30331: Bick (reply) RE: 30323: Durban: re 30315 Schuller on Brain Drain Inquiry (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

paulbick@msn.com

Yes - the 84% figure needs to be qualified.  How many of these left
precisely to get an American (or other) college education?  Do we consider
these part of "drain" or part of a potential intellectual remittance?

The other side of brain drain, of course, is that the educated are far more
likely than the indigent to produce significant remittances - in terms of
both money, and other forms of capital.  Diasopra remittances - by most
accounts - are keeping Haiti alive at the moment.  This in no way makes up
for the intellectual infrastructure brain drain displaces in the local
context - but an educated, connected, activist diaspora can be a very useful
social category - especially in an "extreme crisis" state, such as Haiti.
This is particularly true in this day and age - when transnational flows and
connectivities have lessened the signifigance of geography in the formation
of national identities.  Furthermore - large numbers of diaspora at all
educational levels nurture a dream of returning one day to a safe,
flourishing Haiti - and are actively engaged in trying to bring those
conditions of possibility about.