Final Word from Friday, July 19, 2002
Our article about second-rate foreigners elicited a critical response from a few readers. One of them said he's tired of hearing how foreigners are to blame for all the CR's problems. Another said it'd be worth studying to see whether it's the third-raters who've been complaining about the second-raters. As it happened, our piece appeared on the same day that plans by Flextronics to pull out of the CR hit the news. One reader saw a correlation and questioned to what extent the "second-rate" foreign managers running the manufacturing facility were to blame for the failed investment. Another said, though, that the foreigners got a great deal: Flextronics won Kč 100m in investment incentives two years ago, but its contract with the state doesn't require it to pay the money back. This time, the second-raters outsmarted the third-raters.