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| Authored by: Sonya on Sunday, April 03 2005 @ 04:46 PM CDT |
I appreciate your concern about the net long run effect of development projects. More and more development works are putting emphasis on this. I think that is why development projects are becoming more long term and specific and we're seeing less unsustainable projects such as "well-building marathons" and such. If you're curious about our SCALA project long term model, I encourage you to visit:
scala.ewb.ca/model.php
Now, I agree with you that outsourcing can create an innovative drive for Canadians to be more competitive. I'm taking Larry Smith's econ class and I seem to remember him talking about this for half a class.
Seeing the presence of multinationals utilizing the inexpensive labour pool of South-East Asia makes me feel uneasy too - especially in the garment industry. I don't think that outsourcing in the computer industry can be criticized as much as the garment industry though. Mainly because the computer industry seeks out relatively skilled labour and encourages the labour force to be more and more educated. Education is empowerment and I believe that as a labour pool becomes more educated, the level of innovation and self determination grows.
I'm not saying I don't have any issues with the way outsourcing of computer labour works - I think it's still a contentious issue. I just wanted to point out that it's not a black and white situation.
Either way, I wouldn't say the Scala project encourages outsourcing. Hence, I probably shouldn't be arguing about it in the first place. The computer livelihood training program focuses on computer literacy, life skills education, resource linkages and employment support. If anything, it empowers the local population to be more secure, innovative and competitive in the long run. Hence, this would not fuel the expansion of low-wage labour pools but perhaps instead encourage the demand for better salaries and working conditions.
About our meetings, we will be having a general meeting tomorrow (monday April 4th at 5:30pm in SLC 2143) that is open to anyone. This will not be a discussion session though. Our discussion sessions are over for the term. If you sign up on our mailing list, we can notify you of when they restart. Just don’t point out your identity to us and we won’t throw food at you (joke). Seriously though, I'd be happy to further discuss this at the meeting. There's only so much time I can put into discussing this on UWS when I should be studying for the good ol exams.
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