Note: I wrote the paragraph below at home yesterday, with no access to
my-email. Most of what is down there has been adressed more than eloquently
in two postings from Sam Lafranco and one by Craig Silva posted yesterday.
I send it nevertheless, because it reinforces some of the arguments.

*****
Bonjour liste.

I appreciated very much Blake's and Eberhard's recent comments that were
maybe (or maybe not; not many systems on the internet do handle properly
other languages than english yet, even if the technology has been available
for a while now...) prompted by my (over???) enthusiastic posting in french
a few days ago about HP, the internet and CLICK4HP. Having access to the
net (like teaching in a university) is indeed a priviledge in many ways.
But what do we do with such priviledges ? Negate them ? Refuse them? Try to
share them and use them as a power base to try to further ideas, actions,
etc. ? I fully recognize the dilemma: I have been living it for quite a few
years now. But I think that the net is a revolutionnary tool, even if
scarcely accessible as of now, but revolutionnary nevertheless. We who have
access should strive to share and disseminate its possibilities as much as
we can because it has already begun to change things in a dramatic way. I
also think that as one of our technos out there (I think it was Sam
Lafranco) posted a couple of months ago, the fact that the net will be
accessible in a matter of months out of regular TV sets (which I think are
owned by more than 90% of the canadian population, if recall the figure
well) might decrease the gap between the haves and the have nots (having
acces at least) much faster than anyone can even imagine now.

The words of caution of Blake and Eberhardt remain very important
nevertheless. And I totally share their concern with the current
international order and its impact on the health of an increasing number of
the many in order to enlarge the wealth of a decreasing number of the
few...


Bonne journee

Michel O'Neill, Ph.D.

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Codirecteur, Centre collaborateur de l'OMS pour le developpment des villes
et villages en sante; 2400 D'Estimauville; Beauport; Qc, Canada, G1E 7G9
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