the border, I just don't want to go over anymore and a lot of Windsorites are the same way!

MarkB

[Cynth]

Well, it really is shocking. I can understand if some new laws are made and they have to do silly things. But to act mean and tough and nasty----that is just very wrong. We are going to Canada on vacation again this summer and if they are rude to me coming back, I am going to make a complaint---after I get through of course.

[Jerry Freeman]

It's my impression that some people gravitate to jobs like tax collector, customs agent, zoning officer, police, etc., because they are attracted to opportunities to order people around. I'm not sure what the psychology is, but I see it a lot, where there's no legal or practical reason for the bullying they do, but they seem to want to flaunt their authority for some kind of personal satisfaction. (Mind you, they're not all like that, but there does seem to be a type that shows up in that role sometimes.)

Best wishes,
Jerry