Dear Colleagues:
I must have received some bad information about the distribution of
research personnel throughout the global GE research enterprise.
Normally, I would not bother the listserver with this, but since my
comments were public, so should be my apology.
Although the facts are not yet clear to me, it is clear that GE's NY
facility is very extensive and I was apparently ill-informed.
If Dr. Early will accept my apology on behalf of GE, I will take this
opportunity to restate something that deserves our continued
attention: hi-tech jobs are moving overseas at an accelerating rate.
If we continue to accept lower and lower competence in science and
math at every level of our educational system - K-12, college
entrants, college graduates, and even PhD recipients, we can expect
that most of our grandchildren will be sewing sneakers for Nike and
the very best of them - if they are working for GE - will be doing so
increasingly in Bangalore and Shanghai instead of Niskayuna, NY.
No amount of nationalism, jingoism, protectionism, and isolationism
can prevail over the inexorable forces of economic globalization
without hastening a decline in Americans' standard of living. Only
intellectual and educational revitalization can help us.
Now, I apologize to readers of the AMMRL listserver for pushing it
astray from its technical purpose. I will try to stop now.
Bill
William C. Stevens, Ph.D. Director
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
618-453-6498 voice / -6408 fax / 521-9892 cell
http://opie.nmr.siu.edu
Received on Thu Apr 13 2006 - 11:32:22 MST