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At 09:01 PM 11/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>As the ListOwner of CANCHID and hosting TROPMED and TRAVELMED for others,
>I would like to offer a short comment about the University of Georgia
>(USA) plans for an institute for the study of global disease.
>
>We cannot have the full story from a single article but it is worth
>reminding ourselves that the era of single super-institutes - with elite
>funding and a collection of experts, many recruited from developing
>countries, is (or should be) a era left behind.
>
>This is the case for two reasons.
>
>First, in the presence of this electronic venue, a more distributed
>approach to research on global issues is both possible and called for.
>In the past elite institutes bid away the intellectual capital of
>developing countries and increased the differences in capacities as
>between elite developed country labs and science and technology capacity
>in developing countries. The gain to the elit lab was marginal, the loss
>to the developing country's science and technology considerable. As well,
>the poor regions of the world then frequently had to buy back that
>intellectual capital in the form of patent medicines and commercial
>technologies.
>
>It is more possible than ever to pool global intellectual capacity in a
>more collaborative setting and distribute more equitably (and probably
>more efficiently) global scientific capacity. It is hoped that the
>University of Georgia works in collaboration with global networks and
>worries as much about distributed capacity as it does its own heights.
>(See the Navrango (Ghana) reports at the  http://www.idrc.ca web site to
>get an idea of how this electronic venue can support distributed research
>capacity)
>
>Second, Health, the prevention of the spread of disease, and  re-emerging
>pathogens like tuberculosis and malaria are the outcomes of social forces,
>they are not random health events. Research has to be linked to the actual
>local social factors that are driving them. This is well know if littla
>appreciated. It is also not where the rewards reside when funding goes to
>elite research institutes. There is lots of local knowledge, and local
>wisdom, distributed well beyond the walls of elite research centres -
>where research agendas are justified by appeals to the state of the globe
>but where researchers listen to a different drummer.
>
>Let us hope that the University of Georgia joins in as one node among many
>to build global capacity. We are waiting to hear more.
>
>Sam Lanfranco,
>Distributed Knowledge
>
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>  Sam Lanfranco, c/o CERLAC                     email: [log in to unmask]
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>  Sam Lanfranco                           email:[log in to unmask]
>  Senior Program Specialist                URL: http://www.bellanet.org
>  Bellanet International Secretariat       Tel.: +1-613-236-6163 x.2263
>  *********************************************************************
>
>