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17.10.07

Research Request (Australian aborigines)

Australian aborigines, native people of Australia who probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. In 2001 the population of aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders was 366,429, 1.9% of the Australian population as a whole and slightly more than the estimated aboriginal population of 350,000 at the time of European colonization in the late 18th cent. At that time, there were 500–600 distinct groups of aborigines speaking about 200 different languages or dialects (at least 50 of which are now extinct). Although culturally diverse, these groups were not political and economic entities and lacked class hierarchies and chiefs. They lived by hunting and gathering, and there was extensive intergroup trade throughout the continent.

The aborigines have an intricate classification system that defines kinship relations and regulates marriages. The Kariera, for example, are divided into hordes, or local groups of about 30 people, which are divided into four classes, or sections. Membership in a section determines ritual and territorial claims. In half of the hordes the men are divided among the Karimera and Burung sections; in the other half they are divided among the Palyeri and Banaka sections. These sections are exogamous, and rules of marriage, descent, and residence determine how these sections interact: Karimera men must marry Palyeri women, and their children are Burung, and so on. Sons live in the same hordes as their fathers, so the composition of hordes alternates every generation. The complex system, by requiring each man to marry a woman from only one of the three possible sections, fosters a broad network of social relations and creates familial solidarity within the horde as a whole. Aborigines maintain elaborate systems of totemism (the belief that there is a genealogical relationship between people and species of plants or animals). They see the relationship between totemic plants and animals as a symbolic map of the relations between different people.

Contact with British settlers, beginning in 1788, initially led to economic marginalization, a loss of political autonomy, and death by disease. So-called pacification by force culminated in the late 1880s, leading to a massive depopulation and extinction for some groups. By the 1940s almost all aborigines were missionized and assimilated into rural and urban Australian society as low-paid laborers with limited rights; many aborigine children were taken from their natural parents and given to foster parents to promote assimilation.

In 1976 and 1993 the Australian government enacted land-rights legislation that has returned to the aborigines a degree of autonomy, and court decisions in 1992, 1996, and 2006 have recognized aboriginal property and native title rights. The recent increase in aboriginal population reflects improved living conditions and a broad and inclusive definition of aboriginal identity on the part of the government. Their average standard of living and life expectancy, however, are not comparable with that of most Australians.

In 1999 the Australian government issued an official expression of regret for past mistreatment of aborigines, but has opposed issuing the formal national apology sought by aborigine leaders, fearing that would encourage claims for compensation.

See P. S. Bellwood, Man's Conquest of the Pacific (1978); W. Shapiro, Social Organization in Aboriginal Australia (1979); G. Blainey, Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Australia (1982); S. Bennett, Aborigines and Political Power (1989).

TCS takes outsourcing centres to US

By Joe Leahy in Mumbai

Published: October 16 2007 17:04 | Last updated: October 16 2007 17:04

Tata Consultancy Services plans to open two computer services centres in the US in one of the biggest expansions by an Indian information technology outsourcing company in a developed market.

India’s largest computer services company, part of Tata Industries, said the first centre of 500-1000 people would open in Cincinnati, Ohio, by the end of this year or early next year, with the second to follow in late 2008 or early 2009 at an undisclosed location.

S. Ramadorai, TCS chief executive, said the centres would help the company to recruit from US universities and to qualify for IT outsourcing work that can only be done onshore, such as government contracts.

It could also help to reduce criticism of the Indian outsourcing industry from politicians in Washington keen to turn perceived job losses to India into an election issue ahead of US presidential polls.

Mr Ramadorai said one of the aims of setting up overseas centres “is to create employment generation in those countries”.

“It shows we belong to that community,” he told the Financial Times. India’s fast-growing IT outsourcing industry faces one of its biggest challenges since it first began to seize market share from developed world rivals a decade ago.

The country’s currency, the rupee, is trading at nine-year highs against the dollar, strengthening more than 10 per cent in the first six months of this year.

Together with wage inflation of 10-15 per cent, this is threatening Indian companies’ operating margins, which are among the highest in the industry at 20-30 per cent.

Indian outsourcers earn most of their revenues in dollars or other foreign currencies, but pay most of their costs in rupees.

To maintain their margins, such companies are seeking to improve productivity by offering more sophisticated services and undertaking more research and development.

However, a shortage in Indian universities of postgraduate students in fields such as computer science is threatening to hold back this evolution.

Mr Ramadorai said TCS aimed to double its research and development budget from 2-2.5 per cent of sales to 5 per cent in the next two years.

The US centres, as well as a third unit in Peterborough in the UK, would play a role in this.

“The value-add will be attracting some of the PhDs and people who are at US universities,” Mr Ramadorai said. “That will feed back into India or to other parts of the world which have lower cost locations.”

He said the company was also considering the introduction of contracts that would enable profit-sharing with clients as another way of improving margins.

Aside from TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, India’s number two and three computer services companies, have also been boosting their operations in the US.

(http://www.ft.com)

Foreign investors flee US securities

By Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: October 16 2007 17:07 | Last updated: October 16 2007 21:16

Foreign investors slashed their holdings of US securities by a record amount as the credit squeeze intensified, according to the latest Treasury figures.

The Treasury International Capital report – known as the Tic – for August will be closely watched because it appears amid growing concerns about the weakness of the US dollar, which hit a record low recently against a basket of major currencies.

“The bad news is that [the data] plainly show how vulnerable the dollar is to a continuation of the credit crunch-risk averse environment,” said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. “There is no way to get away from the lack of corporate bond inflows, the foreign selling of US equities and the countervailing strong US purchases of foreign equities and bonds.”

The Treasury said net sales of US market assets – including bonds, notes and equities – were $69.3bn in August after a revised inflow of $19.5bn during July. The August outflow exceeded the previous record decline of $21.2bn in March 1990.

Until now, US policymakers have appeared relatively relaxed about the dollar’s decline, since there has been little sign to date that this has been been triggered by a broader global aversion to US assets. However, that attitude could change if signs emerge in the coming months that non-US investors are becoming more nervous about holding dollar assets, as a result of the recent credit squeeze.

Some analysts said on Tuesday that the August data might turn out to be an aberration, since it occurred during the most intense period of this summer’s credit squeeze – when investors were arguably most uneasy about the market outlook. Consequently, some said they hoped that the outflows will have been reversed in September.

“There was clear panic-selling of equities in August, but given the market’s subsequent rebound, those flows should have reversed,” said Dominic Konstam, head of interest rate strategy at Credit Suisse. “If foreign investors return to buying equities, it is not obvious that there will be a capital flight from the US that will lead to a dollar crisis.”

However, others suggested that the scale of swing in August indicated that more fundamental pressures were now bubbling – not least because the dollar continued to decline in September.

The dollar was generally firmer on Tuesday after traders digested the Treasury data. The dollar index was 0.2 per cent higher at 78.25, but that is only 0.8 per cent above its record low set late last month. The dollar was up 0.3 per cent against the euro, but was 0.6 per cent lower against the yen.

Since August 1998, Tic flows have been positive and the last period of pronounced outflows was in the early 1990s when the current account deficit was briefly eliminated.

A breakdown of the data showed that one key reason for the outflows was that there were net foreign sales of US equities of $40.6bn in August, more than reversing the purchase of $21.2bn in July. Reflecting the pressure on US markets and the dollar, US residents purchased a net $34.5bn of long-term foreign securities.

In the debt world, there were net sales by foreign investors of US corporate bonds – but overall holdings of US government debt remained relatively balanced.