EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Will the information-rich get richer and the information-poor get poorer? Will the divide shrink, or expand?. lt is gratifying to observe that vast numbers of grassroots efforts are being made on behalf of children by educational activists who, against all odds, are dotting the planet with experiments in computer- and Net-based learning.

Yet education offers a paradox. Developing countries look longingly at developed nations, with an eye toward copying their education systems. The sad truth, however, is that the Western notion of school stems from an industrial age in which the intellect of children is manufactured like Fords: instruction is a serial, repetitive process driven by strict norms of curriculum and age. lt has been pointed out, however, that such schools are an extreme form of age segregation. Six-year olds study with 6-year-olds, until next year, when they study with 7-year-olds. Age integration is a fundamental change we need to consider as part of revisiting the concept of school.

One-room schools are often believed to be a sad consequence of poverty. But instead of a problem, they may be a solution. These schools, which may make up as many as half the number of primary schools on the planet, are driven by the principle that young children should learn as close to home as possible. The result is an educational environment that is small, local, personal, and age-integrated and one that potentially provides a much richer lerning experience than larger schools in urban environments.

Há quem diga que a maré de desempregos que está a assolar a maioria dos países é fenômeno de média duração, efeito de uma produção industrial que se informatiza e se globaliza cada vez mais. Com o tempo (prosseguem as mesmas vozes) tudo se ajusta: os trabalhadores se adaptam e se especializam, o mercado desbasta suas anomalias e as economias se tornam mais estáveis.

Tal raciocínio - ainda que estivesse correto - não leva em conta a emergência das necessidades vitais dos trabalhadores, esses seres impacientes que teimam em se alimentar a cada dia, nunca se conformando ao ritmo e à lógica dos processos econômicos... Mas sequer está correto o raciocínio: a lógica da produção não se inclina para o real equilíbrio de uma sociedade, e a prova disso é o mundo torto em que vivemos. Se a informatização e a globalização viessem para servir os homens, sobretudo os que verdadeiramente criam riquezas com seu trabalho, haveriam de respeitá-los a cada passo e de se adaptar, elas, às condições humanas, e não o contrário.

Nos dias ultra-amargos da Segunda Guerra Mundial, lamentava o poeta Carlos Drummond de Andrade:

À sombra do mundo errado

murmuraste um protesto tímido.

Mas virão outros.

Aquela guerra acabou, mas o "mundo errado" continua cada vez mais difícil de mudar, poeta; não o abalam nem mesmo as tantas e altas vozes da crescente multidão de excluídos. Os senhores do império planetário talvez se convençam da fragilidade da Iógica" do processo quando já não houver quem possa se interessar pela massa de tão miraculosa produção.

Brazil Will Not Back U.S. Plan to Assist Colombía Drug War

BRASÍLIA, Aug. 15 - Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright won support from Brazil today for strengthening the region's fragile democracies, but failed to enlist it behind a $1.3 billion fight against Colombian drug traffickers and rebels.

Dr. Albright, kicking off a tour of five South American countries, said her one-day visit to Brazil showed bilateral relations were the best in 50 years and differences in opinion "were far fewer than the areas of agreement." But Brazil's Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia stressed the "autonomy" of Latin America's largest country, and said it would not participate in the major Washington campaign to help battle Colombian drug traffickers.

Brazil, which shares a long Amazon jungle border with Colombia, fears that a huge military assault could drag it into Colombia's civil war or send droves of refugees into Brazil. Brazil also fears that drug traffickers could seek out new markets within its borders.

Also high on the American agenda, however, was rallying support for a consolidation of democratic reforms in neighboring Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Dr. AIbright met briefly with Brazil's president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and discussed democratic reforms, particularly in Peru.

The United States is disturbed by the decision of Brazil and other Latin American nations to quash calls for sanctions against Peru after President Alberto Fujimori's re-election in May amid fraud allegations. Mr. Lampreia said the United States and Brazil would both urge Peru to carry out recommended democratic reforms, including an overhaul of the judicial system and intelligence services.

REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS

The government's reform of the Lords heralds the end of constitutionally-enshrined aristocratic government in Britain. But how far does it go? The changes now in progress may well be too half-hearted to make much difference.

The House of Lords is one of the three powers in the British constitution, which also include the monarchy and the Commons. Representing the interests of the aristocracy, the lords historically combined with the "commoners" to check the power of kings.

Nowadays, the Lords is the second legislative chamber in parliament, responsible for amending and scrutinising the activities of the government-dominated Commons. Where the Lords differs from the upper chambers in other democratic countries is in the presence of hereditary peers - noblemen who inherit their right to sit in the House. The current reform has reduced their number, but a smaller group of titled aristocrats still retain their seats, alongside distinguished members of the community nominated by a special commission.

The House of Lords has been widely criticised as undemocratic: "one of the most curious of the curious anomalies in British public life, defying all logic of democratic and secular politics", in the words of one political scientist, who would like to see it replaced by an elected chamber. I am inclined to share this view myself.

ACUERDOS COMERCIALES POCO EFECTIVOS

MEXICO - Hace cuatro años el Congreso de EE.UU. aprobó el Tratado de Líbre Comercio (TLC) sólo después de que se negociaran dos acuerdos paralelos para corregir lo que se percibía en ese entonces como abusos laborales y ambientales en México. Pero ahora, tanto Ias personas a favor del TLC como sus oponentes están de acuerdo en que estos acuerdos colaterales han tenido muy poco impacto, principalmente porque Ios mecanismos que éstos crearon carecen de capacidad de maniobra.

Uno de estos acuerdos laterales, el Acuerdo Norteamericano sobre Cooperación Laboral (NAALC) estableció paneles en cada uno de Ios tres países formantes - EE.UU., México y Canadá - para que escucharan Ias quejas sobre los abusos laborales. Hasta el momento, Ios paneles han revisado sólo seis casos - cinco de los cuales ocurrieron en México y uno en EE.UU. - pero han limitado su labor a documentar Ios casos.

El impacto cuestionable de Ios acuerdos laborales y ambientales y el desempeño de sus administradores, forman parte ahora del debate sobre futuros acuerdos comerciales. El gobierno de Bill Clinton, que le pidió al Congreso Ia autoridad para negociar acuerdos con otros países latinoamericanos por Ia vía rápida sin que los legisladores puedan hacerle enmiendas, promueve Ia eliminación de acuerdos paralelos con el NAALC en los futuros tratados. Los oponentes del TLC, en particular los sindicatos de EE.UU. y Ios ambientalistas, quieren que se incluyan estos pactos.