Education

How we feel about it:

Education is a prerequisite to economic development.  The technology for increased production and efficiency often requires change.  Change means learning new ways of doing business, adapting technology and methods to each situation, finding markets and delivering to those markets.  Anyone lacking education will be exploited in this new marketplace.  If there is one element missing from the mandate of the World Trade Organization, it is the resources and the desire to provide education to producers in the Less Developed Countries.  There is an implication in a free market that all players will have reasonable access to the same information on price and quality.  Are we even close?  Does someone cutting mahogany in the forests of Peru have any idea what the mark ups are between raw material and the lumber yard?  Lacking this information, their ability to negotiate price is limited.

Education is prerequisite to receiving technical assistance and technology from other countries.  There is no gain if technical assistance is delivered in a vacuum.  Outsiders with technology to share must have local counterparts capable of understanding the technology, selecting the appropriate technology, adapting it to local conditions, solving implementation problems and giving it status in the production system and economy and culture of the affected workforce.  Technical experts are seductive.  They have money, knowledge and track records in the developed economies.  It is so tempting to accept their advice without challenge.  Yet they too come with agendas, favored systems, and successful tools that they are comfortable with.  Someone must be prepared to question, challenge, adapt, fine tune and run a technology program after the grant runs out and the paid foreigners go on home.

There is so much to share and to learn from each other.  The Peace Foundation in New Zealand is teaching mediation to over half of the schools in the country.  The International Planned Parenthood Federation is teaching family planning and education to women.  It is no surprise that birth rates and infant mortality decline when women are educated.

This section plans to keep up with the latest educational programs around the world.  We will honor them for they are fundamental to the health and peace of the world’s people.

Others' views: