by Jeff Davis

Well, it looks like the neocons in Washington DC can hardly accuse the good ole red state of Texas of not having an “entrepreneurial culture,” –the lack of which is one of the things they’re blaming for the Katrina foul ups in New Orleans.

In Nacogdoches County, the local authorities have “outsourced” the local emergency number and help line to India. As Hurricane Rita bore down on their homes, people in Nacogdoches who called the apparently local emergency help number which was put out on their televisions and the emergency broadcast services got an operator who read them a pre-written script, seven thousand miles away in Mumbai –formerly known as Bombay in northern India.

The official provider of emergency communications for Nacogdoches County is an outfit called Effective Teleservices, and apparently they do have a call room in Nacogdoches which is used for telemarketing credit cards and other essential services. The mere emergency services, though, they slough onto Indian operators who make three dollars a day (if they’re lucky) and who may or may not even speak English understandably, but they can read a script. Oh, how wonderfully entrepreneurial! No “welfare culture of entitlement” there, no sirree bob! Of course, it might be nicer if those folks in Nacogdoches had some REAL jobs other than calling people in their homes and annoying them. Like maybe actually MAKING things or growing food or something, but we seem to have shipped all those jobs overseas along with the Nacogdoches emergency services line. Hey, globalization and the spirit of freedom–what ya gonna do?

Callers to the emergency hotline got some Apu reading off a canned script with vital information regarding the location of emergency shelters, access to medical services, and what people needed when they left home. Luckily for the people in Nacogdoches, the storm didn’t hit too bad and the information they were given by the Hindu Hotline was valid. If some problem had arisen requiring immediate local knowledge and someone on the scene making a decision? Well, tough tandoori.

“I hope you survived the Texas disaster. Tank you and come again!”