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If you are a RentACoder.com client or service provider, you will notice a ’site wide message’ on most of the RAC pages today warning its users about Pakistan and Pakistanis:
Site Wide Message: (current site time 10/24/2008 8:22:02 AM EDT)
Are you working with a Pakistani? If so, you need to know that most parts of Pakistan are experiencing severe electricity rationing, and electricity is unavailable more often than not. Click here for more important information.
While it is totally fair for the company to inform their customers about the potential pitfalls of ‘renting’ Pakistanis, I was disturbed by RAC’s choice of words and the potential negativity (pun intended) that such words usually generate against Pakistan and Pakistanis. IMHO RAC should try to be politically correct and more sensitive towards its service providers. Some would call this nitpicking, but the news is wrong on more than one levels.
First of all, a Pakistani may be a non-resident Pakistani, and lots of people abroad are “working with Pakistanis”, so it is infact the brand perception of Pakistan that is affected here.
Secondly, though we are facing electricity rationing, electricity is still available at least 14 hours a day from the standard providers (the *ESCOs) contrary to the RAC claim of “more often than not”. Now 14 hours a day may seem like hell to a CA resident, but it is plenty of time to get things done (GTD), if scheduled properly.
Thirdly, if a RAC client is already “working with a Pakistani”, I would expect that client to be aware of this constraint already, after all, you can’t fail to notice if your service provider is unavailable more often than not - I think what RAC meant to say was “Are you considering working with a Pakistani?”.
Most importantly though, I think that a “Pakistani” whose primary source of income is RentACoder (and there are hundreds of such Pakistanis) already know about the power crisis through first-hand knowledge, and he how to deal with it! - after all, load shedding is virtually a part of his Pakistani culture by now! The ‘Pakistani’ in question probably owns a Japanese UPS, a desi UPS (A very cheap UPS developed in Pakistan that uses wet batteries originally meant for LTVs) or a gas generator. Our powerless Pakistani has solved this energy crisis one way or another before attempting to earn his bread on RAC!
I don’t know if RAC realizes or cares about the effects that such deterring official messages can have on Pakistani coders earning their income on RAC, but I do sincerely hope that there is a vigilante Ministry of IT somewhere out there who is keeping an eye on the buzz, who realizes the consequences of such irresponsible news, and who works officially with entities like RAC to make sure that Pakistan is being marketed properly, despite it being the “Most dangerous country of the world”.
PS. I do not have a RAC account. Credit goes to Sohail Abid, a “Happy Freelancer”, who shared this news with me on Twitter. The post was written on my laptop, the one that has a functional battery but is still hooked up to my Pakistani UPS, during the 6th load-shedding spell of the day.
| Written by reallyvirtual on 10/24/08 in Software & I.T., General |
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October 24th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Sad news indeed. I noticed it yesterday and was going to write about it myself. We have to realize as a country that there is more to the crisis than just politics. We need to be proactive in getting things under control.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Sad truely, there are a lot of problems in many countries. singling out one is a bad thing. But if you consider Pakistan’s standing on RAC or eLance or oDesk, we are a very sizable service provider (details here: http://talk.bytesense.biz/pakistan/myths-about-the-pakistani-outsourcing-market/) and perhaps a number of Pakistani defaulted, I speculate.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for sharing the stats Nash. Interesting that you guys have used the word “sad”, the word that surfaced in my mind was ‘irritating’- if we make up a significant portion of the outsourcing providers’ market, such exaggerated statements hurt both Pakistan and RAC’s own business, so unless they are wearing goggles given by Fox News, sensationalizing things like this make no sense. It is an open market, if Paki providers fail once due to power failures, they will get really bad reviews and ratings, and will not get any business in the future.
Why not warnings like ‘Are you working with an Iraqi? Think twice, the guy might get blown up by a bomb by tomorrow’ (I’m sorry about using this example to support my point)
October 24th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
reallyvirtual: the reality is that as Pakistanis we know that there is a problem but we are choosing to ignore it.
The argument you gave wouldn’t stand. The fact that RAC has posted a warning about electricity crisis in Pakistan is a clear indication that there are a lot of buyers who were willing to provide work to Pakistani developers.
There is a good sign beneath all this gloom.. Pakistani developers have talent that is being restricted by the inability of our governments and social structure to provide sufficient/safe environment….
we don’t need to blame RAC, we need to solve the problem and its real and its here.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Since electricity is directly related to the type of work in question, I don’t think that it’s entirely unfair to be honest and objectively point out the facts. Something along the lines of ” please note that projects assigned to freelancers in Pakistan may incur some delay as a power crisis is affecting some areas..(or whatever, really)..something that can’t be misconstrued or taken as a direct attack/attempt to discriminate against Pakistanis.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
@nasheeli:
Despite the title, I did not intend this as a “Rentacoder is discriminating against Pakistan and is attacking it directly” kind of a post. I understand the QoS they are attempting to provide their clients requires disclaimers.
Obaid:
I do not deny that we have an electricity shortage problem, or that it needs to be solved. I also realize that RAC is trying to protect its brand (they want their customers to have a good experience with providers I bet), but in doing so, RAC is making generalizations about all Pakistani professionals, blowing it out of proportions and hurting the brand called Pakistan.
If you live in Pakistan, then let me ask you this:
Have you made sure that your connectivity remains unaffected during these frequent power outages, by using a laptop, UPS, generator or even a power plant - or do you just sit there waiting for the power to come back?
I’m sure the IT workers who have small offices or work from home have solved this problem. They have no other option if they want to put food on their tables. I do not have LESCO supplied power right now, and yet here I am, writing this comment!
I remember this frustrations due to power shortages issue was raised in the first Startup Insiders meeting in Lahore, by some guy who had grown up in California, when Imran Zia optimistically said that each problem creates another opportunity, this one creates a market for generators. So while we, the people living in Pakistan, can laugh these hurdles away and find solutions to them, it becomes a much bigger problem if the perception of the international market is changed by explicitly singling out Pakistan as an unreliable source of manpower, and if it results in Pakistan and Pakistanis losing business. State supplied power is not a prerequisite to being a reliable services provider, and yet the warning makes it sound so.
Maybe I am reading too much into it, but to me, the site wide message is a clear warning to steer away from Pakistani providers. I am sorry we won’t be able to measure the exact loss of business our small community of freelancers has to bear due to this message, but I am positive years after we solve the power crisis (I hope) - phrases like
“Pakistan bad.”
“Pakistan unreliable.”
will still echo in many people’s minds for years to come, if we don’t try to put a stop to it immediately.
So yes, we have a power crisis, and yes it should be solved, but as long as it does not affect our throughput, and as long as we solve our problem ourselves, it ought to be the job of our IT rulers to make sure that our reputation as reliable solution providers does not suffer due to an amplified negative rating.
Let us try to solve our problems, but let us protect our brand as an industry as well - or does that sound too idealistic?
If any Pakistani RAC professionals are around, maybe they’d like to share their first-hand experiences here.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
We need to re-brand our country.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Nice find and great points
October 24th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I second Sohaib here. The words are not appropriate even if we consider that they are doing it for providing better service to service buyers.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
And this is also true that most of the freelancers have adopted alternative solutions for keeping their gear on. Most of my friends have a notebook now with a small ups for router.
i am thinking to suggest PTCL making routers with built in batter like emergency tube lights
(their dsl modems are already power efficient)
October 24th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Yes most of the developers have found ways to get their business going but really Sohaib and Sohaib, think about it.. how would anyone living out of Pakistan know about that? Is our media covering this? Is there any developer out there who is OPENLY communicating with their clients via blog or their own website?
You can’t hit RAC on their hands for posting a communication message. The reality is that in today’s world the developers themselves need to create a communication channel with their customers as well.
If I am a developer who relies on RAC or other such sites than it is my responsibility and it is in my interest to post this information as a highlight of my top 5 points.. since the client reading my profile would know that I am aware of the issue and I have a solution around it.
I am not sure how many freelance developers in Pakistan even have a website to begin with. That is why I wrote on my blog that every startup should have a blog. I correct it by saying, every startup, developer, freelancer should have a blog — it is FREE and CHEAPEST way to communicate with your clients.
October 25th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Obaid, most of the freelancers I know do own and write on multiple blogs. I saw the post on your blog, and it is a good first step towards such stopping misinformation.
IMHO, though, the developers do NOT have to prove anything, because they have been working smoothly with this constraint for a long time now.
This time it is electricity, next it will be the security situation, and later on it’ll be gas shortage. Same old story. We DO have these problems, but they are not showstoppers. We know how to overcome such hurdles, and this is why the developers do not have to PROVE they are capable of thinking beyond LESCO & Co.
Ironically, when I wrote the post, the “more information” link was down due to Community Server issues and I was unable to check the “More information” link. Now that the server is back, you can visit the post below, which suggests that Pakistinis [sic] should return their clients’ money, and gives links to two obscure news items about the power crisis here.
You can see also the frustrated and outraged reactions of the Pakistani developers who rely on RAC for income. Since this affects them first-hand, so they say it much better than I possibly can:
http://rentacoder.com/CS/blogs/severe_weather__other_critical_situations_-_update/archive/2008/10/23/5748.aspx
If I were a nationalist conspiracy theorist, I would have called this part of an attempt by a psyops lobby trying to affect the Pakistani economy
For now, we can just call it a mistake made due to second-hand news.
The real question is whether we have somebody sitting in a Technology Park somewhere in Pakistan tracking such incidents and taking action as an official representative of the Pak IT industry, or is it asking for too much?
October 25th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Well Rentacoder will do this. As they only want to protect their buyers. They will never say Thanks to Pakistanis and promote us that in such conditions Pakistanis are still at number 3 in top 10 coding provider countries.
See their link http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/misc/About/ThePulseOfRentACoder.aspx
October 25th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Thanks Riz, those are some impressive stats indeed, considering the dismal circumstances that Pakistanis are supposed to be living in. 800 may not be a huge number, a medium sized Pakistani call center has more people than that, but most of them are individuals trying to make a living out on their own.
On a separate note, P@SHA and PSEB have their place, but I don’t think a parallel body that focuses on individuals (as opposed to ‘Software Houses’) exists at the moment.
October 25th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I don’t think like this way,
RENTACODER.com tries to help the Pakistani Peoples/Coders by informing all the buyers of rentacoder.com, that if they are having any issues in getting the work on time then don’t take any action, because Pakistani peoples are suffering from severe electricity breakdown.
I appreciate their efforts, its not like what peoples are talking, come on, this is reality we are having this issue, and we are putting our extra efforts and money on UPS and Power Generator, and this is all our dedication and committments to our hard work.
This is what RENTACODER.com tries to tell the world, and WE, Pakistani have to proof ourself that we are the committed to our words and deadlines and we can do anything to fulfill the commitment.
Tell me peoples, Am I right ?
Aamir
October 25th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I think blaming RAC is not justified. The only major reason we have electricity crisis is due to saving of fuel. KESC have admitted to this in past. They are saving fuel import costs by shutting eight hours daily. You can see this country running out of money very quickly as you can’t find foreign currency in banks easily now. Some cases have to wait whole week.
All those electricity bills contain surcharge and additional surcharge which is price of nothing but KESC employees’ corruption and electricity theft from Benaras to Defence. There is no free lunch and it is the price we are paying via inflated bills.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Without reading the other comments….
RentACoder have a standard policy which warns buyers (their customers) if a country’s workforce is unable to get work done because of natural or social conditions beyond their (workforce’s) control.
Several years ago RAC gave the same message about India during flooding and heavy rainfalls in certain cities of the region that left people with phonelines and electricity for several days.
You should also know that they do this almost always after they get a case where someone is unable to complete a job because of such circumstances, it’s not pre-emptive.
As for my personal experiences with RAC - I started working projects on RAC in 2004, and worked through till 2006 at least. I learned a lot through the people I met on RAC, and although they (RAC) are very strict about their policies they mean well and are only trying to protect their customers and their business.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
And here’s a quote from their blog:
If you are a Pakistani coder…If you started your project before today (10/24/08 8:00:00 AM EST) and are forced to cancel your project, let Rent a Coder know. Funds will be returned to the buyer and no poor rating will be placed on your record.
If you’ve worked on RAC as a service provider you’ll know that a poor rating is the bane of all service providers. They’re aware of the problems we’re facing and are trying to protect Pakistani service providers as well.
October 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Rent A Coder is a great platform to work as freelancer, They are doing very well,I also think they put the message in favor of Pakistan not in against.
We need Positive thinking, Our media teach us to see the dark side of every thing, if you want to do protest then do against our TV media.
azam
October 25th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Thanks for sharing this information Ahmed,
I did already acknowledge that RAC must be doing this to ensure a consistent level of service for their clients. Even so, I fail to understand the reason behind the sudden panic by the RAC people when they are offering Pakistanis an ‘honorable discharge’
Why would Pakis be ‘forced to cancel’ their project due to electricity shortage now, when they have been working despite the shortage for the past few years! If they are following a newspaper for information, they better expel all Pakistanis from their providers’ list
This is also the reason why we can not compare this situation with floods, they are sudden and natural disruption. You don’t see them coming and don’t have time to take counter-measures.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a slacker coder used this excuse to get out of a mess on RAC and RAC ended up posting this notice, but RAC hasn’t replied to any of the questions on its forums so far.
Pakistanis are protesting against this message on the forum thread and want RAC to take it off, so they don’t buy OR want the protection. They are probably the people who have taken Pakistan to #3 on RAC. Their concern is valid, ANY such message hurts business for Pakistan and should be noticed and corrected.
Of course, we have a huge problem with electricity due to our incompetent rulers etc., that is besides the point. The thing is, Pakistanis have adapted and overcome the crisis as far as solo IT professionals are concerned. So now, when their market and business is affected by these false and late alarms, and because they live in Pakistan, they will be irritated as they know that the quality of their work is NOT suffering because of these crises. To these RAC workers, it is probably like being forced to compete in special olympics after beating ‘regular’ people, despite their handicap, or like being called a monkey because they have vestigial tails. It undermines their effort and hard-work.
That is why they are showing concern instead of thanking RAC for being their big brother and coming out to protect them (or at least that is what I could understand from these responses):
* I request RentACoder team to remove this warning as soon as possible as this will really distress business of Pakistani Coders.
* please remove this message, it would hurt rentacoder in long run as pakistani coders would start switching to other platforms.
* Is RAC discriminating Pakistan and Pakistani coder?
* As such I request RentACoder team to remove this warning as soon as possible.
and i also request to my pakistani fellows that they should ask to Administrator to take out this message.
October 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I gotta say, RAC is creative! - on their blog they sound like as if they want to “help” Pakistanis but on the other hand their “site-wide” message is like a warning sign, “beware of Pakistan”. The kindness and generosity shown on their blog message Vs. the “beware of Pakistan” sounding site-wide message is a bit confusing. But on the whole, I do agree that the “site-wide” message is structured in a way that promotes doubt and warnings associated with the name “Pakistan”.
So even if they have good intentions and they are trying to help Pakistanis, they messed it up through the “site-wide” message. Because I for sure know Americans become nervous easily, and considering all the economic insecurity being projected in them, RAC’s site-wide message doesn’t paint a pretty picture at all.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Pakistani are ought to get that..
Hiring a Pakistani was the biggest mistake I ever did.. Thanks to RentACoder who always take care of these things and post site wide messages warning the buyers prevent them from suffering mentally and financially..
If you don’t have the resources you must not be here wasting other peoples time and money!
They are right if you are considering working with a Pakistani think about that again..
October 25th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Thank you for your comment as a client Sara. This is exactly the stereotyped negativity I was talking about.
Can you please help us to identify the real problem by sharing whether you suffered mentally/financially because…
a- The person you hired was a Pakistani
b- He (or she) didn’t have the resources to tackle your project
c- He was simply incompetent
d- The severe electricity crisis that we have been having here for the last few months (or years) affected your project, but the person did not bother to find alternate power sources in time.
Thanks.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
@Sara, your comment sounds as if you rate people’s intelligence or competence based on their nationality. And we all know what does that mean!
Anyone with common sense can only **laugh** at such a notion and I won’t be surprised if they use the term “pourch monkey” on your side of the town lol !
October 25th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
well that site wide message may be real bad for these pakistani but I still agree with Sara..
These people are really loudmouth they promise much more than they can deliver.. they are the ones who “bite off more than they can chew”..
October 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Why do you all you people from Pakistan get bothered by this. You don’t seem to tolerate any type of criticism towards your country, and the lines from RAC weren’t even critics, they were information to buyers.
I see lot of news reports Pakistani men burn other countrys flags for one reason or another, whether it is Israel, USA or my country, Denmark. You guys are not the right people to bother about a couple of lines on a developers site
October 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
This is standard RAC policy, in the past they have warned against American and Indian earthquake prone areas as well.
The option gives people in Pakistan to stop a project without incurring a poor rating.
I think if one digs deeper, they will find that an incompetent guy working in Pakistan, gave power shortcuts as a lame excuse for not completing the project. RAC did some research and decided that the guy was indeed facing trouble.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
“Brian Said:
October 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm”
His Post doesn’t look professional! What is the meaning of Professionalism?
=============================================
We strongly disagree about this issue! All most all the Pakistani’s IT Companies and Individuals have alternate solutions, Like UPS, Generators, Laptops and solar energy systems, so what is the meaning of electricity problem?
=============================================
Best Regards,
Salman
Axis The Information Technology Professionals
October 26th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Oh my god, you guys are so miserable.
Rentacoder put the message on the site as an information, like they put some time ago announcing that undersea cables were cut off and some countries were out of internet.
If you find that message offensive and think rentacoder don’t want coders from Pakistan, then you convinced me, and I will think twice before hiring a Pakistani, or I’ll probably regret of doing business with unfair and unreasonable people like this. (I can’t believe people are threatening rentacoder to remove the message or they quit to other sites)
October 26th, 2008 at 8:53 am
guys … according to rentacoder themself, the average rating of all jobs completed by providers from Pakistan have an average rating of 4.51 out of 5.00 - this statistic speaks louder than your bad experience. I had the worst experience with one Indian company but I never blamed it on ethnicity or nationality and the other company I found from India, same region too, was spectacular! - and mind you, we are under fire from the international media since 2001, yes we are touchy about any news involving “Pakistan” in it
And as a fact, I have several “happy” clients from the U.S. and Germany, but I don’t sit on rentacoder.com at all now - I have executed only 1 project via RAC my whole life and after that I never needed to turn to RAC again. That’s because of something called “client-trust”
October 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am
“I am not sure how many freelance developers in Pakistan even have a website to begin with. That is why I wrote on my blog that every startup should have a blog. I correct it by saying, every startup, developer, freelancer should have a blog — it is FREE and CHEAPEST way to communicate with your clients.”
I agree with Obaid on this one. Your clients will more likely be listening to the person working for them via a blog entry, twitter update etc.
So listen to Obaid, and COMMUNICATE with your CUSTOMERS. You have had enough of INFORMATION relayed to clients.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Be aware RentACoder otherwise these pakistani would release a Faatava against you.. ha ha. lol..
October 26th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@Brian
Your comment contains the answer to your question. Two words: “My Country”
I don’t know what you mean by ‘right people’ but if an irresponsible news is posted on a website that affects the reputation and potential earning capacity of even a few Pakistanis, that is enough cause for concern. BTW, did you know Green and White are the colors in the Pakistani flag? Usually, all we can do is criticize, and you are welcome to criticise us all you want, come join the party, Just don’t escalate issues that have been solved one way or the other already. And oh yes, no more cartoons either
@Paige
As I have mentioned mutiple times,the policy itself makes a lot of sense - but it is the method of execution, the timing, its validity and the cause that people are objecting against. It the difference between saying “electricity is unavailable more often than not” instead of “though government provided electricity has been unreliable for many years, most of our providers have alternate means of power - make sure your providers do too”
If a google search and hitting two URLs is all RAC needed to be convinced that its 800+ Pakistani providers can not handle their business and create alarms, then people relying on that platform have the right to be upset. Do you see the US government telling the world not to invest in the Silicon Valley since it is bound to face the Big One any time now?
@Joao
If the people are discouraged from trying to compete on level grounds in a fair market, then of course they’d look at other options, there are many around. That is why the whole affair does not make much sense - instead of fact-checking and research by asking a few Pakistani providers and their clients, RAC chose to piss off 10% of their providers and misbalanced the symbiotic relationship. Please compare the warnings posted on RAC forums before this one. Atleast three of them feature Pakistan as well, all of them have ZERO comments/protests. The notice is still there as a site-wide warning, and if RAC really have to display it as part of their policy, it will probably stay there for the years to come.
BTW, we are not miserable, we just live in miserable circumstances.
@bilish
I agree that every single human being out there must have a blog. The topic under discussion though, is not just the loss in reputation that Pakistani providers are suffering with EXISTING clients, but also the business that they would lose / not get from POTENTIAL clients, as a direct consequence of such false alarm. It is like a chinese restaurant advising its customers not to order frogs, because frogs can be poisonous!. Clients satisfied with Pakistani providers will not budge due to this news - they know better. New RAC clients, on the other hand, will develop a skewed and false perception that ALL Pakistanis provide unreliable services due to the severe electricity crisis going on - and you can’t retain or educate clients who did not give you any business in the first place assuming you have no electricity.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Before we completely digress on the topic at hand by trolling westerners who outsource their 50$ assignments, let’s take a look deeper look.
Firstly, I’m sure RAC means well; Pakistan is the fourth largest service provider at RAC and a major target audience. They won’t mess with that.
Any RAC service provider can fail to deliver on a variety of reasons. That’s where dispute resolution etc comes in.
However, if the Pakistani service provider fails to deliver on a contract not because of negligence or malfeasance but because of power-rationing, then that service provider might be exempt from penalty because power-rationing can be considered Force Majeure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure). I don’t work on RAC but it depends upon the contractual wording.
If that is the case, it is important for RAC to alert buyers of this potential pitfall. But then, power outages are a common problem in Pakistan, India and China. RAC has the poorest African countries as well and every country has problems. But the fact that they singled out Pakistan shows that our presence is significant enough to warrant a site-wide message. Just my $0.02.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Hi Reallyvirtule,
I want only to know where RAC write “Stay Away From Pakistanis” Also if you are not coder on RAC then you not know well about the RAC So please close this blog.
All the negative response which are post on your blog against the coder of pakistan on RAC are based on your horible heading of “Stay Away From Pakistan”
Thanks
azam
October 27th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Hi,
We are ranked in top 10 coder at RAC.
I agree that the intentions of RAC people seems to be positive and they simply try to safe their buyers and sellers.
But wordings can be updated, If we have any concern I recommend that you send a professional feedback to RAC directly, but keep it positive, polite and professional. Simply let them know that as being a Pakistani you are committed to your work and the electricty problem is not that harsh and is solveable.
So that they can simply revise their wordings.
Be Positive and Professional and it will benefit to us all.
Regards,
Faisal
October 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I agree with Mr Faisal.we need to think positive.And to show good manner.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Rentacoder has been closed at least once this year due to Hurricanes. Because their offices are in the Gulf South (a hurricane prone area) and will have to close their offices whenever a hurricane is in the area, should all Coders avoid using Rentacoder?
Hmmmm
October 27th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I value the poster’s feeling for Pakistan. And all said very well and correct, no doubt we are in worst crisis of time but we are managing. There are lots of Pakistanis out there who are generating lots of Revenue for RAC and lots of such other websites. So as we are contributing to their success than its responsibility of those website owners is to spread positive word about the users.
I some one is bidding on one of such sites will most likely have a good back up system to keep him/her self up the good work and keep going.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
This is totally absurd and absolute non-sense. Besides condemning it here, we must somehow record our protest to RAC…
Any suggestion, how that can be done?
October 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
[…] problem is bad - but it’s not so bad as to hinder all business. As Green&White puts it, we still have power for at least 14 hours in the day; and not all parts of Pakistan have to face this problem in the […]
October 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
People be aware pakistan is going to be bankrupt..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3147266/Pakistan-facing-bankruptcy.html
October 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Hi All Guys
Why you are not coming on the point, And talking negatively, Why we are talking in manner like RAC did something against the Pakistan community. I just got a new project And already have 3 other on which I am working no buyer ask me to cancell the project.
What RAC put on his site a situation about Pakistan, And is your media not propagating it very badly, on the Geo and other Tv News channels they saying that there is no electricity for 16hours a day, Although if in some small area of the whole country electricity goes for 16hours they give that news in such a manner like the whole county is facing 16 hours load shedding.
So instead of blaming the RAC realize the fact, Yes we can request the RAC administration to remove the message from the site but in a request not threading them that we leave to work on there site.
Are you showing anger on RAC because they tell the truth to there buyers?
October 27th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Now you goes against the David because he told an other truth about Pakistan.
Be Positive face the truth and do what in reality better for Pakistan.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
@Nash
A Force_Majeure based line of defence would work if the coders are caught off-guard, which they are not. If someone living in an electricity-free zone takes up a project and is afraid of a drop in his rating, its his own fault.
Remember the bird-flu scare, and how the prices of chicken dropped due to the scare and put the whole poultry market in hot waters? I think that an insiginificant but reliable presence is much better than a significantly notorious presence.
@Azam
RAC does not ‘write’ it, but their (un)careful choice of words implies it, and you can ’say’ a lot of things between the lines, intentionally or unintentionally. The fact that this was a well-meaning and unintentional warning does not make its effect any better. I do not see what is so horrible about the heading, it is just a little bit sensationalized, but we are used to that, right? If you think a post on G&W, a small blog by comparison, can affect you, waht do think an innocent and unjustified warning on a site with a few million visitors per day can do.
I’m glad you noticed the title
@Faisal
You are right, it is the wording and their placement that are the cause of the commotion on their forums as well. I did write an email to them, there has been no response. Pakistani sellers have been posting their clarifying and/or frustrated comments on the RAC forums for the last 3-4 days without any official response from them. Here’s the link again:
http://rentacoder.com/CS/blogs/severe_weather__other_critical_situations_-_update/archive/2008/10/23/5748.aspx , and yes, the notice is still there, the wordings unchanged.
Like my PS. says, I do not work at RAC so I am not affected personally, but if it affects my marketability as a Pakistani, then I have to do something about it, even if it is writing a post. As a top 10 RAC Pakistani provider, may I ask you whether you think this notice affects your brand (not your current business) at all?
@USA Coder
That is interesting information, I wonder how RAC would feel if there’s a notice on their own site (or a few competitors’ sites) saying:
‘Are you working with Rentacoder? If so, you need to know that RAC office is in the Gulf South (a hurricane prone area) and is evacuated on hurricane warnings…’
@ali hammad
Writing about it, contacting them and commenting are three ways you can protest.
@David
Nah, we will probably slide into darkness before going bankrupt.
@azam
There are as many truths as there are people. I am sorry to repeat this multiple times - but here I go again (probably for the final time):
* We have severe load-shedding in Pakistan, around 8-10 hours daily atleast is common, many of us even get uncomfortable without their daily dose of load-shedding
* Most IT professionals can not survive in the market without electricity.
* Contrary to popular belief, government provided electricity is not the only way to have some electrons running through your devices.
* IT professionals have adapted to the crisis by switching to generators and UPSes instead of relying on the Government of Pakistan.
* The programmer/coders/offshore team members etc. in Pakistan are now operating mostly without hitches, for the last few years atleast.
* Our media, Goe etc. making it sound like the whole country is engulfed in darkness, mostly true, but the darkness does not affect the IT workers’ eletricity need as they have learnt to be self-sufficient.
* Rentacoder is saying that electricity is not available most of the time in Pakistan, mostly true for average Pakistanis, but not the part of Pakistanis working with them, the people mentioned above, a fact they don’t mention.
* This notice on the RAC website, a website that probably gets a million or so pageviews per month, is adversely affecting the Pakistani IT market indirectly.
* Many Pakistanis coders-for-rent are protesting because the news creates wrong perceptions about a part of who they are, perceptions that MIGHT affect their business stream directly
* RAC have not replied to any of the messages/protests on their forums by Pakistanis. The warning is still displayed all over their website.
As for myself, I am concerned because the news affects many of my friends/peers and the Pakistani IT industry directly, and therefore, it affects me. So my belief, wrong as it may be, is that their message has a mostly negative impact on the Pakistani IT community and cause for concern. I apologize if my attempt to change all these misconceptions about this nation sound negative or hostile to you. If you have other ideas about what is better in reality for Pakistan, do share in the appropriate thread.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Indian’s are always Jealous from Pakistan. And don’t want that Pakistani people make progress in any field. So they behave like that.
I don’t like such person who create problem for other. Here all software houses has backup for electricity problem. And obviously we are delivering product on date.
October 28th, 2008 at 9:18 am
On a serious note,This needs to be reported .
The author doesnt even know ABC of pakistan. How dare he wrote such a post?
October 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
The people on this site want nothing more than you to click on this thread and get mad at the intolerance that was supposedly exposed.
After all, every person who reads this misinformation tells a friend, who tells another friend, wich in turn generates large amounts of income for this site.
See those sponsor images and links at the top of the page? greenwhite.org is getting paid thanks to everyone here not thinking for themselves.
This is the same tactic that is used over and over by the media today. They are making money off of people’s grief, how sad.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:33 am
@Dean: “…large amounts of income…” … right
Actually I heard that a lot of the RAC coders (whose income-forecast dried up based on two lines by the official site) have now organized into a formal response group thanks to this post.
I think thats the real tragedy of conflict - that there are always more than one ways of looking at an event. If only people were able to look at all sides…
October 28th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@Dean
Getting mad doe$ not accomplish much, getting together doe$.
BTW, I am ju$t an UNpaid, concerned and volunteer (occa$ional) blogger donating a chunk of my life in an attempt to $et the record $traight
October 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hi RealVirtual,
You are good to write.
I like you way of writing, great,Although I am not agree on you on some points but I want to appreciate you dedication to your blog and the blogger.
azam
October 28th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
@reallyvirtual - are those subliminal messages in your comment? lol
October 28th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I am developer and IT professional from Pakistan. I would request RAC to kindly remove a very negative message regarding Pakistan and its electricity issues, displayed on its website. Although there are issues but people wokring in the industry know, how to tackle them. Most of the professional freelancers and ALL IT companies have UPS/Backup generators. Secondly the problem is not as severe as it is hyped about in media. I urge RAC to remove this message as it will hurt the bread and butter of many Pakistani coders and will also leave a negative sentiment about RAC.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I am from Islamabad, Pakistan. And it is second day and electricity is not cutting since morning and I am working very easily and smoothly with.
Secondly, I really liked the comments of
“sybercraft” at http://rentacoder.com/CS/blogs/severe_weather__other_critical_situations_-_update/archive/2008/10/23/5748.aspx I like to quote them here :
“Now In Pakistan a Small Vegetable seller is using generators its 21st century My Rent A Coder friends no one reply on one option like you have 4 options for payment in this website. ”
I think there should be some rational approach to claim something about the developers of a country which is giving, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the best outsourcing.
Regards
Muhammad Mushrraf
December 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
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