Strait talk: Washington increasingly opts out不插手

TAIPEI - It has become an article of faith among observers of US foreign policy that US preoccupations當務之急 in the Middle East and with the "war on terror" have diverted diplomatic and military activities away from Northeast Asia. Leon Sigal, a program director at the New York-based Social Science Research Council, has coined the term "hawk disengagement" to describe the Bush administration's approach to the region.

This is particularly evident in the matter of Taiwan-China relations. President George W Bush came into office as possibly the most pro-Taiwan president in years. Early in his administration, he authorized a huge weapons deal, then priced at US$18 billion, now pared down below $15 billion. Bush stated the US would do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan. But the tune coming out of Washington has changed in recent years.

Particularly over the past two years, there has been perceptively less willingness in Washington to engage with either Taiwan or mainland China over the details of their convoluted relationship. Since late 2003 and Bush's now-famous call for both sides to respect the status quo in cross-strait relations, US policy has been distinctly passive, if not actually hostile to Taiwan.

But this is not because Washington's attention is focused elsewhere. US disengagement is a function of changes in Taipei and Beijing that the United States is less and less able to influence. Rather than withdrawing from the Taiwan Strait, the US is being quietly ousted. The difference between a withdrawal and an ejection is not just semantic. The former implies far more energy in US policy than the latter and places responsibility for the current state of play in cross-strait relations where it should be: in Taipei and Beijing.

Taiwan's part in this drama is complex, as the island is strongly dependent on the US for its security, and the two sides have a history of close relations. Nonetheless, Taiwan's democratic evolution is actually undermining US support, despite the rhetoric emanating from Washington about promoting and defending democracy.

Some of this was probably to be expected. As the former head of the American Institute in Taiwan, Nat Bellocchi, has noted, the framework of US-Taiwan relations was imposed unilaterally by the United States during the island's authoritarian past, and it is increasingly difficult to keep a democratic Taiwan in this foreign-policy straitjacket.

But there are aspects to this "democratic rejection" of the US that are specific to contemporary Taiwanese politics. On the one hand, there is the ongoing delay in the purchase of defensive weaponry from the US. The current package, worth $15 billion and including Patriot missiles, submarines and surveillance aircraft, has been struck down in the island's legislature consistently for more than two years. Last Tuesday, the procurement budget was voted down for the 50th time.

In the bad old days of martial law, the chiefs of staff set the defense budget and a compliant legislature produced the necessary funds. Now Taiwan has a civilian defense minister, and the government must ask for, not demand, appropriations.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian hails from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and its coalition partner the People's First Party control the Legislative Yuan. The legislative "pan-blue" alliance is opposed to the arms package for a variety of reasons, but primary among these is a desire to undermine Chen's authority. Recent assurances by KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou during his recent Washington trip that his party would back a "reasonable arms budget" in the most recent legislative review apparently fell through.

On the other hand, Taipei itself is slowly choosing to opt out of the status quo in cross-strait relations - that is, the implicit agreement among Taipei, Beijing and Washington to leave Taiwan's political status undecided, which Bush has made a hallmark of his administration's China policy.

Chen's DPP was defeated in local elections last December, and he suffers from record low approval ratings of about 18%, according to an independent poll conducted by Shih Hsin University in Taipei at the end of last month. Perversely, this has made Chen even more determined to advance his party's pro-independence platform. It was behind his decision in February to scrap the island's National Unification Council, an institution most observers agree is an integral part of the status quo and which Chen originally promised to keep intact.

China's part to play in the ejection of the US is certainly less subtle than its island sibling, but no less definitive. Since the mid-1990s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has spent considerable time and money turning the cross-strait impasse, which at the start of the Deng Xiaoping era was a diplomatic tussle, into a military matter. This commenced with missile tests off the coast of Taiwan in 1995-96, and includes the current deployment of somewhere between 700 and 800 short to medium-range missiles targeted at the island.

The PRC's defense budget has seen annual double-digit increases for the past decade, and this year's expenditure is expected to hit $35 billion, nearly 15% higher than in 2005. A report published by the Washington-based Rand Corporation last year, however, suggests that the official Chinese figures could understate actual military expenditures by as much as 70%. The US rightly believes that the target of the bulk of this outlay is Taiwan.

The PRC leadership is genuinely concerned about a determined push in Taiwan to turn de facto independence into de jure separation from China, even though only about 20% of the population favors it. Increasingly, it sees a military solution as the only way to prevent the push from succeeding. The Anti-Secession Law passed by the National People's Congress in March 2005 codified this concern, and marked the end of a brief period in which the PRC sought US diplomatic help to "contain" Taiwan's national aspirations.

The increasing insecurity of China's current leadership adds immediacy to this realist calculation. The current generation of communist leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, are technocrats engaged in a Herculean task of economic transformation - but devoid of any political reforms. Opposition is building: by the government's own admission, 87,000 incidents of "social unrest" were recorded in 2005, up 66% on the previous year.

The US is disengaging from the cross-strait imbroglio, but through no choice of its own. Only a serious change of heart in Taipei and Beijing will reverse the trend.

Craig Meer is a freelance journalist based in Taipei.

由於在中東（特別是伊拉克和伊朗）和全球反恐戰爭中投入過多精力，美國分身乏術，在東北亞的外交、軍事活動也受到很大影響。美國社會科學研究會 （Social Science Research Council）的東北亞合作安全項目負責人里昂•西格爾（Leon Sigal）更創造出「強勢脫離」（hawk disengagement）一詞，來形容布什政府對該地區進行的戰略調整。

在台海關係上，華盛頓的 轉變顯得更加明顯。上臺之初，布什被認為是多年來和臺灣走得最近的美國總統。2001年，美國通過一項價值達180億美元的對台軍售案，其中包括出售12 架P3反潛機，6個「愛國者」三型導彈連，以及8艘柴油動力潛艇。這是美國自1979年美台斷交之後的最大對台軍售。布什甚至表示「將不惜一切代價協防臺 灣」。

然而，美國近年來的立場發生轉變，逐漸走向消極；連臺灣都認為有些「失寵」。過去兩年裏，華盛頓越來越不情願插手這「剪不斷、理還亂」的台海關係。在去年訪華期間，布什強調「反對任何單方面改變現狀，要通過對話和平解決」。

實 際上，美國的「強勢脫離」並非因注意力轉移所致；而是由於台海問題的不斷演變，夾在北京和臺北當局中間的美國如今實難再施展較大影響力。美國也不是主動撤 出了臺灣這個「不沉的航空母艦」，而是遭到了海峽兩岸的「驅逐」，情非得已。「撤出」和「被驅逐」不僅有著語義上的差別：與後者相比，前者更意味著美國利 用外交政策調整，將維持台海現狀的重任交給北京和臺北這兩個當事人。

臺灣在此中扮演的角色有些複雜，因為它完全依賴美國為其提供安全保障，數十年來一直關係密切。不過，隨著臺灣民主力量的蓬勃發展，視「推廣、捍衛民主」為己任的美國發現它對臺灣的扶持受到了阻絆。

其實，這也是意料中之事。曾任美國在台協會（American Institute in Taiwan）理事主席的白樂崎（Nat Bellocchi）說過，鑒於美台關係框架是在蔣介石獨裁統治時美國單方面制定的，在民主化的臺灣繼續舊制自然有些不合時宜。

美國在台海問題上遭到「民主邊緣化」境地，與臺北的政局有關。一方面，雖然美國2001年就批准了對台軍售案，但這項數目龐大的軍購案遲遲未在臺灣的立法院通過。4月4日，軍購案在立法院遭到第50次的否決。

在戒嚴時期（1949-1988），臺北當局制定出國防預算，毫無實權的「立法院」只能乖乖準備好必要資金；而如今，在實現民主的臺灣，政府只能「申請」，而不能「要求」它批准預算。

臺 灣總統陳水扁領導著執政黨民進黨（DPP），而反對黨國民黨（KMT）和親民黨（PFP）組成的「泛藍陣營」則控制了立法院。它們否決軍購案，是 出於多個原因；但其中最主要就是希望以此繼續削弱陳水扁的權威。今年3月，國民黨主席馬英九訪問華盛頓。出行之前，他曾多次表達「國民黨支持合理軍購」的 立場，希望將「軍購案的通過」作為「訪美大禮」送給華盛頓；不過這次美國還是沒能得償所願。

另一方面，臺北當局鋌而走險，選擇了「改變台海 現狀」這條不歸路。正如前面所提，對「維持台海現狀」這條北京、華盛頓和臺北當局三方之間的不成文協議，布什也給予了肯定和支援。當民進黨在去年12月的 臺灣地方選舉中遭到嚴重挫折後，世新大學（Shih Hsin University）民意調查中心上月底公佈的一項調查顯示，陳水扁的支持率跌至前所未有的18%。

像輸了錢的賭徒一樣，陳水扁希望借推進台獨進程挽回民心。2月，他宣佈廢除國統會（National Unification Council）和國統綱領；觀察家皆認為，該機構在維持台海現狀起著必不可缺的作用，陳水扁當初也承諾將保留該機構。

美國在台海問題上遭遇「邊緣化」其中也有北京的因素。在鄧小平時代，台海問題僅處於外交爭鬥階段；到了江澤民治下，它已升級到軍事爭鬥的層面。北京1995-96年先後在臺灣海峽試射導彈，據說目前還部署有700～800枚中短程導彈瞄準著臺灣。

過 去10年裏，中國的軍費一直保持著兩位數的增幅；今年的軍費開支將有望達到350億美元，較上年增長15%。美國國際戰略研究機構蘭德公司（Rand Corporation）去年稱，中國官方公佈的資料可能比實際支出少70%。華盛頓認為，北京大舉增加軍費，意在臺灣。

雖然只有20%的 民眾支持「台獨」，臺北當局似乎執意將「事實獨立」推進到「法理獨立」。這種趨勢，引起了北京的異常緊張。因而，通過軍事行動來解決這場潛在危機的方案， 開始佔據了上風。去年3月，中國通過了《反國家分裂法》，從而為對台動武提供了法律依據；同時，這也標誌著北京不會僅僅依靠美國來維持台海現狀。

中國國內的不穩定，也為這種現實的解決方案增添了緊迫感。這一代領導人（包括國家主席胡錦濤和總理溫家寶在內）都是經歷了經濟轉型「洗禮」的技術派官僚，卻 鮮有政治改革的經驗。去年，中國總共發生了87,000起群體抗爭事件，平均每天238起。（去年8月，公安部長周永康說，涉及100人以上的「群體事 件」2004年大約發生了7.4萬，超過370萬人參與其中；這個數字大大超過了1994年的1萬起和2003年的 5.8萬起。

出於無奈，美國逐減淡出臺海紛爭。看來大概只有北京和臺北當局回心轉意，認識到美國也是維持台海「和平穩定」現狀的重要力量，華盛頓才能繼續發揮作用。

How Piracy Opens Doors for Windows

Bill Gates may not be entirely dismayed沮喪 by software thieves. They seed the world market and make Microsoft a standard.

Microsoft Corp. estimates it lost about $14 billion last year to software piracy — and those may prove to be the most lucrative sales never made.

Although the world's largest software maker spends millions of dollars annually to combat搏殺 illegal copying and distribution of its products, critics allege — and Microsoft acknowledges — that piracy sometimes helps the company establish itself in emerging markets and fend off threats from free open-source programs.

The gist要旨 of the beneficial piracy argument is that the retail price Microsoft charges for signature products such as Windows and Office — as much as $669, depending on the version — can rival the average annual household income in some developing countries. So the vast majority of those users opt for pirated versions.

The proliferation繁殖 of pirated copies nevertheless establishes Microsoft products — particularly Windows and Office — as the software standard. As economies mature and flourish and people and companies begin buying legitimate versions, they usually buy Microsoft because most others already use it. It's called the network effect.

"The first dose is free," said Hal Varian, a professor of information management at UC Berkeley, facetiously開玩笑 comparing Microsoft's anti-piracy policy to street-corner marketing of illicit drugs. "Once you start using a product, you keep using it."

Even as the Internet makes global piracy easier than ever, Microsoft's revenue and profit have risen steadily. It earned $12 billion on $41.4 billion in revenue in calendar '05.

That record of success has led many experts and software companies to regard piracy as less of a problem than initially assumed or even part of a comprehensive strategy, said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the former chief counsel of a Silicon Valley Internet firm.

"Is widespread piracy simply foregone revenue, a business model by accident or a business model by design?" he asked. "Maybe all three."

Of course, Microsoft executives prefer that people buy, but theft can build market share more quickly, as company co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates acknowledged in an unguarded moment in 1998.

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though," Gates told an audience at the University of Washington. "And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

That's exactly what has happened around the globe, according to the Business Software Alliance, a Microsoft-backed anti-piracy group. Even Vietnam, which at more than 90% has the highest piracy rate in the world, has improved from 100% in 1994. The No. 1 software firm in Vietnam: Microsoft.

Closer to the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, the decline of piracy in the United States has tracked Microsoft's rise. Stratospheric 25 years ago, the U.S. piracy rate dropped to 31% in 1994, then to 21% in 2004 — the lowest in the world.

Microsoft's public posture on piracy is one of zero tolerance.

"We're all working five days a week and getting paid for three," said Cori Hartje, the company's director of license compliance. "We do everything we can to stop piracy."

The company sues online auctioneers and computer makers that supply pirated products, including Windows, the operating system for more than 90% of the world's personal computers. It cooperates with law enforcement agencies to seize pirated discs and warns users around the globe that counterfeit贋品 programs may destabilize their systems.

The effort even prompted Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to declare fatwas, or religious edicts, against software piracy.

Microsoft, like most other software companies, has experimented with technical tricks to prevent copying, such as discs that could be used only once and hardware "dongles" that had to be connected to the PC before a software program could run.

Legitimate users complained bitterly. Such methods caused software bugs and prevented customers from reinstalling programs when their computers malfunctioned, yet hackers quickly subverted each new attempt.

"Copy protection is a balancing act because it always reduces the value of your product," said Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security Inc. "State-of-the-art copy protection makes your customers hate you."

By 1986, like most other software companies, Microsoft abandoned copy protection.

Now it attacks piracy with technical and legal carrots and sticks. In 2004, it launched the Windows Genuine Advantage program, which offers special features and updates for legal users. It also requires a product activation key — a string of letters and numbers the retail buyer of Windows or applications such as Word must enter to install the product on a computer.

Experts applauded額手稱臣 the approach as thoughtful, given past problems with copy protection. But it does little to deter piracy, because thousands of activation keys — stolen or generated by software programs — can be found easily on the Web.

Microsoft's legal approach differs sharply with that of the music industry, which sues as if it were in the fight of its life, said John G. Palfrey Jr., director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

"They put Napster out of business and sued Grokster to the Supreme Court," he said.

Like Microsoft, the music industry sees network effects from piracy. For little-known artists who have trouble getting airtime, piracy can be crucial to create buzz. But instead of generating revenue growth, pirated music generally replaces a CD purchase. In most countries, music revenue is falling.

In a loudly public campaign, music publishers have pressed more than 15,000 suits against individual pirates worldwide. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance have rarely sued individuals, instead making claims against dozens of distributors and institutional users of illicit products.

More commonly, according to industry observers, Microsoft has cut pragmatic deals to convert institutional piracy into standard sales. Instead of suing, it asks organizations found to use illicit copies to replace them with licensed, paid versions. Microsoft wares become entrenched without competitive bidding, via piracy, and formal forgiveness cements the commercial relationship.

Microsoft declined to comment on how often it uses this approach.

Piracy also prevents free, open-source alternatives such as Linux from chipping away at Microsoft's monopolies, especially in developing nations.

China, for instance, promotes Red Flag Linux — a local, open-source competitor to Windows. As Gates concluded in 1998, piracy may be the only way Microsoft can stay in that market, embracing the opportunity to gradually convert pirates to payers. If Microsoft launched a draconian crackdown, UC Berkeley's Varian said, it would provoke the obvious reaction: "People would just switch to open source."

In China, pirated versions of Windows are easy to find on the street for 5 yuan, or about 62 cents. Why doesn't Microsoft put the thieves out of business by giving away or deeply discounting local-language versions of its products? The strategy would offer network benefits while providing better data on users.

Consistent global pricing reduces confusion for multinational buyers, Hartje said.

Experts believe high prices encourage piracy but offer the company offsetting advantages. If Microsoft sold Windows for, say, $10, it would lose money on every copy because of manufacturing, distribution and support costs. At zero cost to Microsoft, piracy enhances network effects by getting Windows out to users who can't or won't pay, without undercutting normal prices.

"Microsoft benefits from piracy, then says, 'If you think prices are high, blame the Chinese, because they are the thieves,' " said Ariel Katz, a law professor at the University of Toronto and an expert on the economics of piracy.

"They like us to feel guilty — to think that piracy is wrong and immoral. Economically, it's not necessarily true, but it resonates共嗚 with the public."

微軟公司估計去年因盜版軟體猖獗而損失一百四十億美元（台幣四千五百廿億元），批評者卻指出，盜版猖獗有時候反能幫助微軟打入新興市場，有效化解免費共享資源程式構成的威脅，微軟也承認此說有理。

盜版有益說的主要論點是，微軟視窗、Office等產品的售價可達六百六十九美元（約台幣二萬一千六百元），有時候相當於部分開發中國家的家庭平均年收入，迫使絕大多數用戶採用盜版。

盜版盛行使微軟的產品—尤其是視窗與Office

—成為軟體的標準。隨著一個國家或地區的經濟逐漸成熟、繁榮，民眾與企業開始購買合法版本，他們通常採用微軟的產品，因為多數人已經用慣了相同產品。這是 所謂的網路效應。柏克萊加州大學資訊管理學教授維里安表示：「第一次免費。一旦開始使用某種特定產品，你就會一直用下去。」

網路發達助長全球的盜版風，微軟的收入與利潤卻穩定增加。以去年為例，微軟的總營收大約四百一十四億美元（台幣一兆三千四百億元），利潤大約一百廿億美元 （台幣三千八百八十億元）。密爾瓦基馬凱特大學法學教授高德曼表示，這種成功的實例使許多專家及軟體公司認為，盜版問題其實非但不如各界最初想像的嚴重， 甚至可能是業者全盤經營策略的一環。他表示：「盜版普遍是否使業者蒙受損失，是意外形成的生意模式，還是有意為之的手法？也許三者皆是。」

微軟高層當然希望消費者購買合法版本，然而盜版卻使它得以更快速的提高市占率。微軟董事長比爾蓋茲不諱言確實如此。他在一次演說時指出：「在中國，消費者 每年購買的電腦平均大約三百萬台，不過他們並未承擔軟體的成本。這種情況終有改變的一天。只要有人繼續盜拷，我們希望對方盜拷微軟的產品。他們已經上癮， 今後十年我們總會想出如何從中獲利的有效辦法。」

「商業軟體聯盟」指出，這正是全球各地的現況，但表面上，微軟對盜版採絕不姑息的立場。

Emule History High

搶救粵語大作戰

Cantonese Is Losing Its Voice

Cantonese and Mandarin speakers use the same written Chinese(Kanji) but don't prounce the characterics the same way

Speakers of the spicy tongue that can make words of love sound like a fight are having to learn its linguistic kin, the mellower Mandarin.

By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer

January 3, 2006

Carson Hom's family has run a thriving fortune cookie and almond cookie company in Los Angeles County for 35 years.

And for much of that time, it was a business that required two languages: Cantonese, to communicate with employees and the Chinese restaurants that bought the cookies, and English, to deal with health inspectors, suppliers and accountants.

But when Hom, 30, decided to start his own food import company, he learned that this bilingualism wasn't enough anymore.

He checked out the competition at a recent Chinese products fair in the San Gabriel Valley and found that he couldn't get much further than "hello" in conversing with vendors.

"I can't communicate," said Hom, whose parents are from Hong Kong. "Everyone around used to speak Cantonese. Now everyone is speaking Mandarin."

Cantonese, a sharp, cackling dialect full of slang and exaggerated expressions, was never the dominant language of China. But it came to dominate the Chinatowns of North America because the first immigrants came from the Cantonese-speaking southern province of Guangdong, where China first opened its ports to foreigners centuries ago.

It is also the chief language of Hong Kong, the vital trading and financial center that became China's link to the West.

But over the last three decades, waves of Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants have diluted the influence of both the Cantonese language and the pioneering Cantonese families who ran Chinatowns for years.

The surging Chinese economy today has challenged Cantonese further. Because Mandarin is China's official language, entrepreneurs like Hom have been forced to adapt, often learning the hard way that business can't be done with Cantonese alone.

Many Cantonese speakers are racing to learn Mandarin any way they can — by watching Chinese soap operas, attending schools, paying for expensive immersion courses and even making more Mandarin-speaking friends. This is no cinch. Although Cantonese and Mandarin share the same written language, they are spoken as differently as English and French.

At the same time, few people are learning Cantonese. San Jose State University and New York University offer classes, but they are almost alone among colleges with established Cantonese communities. The language is not taught at USC, UCLA, Pasadena City College, San Francisco State or Queens College in New York, to name a few.

With the changes, some are lamenting — in ways they can do only in Cantonese — the end of an era. Mandarin is now the vernacular of choice, and they say it doesn't come close to the colorful and brash banter of Cantonese.

"You might be saying, 'I love you' to your girlfriend in Cantonese, but it will still sound like you're fighting," said Howard Lee, a talk show host on Cantonese language KMRB-AM (1430). "It's just our tone. We always sound like we're in a shouting match. Mandarin is so mellow. Cantonese is strong and edgy."

---

Cantonese is said to be closer than Mandarin to ancient Chinese. It is also more complicated. Mandarin has four tones, so a character can be intonated four ways with four meanings. Cantonese has nine tones.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Chinese government tried to make Mandarin the national language in an effort to bridge the myriad dialects across the country. Since then, the government has been working to simplify the language, renamed Putonghua, and give it a proletarian spin. To die-hard Cantonese, no fans of the Communist government, this is one more reason to look down on Mandarin.

Many say it is far more difficult to learn Cantonese than Mandarin because the former does not always adhere to rules and formulas. Image-rich slang litters the lexicon and can leave anyone ignorant of the vernacular out of touch.

"You have to really listen to people if you want to learn Cantonese," said Gary Tai, who teaches the language at New York University and is also a principal at a Chinese school in Staten Island. "You have to watch movies and listen to songs. You can't learn the slang from books."

Popular phrases include the slang for getting a parking ticket, which in Cantonese is "I ate beef jerky," probably because Chinese beef jerky is thin and rectangular, like a parking ticket. And teo bao (literally "too full") describes someone who is uber-trendy, so hip he or she is going to explode.

Many sayings are coined by movie stars on screen. Telling someone to chill out, comedian Stephen Chow says: "Drink a cup of tea and eat a bun."

Then there are the curse words, and what an abundance there is.

A four-syllable obscenity well known in the Cantonese community punctuates the end of many a sentence.

"I think we all agree that curse words in Cantonese just sound better," said Lee, the radio host. "It's so much more of a direct hit on the nail. In Mandarin, they sound so polite."

His colleague, news broadcaster Vivian Lee, chimed in to clarify that the curse words were not vindictive.

"It's not that Cantonese people are less educated. They're very well educated. The language is just cute and funny. It doesn't hurt anyone," said Lee, who does the news show on the station five days a week. "The Italians need body language. We don't need that at all. We have adjectives."

To stress a point or to twist a sentence into a question, Cantonese speakers need only add a dramatic ahhhhhhh or laaaaaaa at the end.

Something simple like, "Let's go" becomes "C'mon, lets get a move on!" when it's capped with laaaaa.

By comparison, with Mandarin from China, what you see is what you get. The written form has been simplified by the Chinese government so that characters require fewer strokes. It is considered calmer and more melodic.

Take the popular Cantonese expression chi-seen, which means your wires have short-circuited. It is used, often affectionately, to call someone or something crazy. The Mandarin equivalent comes off to Cantonese people sounding like "You have a brain malfunction that has rendered your behavior unusual."

The calm tones of Mandarin are heard more and more around Southern California's Chinese community.

Even quintessential Hong Kong-style restaurants, including wonton noodle shops, now have waitresses who speak Mandarin, albeit badly, so they can take orders. Elected officials in Los Angeles County, even native Cantonese, are holding news conferences in Mandarin.

Some Cantonese speakers feel besieged.

Cheryl Li, a 19-year-old Pasadena City College student whose parents are from Hong Kong, is studying to become an occupational therapist and volunteers at the Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park, where most of the patients are Chinese.

Recently, she was asking patients, in Mandarin, what they wanted to eat. When one man thought her accent was off, he said, "Stupid second-generation Chinese American doesn't speak Mandarin."

Li responded angrily, "No! I was born here. But I understand enough."

"We're in the minority," she added, reflecting on the incident. "I'm scared Cantonese is going to be a lost language."

Still, Li is studying Mandarin.

---

There are places where Cantonese is protected and cherished.

At a cavernous Chinese seafood restaurant in Monterey Park, members of the Hong Kong Schools Alumni Federation gathered in a back room to munch on stir-fried scallops, pork offal soup and spare ribs.

It was a regular monthly meeting of the group and a sanctuary for Hong Kong Chinese people who take comfort eating and joking with fellow Cantonese speakers.

"I just can't express myself as freely in Mandarin," said Victor Law, an accountant who left Hong Kong to attend college in the U.S. 34 years ago. "That's why we have this association. I feel like we're the last of a dying breed."

For Law, it's not just the language but many Cantonese traditions that are on the decline. He says it's now hard to find a mah-jongg game that uses Hong Kong rules instead of Taiwanese rules, a distinction concerning how many tiles are used.

"I'm not ready to be a dinosaur," said Amy Yeung, president of the alumni group.

To the trained ear, it was instantly apparent that this was a gathering of Cantonese speakers. The room was deafeningly loud with everyone talking. Even serious discussions were punctuated with wise cracks.

When Yeung announced that members could get seats and walk the red carpet at an Asian film festival, the room erupted in unison in the most common way a Cantonese person expresses astonishment.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Near the end of the night, Yeung had important news. A mother in Hong Kong called to say she was moved to tears by a scholarship the federation had given to her daughter to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"She told me to tell you all, 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I didn't know there were such good people in the world,' " Yeung said.

The room fell silent for a moment. Sensing the awkwardness and, God forbid, self-congratulatory tone of the story, Law blurted, "Does she know how to cook?"

Everyone laughed and another successful meeting came to an end.

---

The alumni association can afford to lament. Many of them speak Mandarin already. But many Cantonese speakers are finding out now that they have to learn Mandarin or risk being left behind in business or even within their families.

To learn Mandarin, Joyce Fong sits in her favorite black leather massage chair in front of her living room TV and goes through Chinese soap operas on DVD. Some are about ancient Chinese dynasties. Others focus on the story of a single mother. And a few are South Korean programs dubbed into Mandarin.

The 67-year-old retiree says she has to pick up the language if she hopes to be able to communicate with her 9- and 5-year-old grandsons in China.

The boys had been living with their parents in the Bay Area, but the family decided to move to China a year ago so that Fong's son, Gregory, could take a job at a university and also raise his children immersed in Chinese culture.

Although the grandchildren will also speak English, they will primarily use Mandarin at school, Fong said.

"I want to encourage them. I tell them, 'Grandma is trying to learn Mandarin too,' " said Fong, who immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong 53 years ago and is socially involved in L.A. Chinatown through her family association.

Walnut City Councilman Joaquin Lim grew up in Hong Kong and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s. For decades in California, he found he could get by with English and Cantonese.

But that changed when he decided to get into politics a decade ago.

Running for the school board in his suburban community, Lim quickly realized that most of his Chinese constituents in the eastern San Gabriel Valley were newcomers who didn't speak Cantonese.

So Lim had his Mandarin friends speak to him in their mother tongue. He watched movies in Mandarin and listened to Mandarin songs. By the time he ran for City Council in 1995, he felt comfortable enough with the language to campaign door-to-door and talk to Mandarin residents.

But there's always room for improvement — as Mandarin speakers are quick to remind him when he gives speeches. A few months ago, he was speaking to the Chinese language media at a news conference announcing a task force to improve health standards in Chinese restaurants.

As he spoke in Mandarin, fellow task force member Anthony Wong interrupted him in mid-sentence to correct his grammar.

The ethnic Chinese reporters chuckled, acknowledging that his Mandarin was a work in progress.

Lim recently spoke at a graduation ceremony in Cal Poly Pomona for government officials from central China who took a four-week course in American administrative practices.

Lim thought it went well. But the leader of the Chinese delegation had a slightly more reserved review: "It's much better than most Cantonese-speaking people."

藍色小精靈Smurfs

http://www.smurf.comhttp://www.smurf.com

Offshoring=Outsourcing 外包

Offshoring 海外外包is a well-known term for moving a business activity to another country in order to take advantage of lower costs or tax breaks—a controversial example is the way that many companies’ telephone call centres have been transferred to the Indian sub-continent. Onshore offshoring 境內外包 is almost a reverse process, in which skilled but comparatively low-paid workers are brought from overseas to work in the business’s country of operations. The term has only recently started to appear, at first in the USA, but it—and the activity—has come to public notice in the UK through the discovery by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) that 21,000 foreign IT workers, mostly from India, have been given work permits in the past year alone. This rather clunky term has had to be created because jargoneers have already used up onshoring for a related technique that has also been been given the name homeshoring.

We must expect some businesses to explore the option of onshore offshoring in the UK, regardless of the potential social and economic impact this may have long-term—after all, it is the job of the government, not business, to regulate working opportunities and environments.

[Datamonitor CommentWire, 24 Nov. 2005]

ATSCo said its findings, based on Home Office figures, are the first evidence that multinationals recruiting workers in low-cost economies and transferring them to high-cost ones—a phenomenon known as “onshore offshoring” in the US—may have become widespread in Britain.

[Guardian, 21 Nov. 2005]

美國也泛政治化

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It is holiday season again -- what is jokingly called "Christmakwanzuka" (聖誔寬札光明節)-- because Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are all celebrated in December. It is a festive time of year in the U.S., filled with decorations, including the one of the holiday's main symbols -- the Christmas tree -- as well as shopping, gift giving and parties. But in a country where the constitution mandates the separation of church and state 政教分離, efforts have been made in recent years to make sure non-Christians are not offended by the open celebration of a Christian holiday. Now, many things associated with Christmas are often referred to as "holiday." As Amy Katz reports, there is controversy about the issue.

Capitol Hill -- the home of the U.S. Congress -- where in recent years, a tree has been called the holiday tree. But this year, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives asked that it be called the Christmas tree.

On the streets of Washington, some people agree with his decision and others don't. This man provided his thoughts on the matter, "Christmas represents Christ and this country was actually built on the religion of Christianity."

A woman countered, "I think that it's inappropriate that the name was changed to Christmas tree."

In the northwestern state of Oregon, students are rehearsing for their holiday -- not Christmas -- concert. Joel Karn, their choir director, says it was his choice.

"We haven't been told to call it that. I just like to stay safe, I guess. You know, especially in public school, like I say, I don't want anyone to be offended."

Stores have taken similar precautions -- banning any reference to Christmas. But Christian conservatives -- like Don Wildmon -- are not pleased. He says, "Tough luck. This is an overwhelmingly Christian country."

A number of national retailers have responded -- once again calling Christmas trees just that -- and instead of wishing people "Happy Holidays," they are wishing them a "Merry Christmas."

In Oregon, that's good news for James Autry, who runs a Christian radio station.

"I want to go up to everybody and say, "Hey, Merry Christmas."

One we asked one woman on the streets of Oregon, she agrees, "I think that we should all be happy with our religious heritage and not about offending people of other religions."

However, a man added, "We tend to forget that it is the birth of Christ that a lot people are trying to celebrate around Christmas and it seems that we're trying to hide the baby."

Charles Schiffman, who is with an Oregon Jewish organization, says understanding is what is important.

"I celebrate all people who want to make their religion meaningful to them, and I think that is what we should do with this holiday season. And I am not offended by the celebration of Christmas, and I would hope that my neighbors would not be offended by the fact that I celebrate other holidays."

For some that may mean singing seasonal songs, chosen not offend. And for others that may mean -- calling a Christmas tree, a Christmas tree.

又到了一年一度的聖誕佳節，或者是大家開玩笑說的“聖誕寬札光明節”，因為聖誕節，美國黑人的寬札節以及猶太教的光明節都是在12月慶祝的節日。這是美國 一年當中最有節慶氣氛的時候，到處都可以看到節日裝飾，包括最主要的裝飾品聖誕樹。還有大採購、送禮和派對。但是在美國這樣一個憲法要求政教分離的國家， 最近幾年來大家都在努力確保所有這些聖誕節慶祝活動不會冒犯了非基督徒。現在在美國，許多與聖誕節有關的事物都被改稱為“節日”事物。

在美國國會的所在地華盛頓國會山的聖誕樹這些年來都被稱為“節日樹”。但是今年，眾議院發言人提議恢復聖誕樹的稱呼。

在華盛頓街頭，一些民眾贊同他的提議，但也有人反對。 一位男市民說：“聖誕代表耶穌基督，而美國實際上是以基督教信仰建立的國家。”一位女市民說：“我認為把它改名為聖誕樹並不恰當。”

*聖誕音樂會改稱節日音樂會*

在美國西北部的俄勒岡州，學生在排練他們的“節日”音樂會，而不是“聖誕”音樂會。合唱團的指導卡恩說，這是他的決定：“沒有人要我們這樣做，但我只是想要保險一點。你知道，特別是在公立學校裡，我可不想冒犯任何人。”

就連一些商店也採取這樣的預防措施，避免任何與聖誕有關的東西。但是基督教保守人士威爾德蒙對這樣的現象非常生氣。他說：“真不幸，美國可是一個基督教徒佔絕大多數的國家啊！”

一些全國性商店也做出回應，他們堅持使用“聖誕樹”的稱呼，而且對顧客說“聖誕快樂”，而不是“假期快樂”。對於在俄勒岡州經營基督教廣播電台的奧特利來說，這是個好消息。他說：“我想和街上每一個人說，嘿，聖誕快樂。”

其他俄勒岡人也同意這樣的看法。一位女市民說：“我認為我們應該為自己的宗教傳統感到高興，而不是擔心會冒犯了信仰其他宗教的人士。”

一位男市民說：“我們似乎忘了大家在聖誕節慶祝的是耶穌基督的誕生，我感覺大家好像要把聖嬰藏起來。”

*各宗教應該互相寬容*

俄勒岡州猶太組織的希夫曼說，重要的是大家能夠有所瞭解：“我為那些想讓他們自己宗教更有意義的人慶祝。我認為這是我們在這段節日裡應該做的。我不會被聖誕節的慶祝活動所冒犯，同樣的，我也希望我的鄰居不會因為我慶祝其他節日而不開心。”

對某些人來說，可能是選擇唱一些不會冒犯人的節日歌曲，而對其他人來說，則是堅持聖誕樹就應該要叫聖誕樹。

Kwanzaa

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Kwanzaa began 38 years ago as a cultural celebration for African-Americans as well as for Africans throughout the world. It was created by an African-American to reinforce the values of African culture that focus on family and community ties. Kimberly Russell produced this report, narrated by Carol Pearson.

For many African-Americans, the holiday period between December 26 and January 1 has taken on new meaning with the celebration of Kwanzaa.

"Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday based on first fruits festivals in various African countries where there is a re-spiritualization, and a purpose of giving thanks back to the Creator for collectively being able to harvest the first fruits of the crop, and to recollect and to renew oneself for a New Year's effort," explains Reverend Willie Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

Reverend Wilson's Union Temple Baptist Church has been celebrating Kwanzaa for more than 20 years.

"As Dr. Ron Karenga established it back in 1966, there are seven principles that correspond to the seven symbols and the seven candles in the kinara, or candle holder, and each day a different principal is discussed," he explains. "The first principal isUmoja, which means unity. The second is Kujichagulia, meaning self-determination. The third, is Ujima, collective work and responsibility. The fourth is Ujamaa, which is cooperative economics. The fifth is Nia, which means purpose. The sixth is Kuumba which means creativity. And the seventh is Imani, which means faith."

On one particular night, the congregation celebrates Ujamma, Swahili for "cooperative economics," the fourth principal of Kwanzaa.

"The African-American Development Cooperation will be talking about certain of the African-American businesses in the city, and how, in a unified, collective effort, we can work together to generate funds, create jobs, in our own community," Reverend Wilson says.

"What Kwanzaa does, is it helps us establish values," says Dorothy Winbush Riley, author of The Complete Kwanzaa. "It helps us to establish rituals for our children. If we want certain values passed. If we want certain images transmitted, we must be the ones to set down our rituals, and we must be the ones to teach our children. And that's what prompted us at this time of the year we can reflect and we can decide what it is that's important. And we can help our children to focus, and we can pass on legacies, traditions, survival techniques, everything that we need to our children, and they know that at the end of the year, something is expected."

Kwanzaa gives African-Americans an opportunity to reunite with family and friends, while paying tribute to their cultural heritage.

12月26號是寬札節連續七天節日的開始，這是美國黑人慶祝他們文 化與自尊的節日。寬札節起源於大約40年前，主要慶祝七大傳統：團結(unity)、自決(self-determination)、團體工作與責任(collective work and responsibility)、合作經濟(cooperative economics)、目標(purpose)、創造力(creativity)和信仰(faith)。越來越多美國黑人把這七大原 則納入他們的節日紀念。

*始於黑人解放運動高潮時期*

許多創造重大節日傳統的人都已經不在這個世上了，特別是在每年這個時候能和聖誕節、光明節相提並論的重要節日。但是卡倫加做到了，他創立了為期七天的美國黑人寬札節。他在1966年美國黑人解放運動高潮時期有了這個構想：

“當時我們不只要爭取社會正義和自由，更希望回歸我們的非洲歷史和文化。我們自問，我們怎麼樣以過去作為基礎，來豐富我們現在的生活，改善我們的未來，所以我們能夠向大家介紹並確認黑人社區，哲學和價值的重要性。”

*寬札節對美國黑人的特殊意義*

在美國首都華盛頓，你可以在許多寬札節慶祝活動中輕易感受到黑人社區和文化。湯普遜是扎根活動學習中心的創辦人兼主任，她在自己主辦的派對上，看著孩子們隨著寬札節音樂起舞：

“他們為自己，為他們的愛，為他們身為非洲人以及身為一個大家庭來慶祝。”

湯普遜補充說，寬札節對歷史上被當作奴隸的美國黑人來說，有特殊的意義：“我們被迫離開家園，我們的家庭因此破碎。所以寬札節通過我們的文化把大家凝聚在一起，以及有關我們生活的精神準則。”

但是寬札節不僅僅是給那些黑奴後裔的美國黑人。越來越多移民到美國的黑人也開始慶祝這個節日。雷伊來自西非的加納。他說：“寬札節代表著將我們個人重新奉獻出來，大家一起生活，一起努力，這樣我們才能愛自己，進而去愛別人。”

*每一天代表一個非洲傳統原則*

寬札節有個儀式結構。非營利機構美國黑人節日基金會的克萊爾漢迪解釋說，在寬札節長達七天的節日裡，每一天都代表一個非洲傳統原則：

“從12月26號到1月1號，寬札節七天的節日裡，每天點亮一根蠟燭來代表一個原則，而家人會團聚起來，討論這些原則。做父母的通常會要求孩子遵守這些原則。”

卡倫加教授解釋說，第一個原則“烏摩加”，是斯瓦西裡語中“團結”的意思：

“那 代表我們爭取並維護家庭、社區、國家、種族，當然還有就是全世界的團結，『庫奇加-古利亞』代表自決，為我們自己做決定，為我們自己命名，創造和發言。第 三個原則『烏吉馬』，代表團體工作與責任，也就是建立並維護我們的社區，把兄弟姐妹的問題當成自己的問題來解決。第四個原則『烏竹馬』，合作經濟，那就是 興建並維護我們自己的商店和生意，讓大家一起賺錢。”

卡倫加教授繼續解釋寬札節的第五個傳統『尼亞』代表目標：我們的目標是要確認我們 集體的使命，就是建立和發展我們的社區，好讓我們的同胞瞭解我們的傳統有多麼偉大。第六個原則是『庫恩巴』，創造力的意思，也就是盡我們所能，用一切方 法，讓我們的社區更美更好。最後第七個原則是『以馬尼』，就是信仰。我們要全心相信我們的人民、我們的父母、我們的老師、領導、以及我們的奮鬥終將會贏得 正義與勝利。”

儘管寬札節的慶祝活動是以美國黑人為主而設計的，卡倫加說，許多慶祝寬札節的人士也喜歡強調寬札節活動的普遍性。

Tuna Sandwich

乳酪鮪魚三明治

有一陣子常在學校自動販賣機買全麥的鮪魚三明治或火雞三明治當餐點.
不知不覺便愛上了這種簡便好吃的食物. 在家試著調配相似的口感.
通常冰箱若無奶油乳酪. 我會用原味優格+美乃滋做主調味料. 再調整黑胡椒及鹽的用量.

食用法: 1份鮪魚三明治 + 一杯香醇的咖啡 + 1小盒綜合水果 = 速簡午餐

材料:
a 油漬鮪魚罐頭 1罐
b 洋蔥 切丁 1/4~1/3杯
c 青椒 切丁 1/4杯 (或紅椒丁+青椒丁=1/3~1/2杯)
d 西洋芹 切細丁 3大匙~1/4杯 (可省略. 但風味不同)

調味料:
e 奶油乳酪cream cheese 1/3杯 (微波或室溫軟化)
f 美乃滋 2大匙(可依口味調整)
g 原味優酪乳 1~2大匙 (若無.可用牛奶+優格代替)
h 粗顆粒黑胡椒 1/8~1/4小匙(可自行增減)

( 奶油乳酪已有鹹度. 若喜歡更鹹一些可加一小撮鹽.)

i 白土司 20~24片(全麥吐司更好)

做法:
1. 在罐子中用插子將a插碎. 讓鮪魚吸收罐內油脂(肉較不乾澀).

2. 取一碗.將a+b+c+d 攪拌混合

3. 取另一碗, 先將e用小打蛋器攪散. 加入fg混合. 加入h
(h亦可先加少許, 剩餘在全部混合後再依口味調整加入)

4. 將(3)與(2)混合均勻. (若需要濕一些可再加少許牛奶或優酪乳. 若需要稠一些可加美乃滋或增加蔬菜). 放冰箱冷藏備用.

5. 取兩片吐司麵包, 將吐司去硬邊, 抹上適量(4). 切對半. 疊合. 即為一份三明治. 中間亦可夾生菜.

KO註:
1. 將醬料放冰箱. 食用前再取出攪拌. 與吐司麵包組合.
2. 若要事先組合. 液體水份不要太多. 組合後用保鮮模包裹. 『需』冷藏.
3. 可用鹹的可麗餅代替吐司麵包. 夾上切片的白煮蛋及生菜. 乳酪醬料可多放些

鮪 魚 三 明 治

這是一個愛吃鮪魚罐頭的朋友教我的 當沙拉也很可口

材料 ：罐裝鮪魚 （ 剁細）

洋蔥切小丁（洋蔥沖洗後 放冰箱冷藏5-10分鐘 剝皮再切 較不會刺激淚腺）

芹菜切末（先去掉葉子再洗淨 瀝乾水分）

雞蛋切丁（用水煮熟 剝殼）

調味品：美乃滋 黑胡椒粉

將材料和調味品拌在一起 （量可自行斟酌） 塗抹在土司上即可

因為太好吃了 如果再泡上一杯咖啡 相信會不知不覺的一片接一片的吃個不停
小心 可別吃過量喲。

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Herb Salad

Net Weight 5 oz (142g)

INGREDIENTS: Organic Baby Lettuces (Red & Green Romaine, Red & Green Oak Leaf, Lollo Rosa, Tango), Organic Baby Spinach, Organic Red & Green Chard, Organic Mizuna, Organic Arugula, Organic Frisee, Organic Radicchio, Organic Parsley, Organic Dill, Organic Cilantro. The ingredients in each package may vary.

印度丫火大

By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - It is an incident being closely watched by Indian industry observers as future corporate decisions may depend on the outcome. As has been widely reported, Neelima Tirumalasetti, an American of Indian origin, has filed a suit in a federal court in Texas against a US firm.

新德里---印度裔美國人蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂（Neelima Tirumalasetti）在德克薩斯州一聯邦法院控告一家美國公司引起了廣泛的報道，因為，這次事件的結果將會影響到許多大公司外包工作給印度時的決定。
Neelima, an information technology analyst in quality assurance, was allegedly subject to repeated racial harassment and discrimination after the company for which she worked, Caremark, decided to outsource work to India.
蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂是Caremark公司品質保證部門的資訊技術分析員。據說，在該公司決定將工作外包給印度之後，她一再遭到種族侵擾和歧視。
Her case is not only important to ensure the welfare of people of Indian origin, who are among the wealthiest, earning high salaries in the US. It is of interest to Indian outsourcing firms, which have to interact with American and European clients and customers on a regular basis.

她的訴訟案不僅對確保在美國拿高薪的印裔美國人（美國最富有的族群之一）的福利至關重要，而且還引起了需要經常與歐美客戶打交道的印度外包公司的關注。

One of the main reasons, apart from the long and odd hours of work, for the high attrition口角磨擦 rates in Indian call centers is the abusive and racist outpourings by some foreign customers angry over jobs being outsourced to low-cost countries, with India being one of the pioneers of the process.

除了工作時間長和不固定之外，造成印度呼叫中心摩擦率高的主要原因之一是，一些外國消費者不滿把工作外包給低成本國家，而印度是外包的首選國家之一，他們就採取辱駡和種族歧視的方式發洩憤怒情緒。
It is not easy sitting in a far-off land to handle queries that could range from weather, rail reservations, maps and credit card statements. According to some experts, the stress caused by abusive callers results in an annual erosion of up to 60% to 70% of the over half a million Indians working in Indian call centers.
在遠離客戶所在地的地方為他們提供天氣情況、預定火車票、查詢地圖和信用卡結算清單等服務並非易事。據一些專家透露，呼叫者的辱駡給印度呼叫中心工作的印度人（超過50萬人）造成很大的精神壓力，導致每年的人員流失比例高達60－70％。
Neelima's lawsuit alleges that after Caremark announced in December 2003 that it would be outsourcing work to IBM India, she became a target of harassment. "Caremark's investors deserve to know how it conducts itself behind closed doors," Neelima said in an interview to The Times of India. "This lawsuit is about dignity and assuring that employees are treated equally regardless of their origin, race or ethnic background."

蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂在訴狀中稱，在2003年12月Caremark公司宣佈將把工作外包給IBM印度公司之後，她就成為被騷擾對象。她在接受《印度時報》（Times of India）採訪時說，“Caremark 的投資者應該很清楚公司內部的情況。這次訴訟關乎尊嚴，確保來自不同血緣、種族或民族的員工得到公平待遇。”
Earlier this year, in a move to cut costs, IBM Corp added more than 14,000 jobs in India after slashing 13,000 positions in Europe and the US. Last year IBM bought out Daksh eServices, the third-largest outsourcing firm in India with 6,000 employees, at a value estimated at over $170 million. IBM has in recent years implemented cost cuts in the face of dwindling financial results and leveraging in a new global economy.
今年初， IBM公司採取行動削減成本：在歐美裁員1.3萬人之後，在印度增員1.4萬人。去年，IBM收購了擁有6000名員工、價值估計超過1.7億美元的印度第三大商業外包企業－Daksh eServices。鑒於公司在新的全球經濟中財務狀況不斷惡化，IBM近幾年實施了大幅削減成本的計劃。 According to the allegations by Neelima, her co-workers repeatedly called her "brown-skinned bitch" and "dirty Indian" among other abuses, saying that people such as her were taking their jobs. Neelima, who is a US citizen, told her seniors of the problem, but matters only turned for the worse as Caremark allegedly removed her from higher responsibilities, denied her pay and accused her of lying about her case, including physical symptoms that led to hospitalization.

根據蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂的指控，她的同事一再使用“棕皮膚婊子”、“骯髒的印度人”等污辱性字眼稱呼她，並指責像她這樣的人搶了他們的工作。蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂是美國合法公民，她向上司反映問題，不過情況變得更糟，因為據說Caremark公司把她降職、不給她工資並指控她在訴訟中撒謊，包括謊稱自己受到身體傷害而住院。據報道，Caremark公司最後承認她的指控屬實，但又表示“鑒於公司員工擔心工作外包給印度，出現這種情況是可以理解的”。
Finally, Caremark reportedly conceded her case, but said that it was "understandable given Caremark's employees' concerns about outsourcing to India".
The lawsuit alleges that Neelima suffered a final emotional breakdown after Caremark wanted her to report to a co-worker and a junior whom she accused. Caremark fired Neelima after she took her case to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Neelima's case is a reflection of the pent-up anger that remains within populations due to job losses.

訴狀稱，在Caremark公司要求蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂在被她控告的一名同事和下級手下工作之後，她最後在精神上崩潰了。在她向美國平等就業機會委員會 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)提出訴訟之後，Caremark把她解雇了。 蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂一案反映出一些失業的美國人仍然充滿強烈的憤怒情緒。
Earlier this year, India-born PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi, one of Fortune's most powerful businesswoman, faced a fair bit of this ire when she anointed America as the "middle finger" of the world in a speech to Columbia Business School's graduating students. Americans took to deriding Nooyi, with the most vociferous comments registered on the Internet, though Nooyi explained that her meaning was entirely different from the more obvious interpretation.

今年初，印度出生的百事公司（Pepsi Co）總裁英德拉•諾依(Indra Nooyi)在對哥倫比亞大學商學院(Columbia Business School)畢業生發表演講時把美國比喻成世界的“中指”，結果遭到猛烈抨擊。儘管她盡力解釋說她的比喻與人們普遍的理解完全不同，但仍有一些美國人在互聯網上用最惡毒的評論攻擊她，嘲諷她。A comment in an Indian paper said: "No matter how many years she has lived in the US and how much she professes her loyalty to the country, to a bigot she is a brown foreigner. And a woman to boot. How dare she criticize the United States on American soil? If you are a recent immigrant, you don't bite the hand that fed you. It is okay if you are white and your forbears got off the boat a century or two ago."

諾依是《財富》雜誌（Fortune）評選出的最具影響力的商界女性之一。但印度一份報紙發表評論說，“不管她在美國生活多少年，不管她對這個國家有多忠誠，對種族偏執狂來說，她始終還是一名棕皮膚的外國人，而且還是個女人。她怎麼敢在美國人的地盤上對美國指手劃腳？如果你是新移民，你就不要對美國說三道四；如果你是白人，而且祖先早在1或2個世紀之前就來到美國，那就沒關係。”
Indians were also miffed 火大/火滾 at the parody揶揄 this year by a US radio station that telephoned an Indian call center. In the "call", aired on Philadelphia's Power 99 FM radio, the caller placed an order for beads and then abused the person on the other end of the line. Despite the problems, though, outsourcing is here to stay. Estimates suggest that only 200,000 to 400,000 jobs have moved from the US since the outsourcing trend began in the 1990s, which is still a fraction of 138 million jobs in the US. The Information Technology Association of America says only about 2% of 10 million computer-related jobs have been sent abroad.

今年美國一廣播電臺致電一印度呼叫中心的惡作劇也令印度人大為憤怒。在費城Power 99 FM播放的那段“通話”中，呼叫者訂購珠子，然後辱駡電話另一端的人。 儘管有這多麼問題存在，外包還是在進行。自從上世紀90年代外包業務開始流行起，估計只有20－40萬個工作機會從美國流失，與美國國內的1.38億個工作崗位相比，這只是“九牛一毛”。美國資訊技術協會（Information Technology Association of America）指出，1000萬個與電腦有關的工作機會中只有大約2％外包給海外。

However, jobs will move out at a higher pace. According to consultancy firm Forrester Research, 3.4 million US service-sector jobs are expected to have moved overseas by 2015. Observers say one-ninth of the world's service jobs could be done from any location.India has repeatedly urged Western nations to make a commitment not to enact legislation that prohibits the offshoring of call centers and software development.

然而，工作機會將以更快的速度流失到海外。據市場研究公司Forrester Research透露，預計到2015年，美國將有340萬個服務行業的工作機會流向海外。觀察家說，全球1/9的服務工作可能被外包。印度一再促請西方國家承諾不要通過禁止把工作外包給境外呼叫中心和軟體研發機構的法律。According to a study by Global Outsourcing: "The anger in the West over job losses and fear about offshoring has made this [racist calls] a growing problem. Some people call up with deliberately difficult questions. Most just say things like, 'you are from India. You don't know anything. I don't want to speak to you'." There are reports websites have sprung up that teach Americans the choicest Hindi abuses.

根據《全球外包》(Global Outsourcing)的一項調查：“西方對失去工作機會的憤怒以及對離岸外包的恐懼使這（打種族歧視電話）成為日益嚴峻的問題。一些呼叫者故意問一些刁難問題。絕大多數人只會這樣說：‘你從印度來。你什麼也不懂。我不想跟你說話’。”有報道說，教美國人學最難聽的印地語髒話的網站如雨後春筍般湧現出來。Until matters settle down, Indian call centers have been trying to protect their employees by training them in Western-accented English and other methods, such as taking on Western names. But this has not been very successful. Many have employed foreigners to train as well as take calls; others have installed technology that blanks out abusive callers from known numbers.

在問題解決之前，印度呼叫中心一直努力採取措施保護員工，例如訓練他們講西方口音的英語以及其他方法，例如起個西方名字。不過，這樣做並不十分奏效。許多公司請外國人訓練員工的英語以及接聽電話；其他的則引進先進技術從已知電話號碼中將出言不遜的呼叫者剔除。
There is no denying, though, that there will be victims of the transition and evening-out of global economic processes. Sadly, Neelima could be one of them. Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.

但是無可否認，在全球經濟轉變和穩定過程中，仍然會有人受到傷害。遺憾的是，蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂就是其中之一。

Racial slurs that hurt India

By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - It is an incident being closely watched by Indian industry observers as future corporate decisions may depend on the outcome. As has been widely reported, Neelima Tirumalasetti, an American of Indian origin, has filed a suit in a federal court in Texas against a US firm.

Neelima, an information technology analyst in quality assurance, was allegedly subject to repeated racial harassment and discrimination after the company for which she worked, Caremark, decided to outsource work to India.

Her case is not only important to ensure the welfare of people of

Indian origin, who are among the wealthiest, earning high salaries in the US. It is of interest to Indian outsourcing firms, which have to interact with American and European clients and customers on a regular basis.

One of the main reasons, apart from the long and odd hours of work, for the high attrition rates in Indian call centers is the abusive and racist outpourings by some foreign customers angry over jobs being outsourced to low-cost countries, with India being one of the pioneers of the process.

It is not easy sitting in a far-off land to handle queries that could range from weather, rail reservations, maps and credit card statements. According to some experts, the stress caused by abusive callers results in an annual erosion of up to 60% to 70% of the over half a million Indians working in Indian call centers.

Neelima's lawsuit alleges that after Caremark announced in December 2003 that it would be outsourcing work to IBM India, she became a target of harassment. "Caremark's investors deserve to know how it conducts itself behind closed doors," Neelima said in an interview to The Times of India. "This lawsuit is about dignity and assuring that employees are treated equally regardless of their origin, race or ethnic background."

Earlier this year, in a move to cut costs, IBM Corp added more than 14,000 jobs in India after slashing 13,000 positions in Europe and the US. Last year IBM bought out Daksh eServices, the third-largest outsourcing firm in India with 6,000 employees, at a value estimated at over $170 million. IBM has in recent years implemented cost cuts in the face of dwindling financial results and leveraging in a new global economy.

According to the allegations by Neelima, her co-workers repeatedly called her "brown-skinned bitch" and "dirty Indian" among other abuses, saying that people such as her were taking their jobs. Neelima, who is a US citizen, told her seniors of the problem, but matters only turned for the worse as Caremark allegedly removed her from higher responsibilities, denied her pay and accused her of lying about her case, including physical symptoms that led to hospitalization.

Finally, Caremark reportedly conceded her case, but said that it was "understandable given Caremark's employees' concerns about outsourcing to India".

The lawsuit alleges that Neelima suffered a final emotional breakdown after Caremark wanted her to report to a co-worker and a junior whom she accused. Caremark fired Neelima after she took her case to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Neelima's case is a reflection of the pent-up anger that remains within populations due to job losses. Earlier this year, India-born PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi, one of Fortune's most powerful businesswoman, faced a fair bit of this ire when she anointed America as the "middle finger" of the world in a speech to Columbia Business School's graduating students. Americans took to deriding Nooyi, with the most vociferous comments registered on the Internet, though Nooyi explained that her meaning was entirely different from the more obvious interpretation.

A comment in an Indian paper said: "No matter how many years she has lived in the US and how much she professes her loyalty to the country, to a bigot she is a brown foreigner. And a woman to boot. How dare she criticize the United States on American soil? If you are a recent immigrant, you don't bite the hand that fed you. It is okay if you are white and your forbears got off the boat a century or two ago."

Indians were also miffed 火大/火滾 at the parody揶揄 this year by a US radio station that telephoned an Indian call center. In the "call", aired on Philadelphia's Power 99 FM radio, the caller placed an order for beads and then abused the person on the other end of the line.

Despite the problems, though, outsourcing is here to stay. Estimates suggest that only 200,000 to 400,000 jobs have moved from the US since the outsourcing trend began in the 1990s, which is still a fraction of 138 million jobs in the US. The Information Technology Association of America says only about 2% of 10 million computer-related jobs have been sent abroad.

However, jobs will move out at a higher pace. According to consultancy firm Forrester Research, 3.4 million US service-sector jobs are expected to have moved overseas by 2015. Observers say one-ninth of the world's service jobs could be done from any location.

India has repeatedly urged Western nations to make a commitment not to enact legislation that prohibits the offshoring of call centers and software development.

According to a study by Global Outsourcing: "The anger in the West over job losses and fear about offshoring has made this [racist calls] a growing problem. Some people call up with deliberately difficult questions. Most just say things like, 'you are from India. You don't know anything. I don't want to speak to you'." There are reports websites have sprung up that teach Americans the choicest Hindi abuses.

Until matters settle down, Indian call centers have been trying to protect their employees by training them in Western-accented English and other methods, such as taking on Western names. But this has not been very successful. Many have employed foreigners to train as well as take calls; others have installed technology that blanks out abusive callers from known numbers.

There is no denying, though, that there will be victims of the transition and evening-out of global economic processes. Sadly, Neelima could be one of them. Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.

新德里---印度裔美國人蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂（Neelima Tirumalasetti）在德克薩斯州一聯邦法院控告一家美國公司引起了廣泛的報道，因為，這次事件的結果將會影響到許多大公司外包工作給印度時的決定。
蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂是Caremark公司品質保證部門的資訊技術分析員。據說，在該公司決定將工作外包給印度之後，她一再遭到種族侵擾和歧視。
她的訴訟案不僅對確保在美國拿高薪的印裔美國人（美國最富有的族群之一）的福利至關重要，而且還引起了需要經常與歐美客戶打交道的印度外包公司的關注。
除了工作時間長和不固定之外，造成印度呼叫中心摩擦率高的主要原因之一是，一些外國消費者不滿把工作外包給低成本國家，而印度是外包的首選國家之一，他們就採取辱駡和種族歧視的方式發洩憤怒情緒。
在遠離客戶所在地的地方為他們提供天氣情況、預定火車票、查詢地圖和信用卡結算清單等服務並非易事。據一些專家透露，呼叫者的辱駡給印度呼叫中心工作的印度人（超過50萬人）造成很大的精神壓力，導致每年的人員流失比例高達60－70％。
蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂在訴狀中稱，在2003年12月Caremark公司宣佈將把工作外包給IBM印度公司之後，她就成為被騷擾對象。她在接受《印度時報》（Times of India）採訪時說，“Caremark 的投資者應該很清楚公司內部的情況。這次訴訟關乎尊嚴，確保來自不同血緣、種族或民族的員工得到公平待遇。”
今年初， IBM公司採取行動削減成本：在歐美裁員1.3萬人之後，在印度增員1.4萬人。去年，IBM收購了擁有6000名員工、價值估計超過1.7億美元的印度第三大商業外包企業－Daksh eServices。鑒於公司在新的全球經濟中財務狀況不斷惡化，IBM近幾年實施了大幅削減成本的計劃。
根據蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂的指控，她的同事一再使用“棕皮膚婊子”、“骯髒的印度人”等污辱性字眼稱呼她，並指責像她這樣的人搶了他們的工作。蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂是美國合法公民，她向上司反映問題，不過情況變得更糟，因為據說Caremark公司把她降職、不給她工資並指控她在訴訟中撒謊，包括謊稱自己受到身體傷害而住院。據報道，Caremark公司最後承認她的指控屬實，但又表示“鑒於公司員工擔心工作外包給印度，出現這種情況是可以理解的”。
訴狀稱，在Caremark公司要求蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂在被她控告的一名同事和下級手下工作之後，她最後在精神上崩潰了。在她向美國平等就業機會委員會 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)提出訴訟之後，Caremark把她解雇了。
蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂一案反映出一些失業的美國人仍然充滿強烈的憤怒情緒。今年初，印度出生的百事公司（Pepsi Co）總裁英德拉•諾依(Indra Nooyi)在對哥倫比亞大學商學院(Columbia Business School)畢業生發表演講時把美國比喻成世界的“中指”，結果遭到猛烈抨擊。儘管她盡力解釋說她的比喻與人們普遍的理解完全不同，但仍有一些美國人在互聯網上用最惡毒的評論攻擊她，嘲諷她。
諾依是《財富》雜誌（Fortune）評選出的最具影響力的商界女性之一。但印度一份報紙發表評論說，“不管她在美國生活多少年，不管她對這個國家有多忠誠，對種族偏執狂來說，她始終還是一名棕皮膚的外國人，而且還是個女人。她怎麼敢在美國人的地盤上對美國指手劃腳？如果你是新移民，你就不要對美國說三道四；如果你是白人，而且祖先早在1或2個世紀之前就來到美國，那就沒關係。”
今年美國一廣播電臺致電一印度呼叫中心的惡作劇也令印度人大為憤怒。在費城Power 99 FM播放的那段“通話”中，呼叫者訂購珠子，然後辱駡電話另一端的人。
儘管有這多麼問題存在，外包還是在進行。自從上世紀90年代外包業務開始流行起，估計只有20－40萬個工作機會從美國流失，與美國國內的1.38億個工作崗位相比，這只是“九牛一毛”。美國資訊技術協會（Information Technology Association of America）指出，1000萬個與電腦有關的工作機會中只有大約2％外包給海外。
然而，工作機會將以更快的速度流失到海外。據市場研究公司Forrester Research透露，預計到2015年，美國將有340萬個服務行業的工作機會流向海外。觀察家說，全球1/9的服務工作可能被外包。印度一再促請西方國家承諾不要通過禁止把工作外包給境外呼叫中心和軟體研發機構的法律。
根據《全球外包》(Global Outsourcing)的一項調查：“西方對失去工作機會的憤怒以及對離岸外包的恐懼使這（打種族歧視電話）成為日益嚴峻的問題。一些呼叫者故意問一些刁難問題。絕大多數人只會這樣說：‘你從印度來。你什麼也不懂。我不想跟你說話’。”有報道說，教美國人學最難聽的印地語髒話的網站如雨後春筍般湧現出來。
在問題解決之前，印度呼叫中心一直努力採取措施保護員工，例如訓練他們講西方口音的英語以及其他方法，例如起個西方名字。不過，這樣做並不十分奏效。許多公司請外國人訓練員工的英語以及接聽電話；其他的則引進先進技術從已知電話號碼中將出言不遜的呼叫者剔除。
但是無可否認，在全球經濟轉變和穩定過程中，仍然會有人受到傷害。遺憾的是，蒂魯瑪拉塞蒂就是其中之一。

Customer Service Agents are Helping America from Home

Report

For years now, Americans have noticed that when they call to purchase an airline ticket, or to get help with a problem they have been having with a cell phone or computer, the person they end up talking to is often not an American-even though the call they placed was to a domestic number. That is because many of the companies that run these call centers have shipped their operations overseas-often to India-in an effort to save money.
Willow customer service agent working from homeThe practice has generated criticism. But now, industry leaders think they have found a cost-effective alternative that is "domestic" in more ways than one.
The practice of routing calls to overseas help-centers has not proven to be popular with consumers. Craig Foucht, a finance manager in New York City, says he was routed to India three times when he called about a problem he was having with his computer. "I could tell from their accent, even though they used very Americanized names like 'Jennifer' or 'Rob,'" he recalls. "On the whole, the experience was unsatisfactory, because it didn't seem like the staff was trained enough to handle my problems, and (they) seemed quite distracted, and didn't really give me the service I was expecting."
The complaint is a common one. Often, American consumers say, agents in places like India and the Philippines are unfamiliar with the issues faced by American consumers, or else they have only an 'academic' understanding of these issues, with no 'hands-on' personal experience.
Angie Selden, chief executive officer of WillowCSNAngie Selden, chief executive officer of WillowCSN, which finds and hires customer-service agents for a number of large, Fortune 500 companies, understands this complaint. She says international agents are fine for some industries, but in others, there is no replacement for Americans.
"Many of the health-related questions around Medicare and Medicaid," she points out, "(Or) insurance claims processing, are much better answered by people in the United States, who are familiar with the health-care terminology and the health-care experiences here in the United States."
That may be why the model that was pioneered by WillowCSN in 1997 is becoming more and more popular. Willow supplies clients with American customer-service agents… but it does not charge those clients the expensive overhead costs-like rent and electricity, typically associated with American call-centers. That is because Willow does not actually have any call centers. Its agents do not report to a warehouse filled with phones and computers; instead, they work out of their homes -- their living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens -- wherever.
According to Angie Selden, all it takes is the right computer and telephone equipment. "There's a very rapidly growing interest in corporate America now around having certain types of customer calls serviced by agents who are working from home," she says. "It's a very cost-effective way for these companies to get access to U.S.-based people."
Angie Selden's company now has 3,000 customer service agents in 30 states working for its clients. That is four times as many people as it had just 18 months ago.
Nebraska-based West Corporation, another call-service company, has increased its number of at-home agents from 3,400 last year to 7,300 this year. Dave Pleiss, who oversees public relations for West, says the at-home model has allowed his company to bring on qualified people who would like to make a little extra money, but would not necessarily be willing or able to travel to a centralized call-center.
"So perhaps licensed nurses or real estate people," he says, "We can easily get a network of 300 or so of those together across the country, where we wouldn't be able to get 300 licensed people in a call center."
The at-home model has also allowed call-service companies to decrease their turnover rates. Annual turnover at a typical U.S. call-center generally ranges from 60-100%. That is because most workers reporting to these centers are in their 20s, and they all plan on doing something else with their lives.
But the average age of an agent at Willow CSN is 38, and that works out marvelously
John Riorden, Virgin Atlantic's Vice-President of Customer Servicefor Virgin Atlantic Airlines, one of Willow's clients. John Riorden, the airline's Vice-President of Customer Service, says the company prefers to have agents with a little 'life experience.'
"The type of calls that are handled by us in the airline business are reservations, queries about reservations, and a whole myriad of other things that require a pretty significant knowledge base on how international travel works," Mr. Riorden says. "So we do need people who have traveled, and have traveled abroad extensively, because that knowledge is a tremendous advantage in being a good airline customer service agent."
Right now, just 118,000 of the more than five million customer service agents in the United States are working from home. But Angie Selden of Willow CSN expects that number to grow considerably in the coming years-particularly as more and more Baby Boomers retire and look at the challenge of caring for their aging parents. She says the time flexibility -- and the extra income --provided by at-home customer service work will probably appeal to people in such situations.

多年以來，美國人已經注意到，當他們打電話訂購機票或者通過電話尋求幫助解決他們的手機或者電腦問題時，雖然他們撥打的電話是國內號碼，但是最終與他們通話交談的人卻經常不是美國人。這是因為很多開辦經營這些客戶話務中心的公司已經把他們的通話業務轉移到了海外，通常情況下是在印度，以此節約開支。這種做法已招致批評，但產業界領袖認為，他們找到了另外一種立足國內、成本合算的客戶服務方式。
把顧客來電轉接到設在海外的諮詢服務中心的做法已經證明並不是那麼受顧客的歡迎。
福克特是紐約市的一位財務經理。他說，他打電話解決他的電腦出現的一個問題的時候，電話有三次被轉接到了印度。
他說：“雖然他們都使用一些非常美國化的名字，比如詹妮弗或者羅伯，但是我可以從他們的口音判斷出他們不是美國人。大體上，和他們交談的經歷並不令人滿意，因為看上去那些工作人員沒有經過足夠的培訓，無法解決我的問題，而且可以感覺到他們做事相當不專心，沒有給我提供我所期待的服務。”
*外國人不熟悉美消費者需要*
這是相當常見的抱怨。美國消費者通常表示，像印度和菲律賓這些地方的話務代理商並不熟悉美國消費者所面臨的問題，或者他們對於這些問題只有理論上的一知半解，而缺乏實際動手的個人經驗。
塞爾頓是WillowCSN公司的首席執行官，她的公司為很多財富雜誌評選出的世界500強企業尋找並僱用客戶服務代理商。她說，對於某些產業來說，僱用國際代理服務人員是不錯的，但是對於其它產業則非美國人做不可。
塞爾頓說：“圍繞著聯邦醫療保險、政府醫療保險以及保險申請處理過程中很多與健康有關的問題最好由身在美國的人回答。這些人熟悉醫療術語以及美國的醫療體系的運作過程。”
這也許是WillowCSN公司1997年首創的模式越來越受歡迎的原因。WillowCSN公司向客戶提供美國的顧客服務代理機構，但是並不向這些客戶收取諸如租金、電費這些昂貴的、典型的與美國客戶話務中心相關的經常性管理費用。這是因為WillowCSN公司實際上並不擁有任何話務中心。它僱用的代理服務人員並不需要向一個到處都是電話和電腦的倉庫報到，相反，他們在自己的家中工作，無論是自己家的客廳、餐廳還是廚房，哪裏都行。而工作所需要的一切只是一套適用的電腦和電話設備而已。
*在家工作節省開支*
塞爾頓說：“現在，美國公司對由在家工作的代理服務人員提供某些顧客熱線服務的興趣正在急速增長，因為僱用在家工作的代理服務人員是節省開支的一種很好的方法。”
目前，塞爾頓的公司在美國30個州僱用了3千名顧客服務代理人員，為公司的客戶工作。這個數字是18個月以前該公司擁有服務代理人員數量的4倍。設在內布拉斯加州的另外一家話務服務公司“西部公司”已經把公司旗下在家上班的顧客服務代理人員，從去年的3千4百人增加到今年的7千3百人。
普賴斯是西部公司公共關係部門的主管。他說，在家上班的模式使他的公司得以招聘到合格稱職的僱員。這些人願意多賺一些錢，但是並不一定願意或者能夠去一個集中式的話務中心上班：“我們或許可以在全國各地輕而易舉地找到擁有執照的護士或者是房地產從業人員，建立起一個300人左右的網絡，但是我們卻不能夠找到 300個合格的工作人員在一個話務中心工作。”
住家工作模式還使話務服務公司得以降低他們的員工跳槽比率。一般來說，一家典型的美國話務中心每年的員工更新比率在60%到100%之間。這是因為絕大多數在這些中心上班的僱員都是20多歲的年輕人，他們都打算在今後的生活中能有一番作為。但是在WillowCSN公司，話務服務人員的平均年齡是38歲。這一點對於該公司的客戶之一“維珍大西洋航空公司”來說，實在是再好不過了。
*生活經驗豐富者有優勢*
“維珍大西洋航空公司”主管顧客服務的副總裁裡爾頓表示，該公司更喜歡有些生活經驗的工作人員：“我們航空業開設的電話服務項目主要包括幫助旅客預訂機票、解答旅客在訂票方面的疑問以及處理其它各種各樣的具體事務。這需要話務人員對國際旅行行業如何運作具有非常豐富翔實的知識。因此我們需要那些有旅行經驗、經常去國外旅行的人，因為要成為一名好的航空旅客服務人員，具備這些知識無疑具有巨大的優勢。”
目前，美國超過5百萬顧客服務從業人員當中，只有11萬8千人在家工作。但是WillowCSN公司的塞爾頓預計，特別是隨著越來越多嬰兒潮時期出生的人加入到退休者的行列，考慮到照料他們年邁父母的挑戰，這個數字在未來幾年裡將有很大的增長。她說，在家顧客服務在工作時間方面具有的靈活性以及這種工作所帶來的額外收入，對於這些人來說可能會很有吸引力。