Don't let your babies grow up to be programmers

[Cameron Laird]

In article <1gkonog.zqrla7f82ydaN%aleaxit at yahoo.com>,
Alex Martelli <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Cameron Laird <claird at lairds.us> wrote:
>   ...
>> "Globalization" just advertising for a refinement of imperialism?
>> Of course not, to those of us fundamentally aligned with the
>> progressivism on display in, to echo your example, *The Econo-
>
>Amartya Sen's book is another excellent display of that "of course not".
>
>Some people have taken Stiglitz's and Sen's books as "warring
>Nobel-laureate economists con vs pro globalisation", but that's silly.
>Rather, Stiglitz focuses more on some ugly aspects of what parts of the
>globalisation process have actually BEEN; Sen, more on the sunny parts
>and on what they COULD and SHOULD be.  
>
>I'm sure Sen and Stiglitz actually agree on FAR more than what they
>disagree on -- unfortunately, it's likely to be stuff the average
>street-demonstration participant, laid-off worker, or elected politician
>can't possibly understand, unless they take a few years off to get the
>needed background, starting with differential equations and moving up
>from there;-).
>
>> I struggle to bring this all back on-topic.  Mention of <URL:
>> http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040923.html > is my
>> current attempt.
>
>Tx for the pointer.  DMCA _is_ truly scary.  OTOH, one _can_ devotely
>pray that MS is overplaying their hand, just like IBM did not all THAT
>long ago with their proprietary "token rings", OS/2, and
>"microchannels"... IBM almost managed to destroy _itself_ that way,
>though Gerstner was there to save it from the brink...
>
>And yes, if emerging third-world nations aren't making sure there's Open
>Source for everything they can possibly need, the only explanation must
>be the high level of corruption in their polities.  It's the only
>sensible strategy on any political and economic plane, after all.
>
>
>Alex

Exactly.  Well, there's much to talk over--I suspect we both agree,
for example, that IBM has other profound structural challenges--but
let me summarize my response to reference to Sen, DMCA, and so on
with this explicit assertion:  one of the great cruelties afoot is
that "globalization" and development are widely regarded as syno-
nyms for "compliance with IMF dictates".  We know, of course, that
the possibilities in the world are far richer than this, and that
the true high fliers will be the people and peoples who make their 
own ways in the world.  Think, in our own narrow domains, of Linux
and Guido and now Miguel and ....