[OPE] Conclusion: The Bogota Symposium on my Work

I met with the students on my second day at the University, along with
my outstanding translator, who was there for me that every session,
sometimes translating me into Spanish, and sometimes including my hosts
into English for me. As the letter I posted yesterday suggested, they
were all familiar with books of mine. They asked questions that showed
a political awareness that would have been unlikely in a US, setting.
Part of the interest in talking with me, was a desire to know how to
respond to a transformation of the country that is underway. In
addition to the impending free trade agreement with the United States
and the arrangement for three military bases, the government is planning
a massive reform, a word that should make any right-minded person tremble.

Presently, the country is fairly generous with students, apparently far
more than United States. All this is going to cease because the program
was funded with World Bank money, which now must be repaid. In
addition, universities will be privatized and turned into trade schools
for the extractive industries, upon which the new economic plan rests.
Colombia has already been under a heavily neoliberal program. The new
move smacks of a combination of absurdity and violence.

more at:

http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/conclusion-the-bogota-symposium-on-my-work/

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
mperelman@csuchico.edu
530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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