[gu-l] (09/22/03) Keynote speech at SEFI conference in Porto, Portugal
Takeshi Utsumi
utsumi@columbia.edu
Mon, 22 Sep 2003 13:01:34 -0400
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<<September 22, 2003>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking "Correspondence" in our
home page at <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/>.
For those after 2/27/01, see or bookmark:
<http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/> and click on "Date,"
For example. The most recent archives are the bottom line.
Professor Alfredo A. V. Soeiro <avsoeiro@reit.up.pt>
Carlos Cardoso Oliveira <colive@fe.up.pt>
Prof. Dan Maniu Duse Ph.D. <prodid@univ.sibiu.ro>
Hassan Basri <drhb@eng.ukm.my>
Dr. Branko Jeren <branko.jeren@fer.hr>
Joseph (Joe) S. DiGregorio, Ph.D. <joedee@austin.rr.com>
Gary Downey <downeyg@vt.edu>
Dear Alfredo:
(1) Thank you very, very much for your kind invitation for my keynote speec=
h
on "Creating Global University System" at your 31st conference of the
European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) in Porto, Portugal, from =
7
to 10, September, 2003.
> Dear Carlos:
> Thank you also for your help for my speech with printing of voluminous
> handouts, etc.
>=20
> BTW, if you have a video taken during my speech, would you mind kindly se=
nding
> me its copy (in either CD, DVD or VHS/NCS) for my review?
(2) My wife, Hisae, and I thoroughly enjoyed your highly successful and
wonderful conference with very enjoyable parties, boat cruise and tasting
famous Port wine, etc., etc.
(3) I was very happy and comfortable to meet with many people from around
the world with same background as mine, i.e., =B3engineering.=B2
> Dear SEFI conference attendees:
> I took the liberty of including you into our list so that you will be kep=
t
> updated with our daily progress.
>=20
(4) I was very pleased to hear of your comment to my speech that the
education in the 21st century needs to aim higher level, i.e., building
higher humanity for global peace, than the conventional one with mere
enhancement of job skills, since it is precisely the main purpose of our
forthcoming book =B3Creating Global University System=B2 (*) about which my
keynote speech mentioned.
> (*) the outline of this book can be retrieved at;
> http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20Univers=
ity%2
> 0System/UNESCO_Chair_Book/Bk_outline-D13.html
(5) Pls visit the following web site;
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20Universit=
y
%20System/2003-09_SEFI_Porto,%20Portugal/Keynote_Speech_at_SEFI.html
Here, I uploaded the following of my speech;
1. Handout of slides in pdf format (4.7 MB),
2. Narration in MS/WORD format (4.1 MB), -- rough draft without
extemporaneous notations made during the presentation.
I was sorry with time limitation problem for my speech. Mark Twain once
said =B3Give me more time, I can then shrink my manuscript into a half.=B2 I
was so busy with my editing the book before my trip, so that I could not
have enough time to shrink the manuscript of my speech.
> Dear Joe:
>=20
> I thank you for your high praise of my speech.
>=20
> I also greatly appreciated your willingness to work with our GUS project.=
Pls
> send me your brief bio so that I can get acquainted with your background.
(6) I also thank you for your kind introduction to the people at Coimbra
University. I had a wonderful mtg with them and very pleasant sight-seeing
in Coimbra =8B which I will mention in my next list distribution.
(7) Pls convey our sincere thanks for your secretary (Ms. Maria Joao Amaral=
)
for her comprehensive travel arrangements for our trip to Coimbra and Lisbo=
n
where we spent wonderful time as visiting many, many cathedrals and
monasteries (Batalha, Fatima, etc.) -- which are very magnificent historica=
l
monuments, indeed, -- and even Guincho Cabo da Roca (the westernmost point
of European continent) and Arrabida mountain (south of Lisbon), etc. You
must be very proud of your tremendous national history and heritages.
> Pls visit some of photos we have taken at the URL mentioned in the Item (=
5)
> above.
Dear Gary:
(8) It was our great pleasure to have met with you. We enjoyed our
conversation during a lunch time. You are certainly extraordinary person
with engineering and cultural background.
Referring to our conversation and the Slide #2 (and its narration) of my
presentation, you may be interested in reading a news article appeared in
The New York Time (ATTACHMENT I), though it may be controversial to our
European colleagues.
Dear Dr. Jeren:
(9) It was certainly my great pleasure to have met with you. I was very
happy to hear of your experience in Zagreb, Croatia, with our =B3Global
Lecture Hall (GLH)=B2 multipoint-to-multipoint, multimedia, interactive
videoconference originated from the University of Lecce, Lecce, Italy, in
October of 1991 =8B pls visit its description =B31.6 GLH in October, 1991=B2 in
Chapter 2 of my book draft at;
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Bookwriting/PART_I/Chapter_II/Chapte=
r
_2_total.html#anchor738370
Dear Dr. Duse (Romannia):
(10) As briefly discussed during the conference, should you wish to
establish GUS/Romania in your country, you may consider to utilize the
following fund;
> Japan Social Development Fund of the World Bank
> http://www.worldbank.org/rmc/jsdf/approvals.htm
You may follow the model of our colleagues in Malawi and Uganda =8B pls visit
my previous list distribution =B3[gu-l] (07/18/03) Initial fund raiding for
starting GUS=B2 at;
http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/2003q3/000219.html
Keep in touch.
Best, Tak
ATTACHMENT I=20
June 8, 2003, Sunday
WEEK IN REVIEW DESK
The World; Why America Outpaces Europe (Clue: The God Factor)
By NIALL FERGUSON (NYT) 1386 words
OXFORD, England -- IT was almost a century ago that the German
sociologist Max Weber published his influential essay ''The Protestant Ethi=
c
and the Spirit of Capitalism.'' In it, Weber argued that modern capitalism
was ''born from the spirit of Christian asceticism'' in its specifically
Protestant form -- in other words, there was a link between the self-denyin=
g
ethos of the Protestant sects and the behavior patterns associated with
capitalism, above all hard work.
Many scholars have built careers out of criticizing Weber's thesis. Yet the
experience of Western Europe in the past quarter-century offers an
unexpected confirmation of it. To put it bluntly, we are witnessing the
decline and fall of the Protestant work ethic in Europe. This represents th=
e
stunning triumph of secularization in Western Europe -- the simultaneous
decline of both Protestantism and its unique work ethic.
Just as Weber's 1904 visit to the United States convinced him that his
thesis was right, anyone visiting New York today would have a similar
experience. For in the pious, industrious United States, the Protestant wor=
k
ethic is alive and well. Its death is a peculiarly European phenomenon --
and has grim implications for the future of the European Union on the eve o=
f
its eastward expansion, perhaps most economically disastrous for the ''new'=
'
Europe.=20
Many economists have missed this vindication of Weber because they are
focused on measures of productivity, like output per hour worked. On that
basis, the Western European economies have spent most of the past
half-century spectacularly catching up with the United States.
But what the productivity numbers don't reveal is the dramatic divergence
over two decades between the amount of time Americans work and the amount o=
f
time Western Europeans work. By American standards, Western Europeans are
astonishingly idle.
According to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation an=
d
Development, the average working American spends 1,976 hours a year on the
job. The average German works just 1,535 -- 22 percent less. The Dutch and
Norwegians put in even fewer hours. Even the British do 10 percent less wor=
k
than their trans-Atlantic cousins. Between 1979 and 1999, the average
American working year lengthened by 50 hours, or nearly 3 percent. But the
average German working year shrank by 12 percent.
Yet even these figures understate the extent of European idleness, because =
a
larger proportion of Americans work. Between 1973 and 1998 the percentage o=
f
the American population in employment rose from 41 percent to 49 percent.
But in Germany and France the percentage fell, ending up at 44 and 39
percent. Unemployment rates in most Northern European countries are also
markedly higher than in the United States.
Then there are the strikes. Between 1992 and 2001, the Spanish economy lost=
,
on average, 271 days per 1,000 employees as a result of strikes. For
Denmark, Italy, Finland, Ireland and France, the figures range between 80
and 120 days, compared with fewer than 50 for the United States.
All this is the real reason that the American economy has surged ahead of
its European competitors in the past two decades. It is not about
efficiency. It is simply that Americans work more. Europeans take longer
holidays and retire earlier; and many more European workers are either
unemployed or on strike.
How to explain this sharp divergence? Why have West Europeans opted for
shorter working days, weeks, months, years and lives? This is where Weber's
thesis comes up trumps: the countries where the least work is done in Europ=
e
turn out to be those that were once predominantly Protestant. While the
overwhelmingly Catholic French and Italians work about 15 to 20 percent
fewer hours a year than Americans, the more Protestant Germans and Dutch an=
d
the wholly Protestant Norwegians work 25 to 30 percent less.
What clinches the Weber thesis is that Northern Europe's declines in workin=
g
hours coincide almost exactly with steep declines in religious observance.
In the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, less than 10
percent of the population now attend church at least once a month, a
dramatic decline since the 1960's. (Only in Catholic Italy and Ireland do
more than a third of the population go to church on a monthly basis.) In th=
e
recent Gallup Millennium Survey of religious attitudes, 49 percent of Danes=
,
52 percent of Norwegians and 55 percent of Swedes said God did not matter t=
o
them. In North America, by comparison, 82 percent of respondents said God
was ''very important.''
So the decline of work in Northern Europe has occurred more or less
simultaneously with the decline of Protestantism. Quod erat demonstrandum
indeed!=20
Weber's vindication has profound implications for the next year's
enlargement of the European Union, when the Baltic States, Hungary, Poland,
Slovenia and the Czech and Slovak Republics will become full European Union
members.=20
A crucial feature of this enlargement, compared with those of the 1970's an=
d
1980's, is that the material gap between old and new members is far wider
this time. In 1974, the richest old member (Luxembourg) was twice as rich a=
s
the poorest new member (Ireland) in terms of per capita gross domestic
product. Today, the average Luxembourgeois is more than five times richer
than the poorest new member (Lithuania).
The impact of adopting the European Union's economic and social rules is
bound to be far greater for this generation of new Europeans. They should
remember what happened in the 1990's to the East Germans, who initially
celebrated their accession to the vastly richer West German Federal
Republic, only to discover it meant unemployment for roughly a third of the
work force.=20
This is where productivity statistics matter. Even after more than a decade
of free-market reforms, productivity levels in the Czech Republic, Poland,
Slovakia and Hungary are as low as one third of the French level. What this
means is that unless wages in those countries are set at around a third of
French levels, their workers will not be able to compete.
East Europeans are currently able to compensate for their low productivity
by working longer hours. The average Czech worker does more than 2,000 hour=
s
of work a year -- a figure steadily rising since the collapse of Communism,
even as working hours in Western Europe were declining. Unfortunately,
European Union labor legislation will reverse this, to prevent what the Wes=
t
Europeans disingenuously call ''social dumping'' -- the competition from
low-wage economies. Czechs will be obliged to work less by a combination of
legal entitlements to a shorter working week, longer holidays, higher
minimum wages and generous unemployment benefits when their employers go
bust because of all this.
The question is how much the Czechs will care about the ensuing enforced
leisure. Like nearly all the 10 new members of the European Union, the Czec=
h
Republic is a predominantly Catholic country. (The exceptions are Protestan=
t
Estonia and Latvia.) But one striking consequence of 40-plus years of
socialist rule in Eastern Europe has been a decline of religious belief
almost as marked as that in Northern Europe.
ACCORDING to Gallup, 48 percent of Western Europeans almost never go to
church, but the figure for Eastern Europe is just a bit less, at 44 percent=
.
Meanwhile, 64 percent of Czechs regard God as not mattering at all -- a
higher rate than even in Sweden. In this respect the difference between
''old'' and ''new'' Europe may turn out to be less than many Americans now
believe. Enlargement of the European Union may simply confirm the eastward
spread of the leisure preference in an increasingly work-shy and Godless
European continent.
The loser will be the European economy, which will continue to fall behind
the United States in terms of its absolute annual output. The winner will b=
e
the spirit of secularized sloth, which has finally slain the Protestant wor=
k
ethic in Europe -- and Max Weber, whose famous thesis celebrates its
centenary by attaining the status of verity.
CAPTIONS: Photo: By American standards, European workers seem positively
idle: the main Frankfurt train station during a railroad strike in March.
(Associated Press)
Niall Ferguson is a professor of financial history at the Stern School of
Business, New York University, and a senior research fellow of Jesus
College, Oxford. He is the author of =B3Empire: The Rise and Demise of the
British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power.=B2
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
List of Distribution
Professor Alfredo A. V. Soeiro
President of the International Association for Continuing Engineering
Education (IACEE)
President of the Portuguese Association of Universities for Continuing
Education
Chairman, Engineering faculty of the University of Porto (FEUP)
Pro-Reitor
Universidade do Porto
Rua D. Manuel II
4050-345 Porto
Portugal
Tel: +351.2.607.35.79
Cel: +351-9-669-17698
Fax: +351.2.609.87.36
avsoeiro@reit.up.pt
Carlos Cardoso Oliveira
SEFI2003 Organizing Committee
Faculdade de Engenharia
Universidade do Porto
Portugal
colive@fe.up.pt
Prof. Dan Maniu Duse Ph.D.
Vice - Rector
The "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu
2400-SIBIU
B-dul Victoriei 10
ROMANIA
Tel.: 40-069-21.10.83
Fax: 40-069-21.02.98
Cel: 094-66.79.28
prodid@univ.sibiu.ro
prodid@ulbsibiu.ro
Hassan Basri
Ph.D., M.I.E.M., P.Eng
Dean, Faculty of Engineering
Professor of Environmental Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
(National University of Malaysia)
43600 Bangi
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Tel: (603) 89296100
Fax: (603) 89263151
drhb@eng.ukm.my
drhb@visi.eng.ukm.my
Dr. Branko Jeren
Professor
Department of Electronic Systems and Information Processing
University of Zagreb
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Unska3, 10000 Zagreb
Croatia
TEL: +385 1 612 9950
FAX: +385 1 612 9652
branko.jeren@fer.hr
Joseph (Joe) S. DiGregorio, Ph.D.
13421 Overland Pass
Austin, TX, 78738
USA
512-402-0324
512-461-9788
joedee@austin.rr.com
Gary Downey
Professor, Science and Technology Studies and Cultural Anthropology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
332 Lane Hall (0227)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Tel: (540) 231-4761
Fax: (540) 231-7013
downeyg@vt.edu
Engineering Cultures website: www.cyber.vt.edu/engcultures
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* =A0=A0Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
* Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
**********************************************************************
--B_3147080495_1127094
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Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>(09/22/03) Keynote speech at SEFI conference in Porto, Portugal</TIT=
LE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><<September 22, 2=
003>><BR>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking "Correspondence&qu=
ot; in our home page at <a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/">&l=
t;http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/></a>.<BR>
For those after 2/27/01, see or bookmark:<BR>
<a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/"><http://www.fr=
iends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/></a> and click on "Date," <B=
R>
For example. The most recent archives are the bottom line. <BR>
<BR>
Professor Alfredo A. V. Soeiro <avsoeiro@reit.up.pt><BR>
<BR>
Carlos Cardoso Oliveira <colive@fe.up.pt><BR>
<BR>
Prof. Dan Maniu Duse Ph.D. <prodid@univ.sibiu.ro><BR>
<BR>
Hassan Basri <drhb@eng.ukm.my><BR>
<BR>
Dr. Branko Jeren <branko.jeren@fer.hr><BR>
<BR>
Joseph (Joe) S. DiGregorio, Ph.D. <joedee@austin.rr.com><BR>
<BR>
Gary Downey <downeyg@vt.edu><BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><FONT SIZE=3D"2"><FONT FACE=3D"Courier"><SP=
AN STYLE=3D'font-size:10.0px'><BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.=
0px'><B><U>Dear Alfredo:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(1) Thank you very, very much for your kind invitation for my keynote speec=
h on "Creating Global University System" at your 31st conference o=
f the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) in Porto, Portugal, =
from 7 to 10, September, 2003.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'><B><U>Dear Carlos:<BR>
</U></B>Thank you also for your help for my speech with printing of volumin=
ous handouts, etc.<BR>
<BR>
BTW, if you have a video taken during my speech, would you mind kindly send=
ing me its copy (in either CD, DVD or VHS/NCS) for my review?<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0=
px'><BR>
(2) My wife, Hisae, and I thoroughly enjoyed your highly successful and won=
derful conference with very enjoyable parties, boat cruise and tasting famou=
s Port wine, etc., etc.<BR>
<BR>
(3) I was very happy and comfortable to meet with many people from around t=
he world with same background as mine, i.e., “engineering.”<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'><B><U>Dear SEFI conference attendees:<BR>
</U></B>I took the liberty of including you into our list so that you will =
be kept updated with our daily progress.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0=
px'>(4) I was very pleased to hear of your comment to my speech that the edu=
cation in the 21st century needs to aim higher level, i.e., building higher =
humanity for global peace, than the conventional one with mere enhancement o=
f job skills, since it is precisely the main purpose of our forthcoming book=
“Creating Global University System” (*) about which my keynote =
speech mentioned.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'>(*) the outline of this book can be retrieved at;<BR>
<a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20=
University%20System/UNESCO_Chair_Book/Bk_outline-D13.html">http://www.friend=
s-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20University%20System/UNESCO_=
Chair_Book/Bk_outline-D13.html</a><BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0=
px'><BR>
(5) Pls visit the following web site;<BR>
<a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20=
University%20System/2003-09_SEFI_Porto,%20Portugal/Keynote_Speech_at_SEFI.ht=
ml">http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20Univer=
sity%20System/2003-09_SEFI_Porto,%20Portugal/Keynote_Speech_at_SEFI.html</a>=
<BR>
<BR>
Here, I uploaded the following of my speech;<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><OL><LI><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><=
FONT COLOR=3D"#000080">Handout of slides in pdf format </FONT>(4.7 MB),=20
</SPAN></FONT><LI><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><FONT=
COLOR=3D"#000080">Narration in MS/WORD format </FONT>(4.1 MB), -- rough draft=
without extemporaneous notations made during the presentation.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></OL><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><BR>
I was sorry with time limitation problem for my speech. Mark Twain on=
ce said “Give me more time, I can then shrink my manuscript into a hal=
f.” I was so busy with my editing the book before my trip, so th=
at I could not have enough time to shrink the manuscript of my speech.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'><B><U>Dear Joe:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
I thank you for your high praise of my speech.<BR>
<BR>
I also greatly appreciated your willingness to work with our GUS project. &=
nbsp;Pls send me your brief bio so that I can get acquainted with your backg=
round.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0=
px'><BR>
(6) I also thank you for your kind introduction to the people at Coimbra Un=
iversity. I had a wonderful mtg with them and very pleasant sight-seei=
ng in Coimbra — which I will mention in my next list distribution.<BR>
<BR>
(7) Pls convey our sincere thanks for your secretary (Ms. Maria Joao Amaral=
) for her comprehensive travel arrangements for our trip to Coimbra and Lisb=
on where we spent wonderful time as visiting many, many cathedrals and monas=
teries (Batalha, Fatima, etc.) -- which are very magnificent historical monu=
ments, indeed, -- and even Guincho Cabo da Roca (the westernmost point of Eu=
ropean continent) and Arrabida mountain (south of Lisbon), etc. You mu=
st be very proud of your tremendous national history and heritages.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'>Pls visit some of photos we have taken at the URL mentioned in the Item (=
5) above.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0=
px'><BR>
<B><U>Dear Gary:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(8) It was our great pleasure to have met with you. We enjoyed our co=
nversation during a lunch time. You are certainly extraordinary person=
with engineering and cultural background.<BR>
<BR>
Referring to our conversation and the Slide #2 (and its narration) of my pr=
esentation, you may be interested in reading a news article appeared in The =
New York Time (<B><U>ATTACHMENT I</U></B>), though it may be controversial t=
o our European colleagues.<BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Dear Dr. Jeren:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(9) It was certainly my great pleasure to have met with you. I was ve=
ry happy to hear of your experience in Zagreb, Croatia, with our “Glob=
al Lecture Hall (GLH)” multipoint-to-multipoint, multimedia, interacti=
ve videoconference originated from the University of Lecce, Lecce, Italy, in=
October of 1991 — pls visit its description “1.6 GLH in October=
, 1991” in Chapter 2 of my book draft at;<BR>
<a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Bookwriting/PART_I/Chapter_=
II/Chapter_2_total.html#anchor738370">http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS=
/Bookwriting/PART_I/Chapter_II/Chapter_2_total.html#anchor738370</a><BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Dear Dr. Duse (Romannia):<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(10) As briefly discussed during the conference, should you wish to establi=
sh GUS/Romania in your country, you may consider to utilize the following fu=
nd;<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><FONT FACE=3D"Times"><SPAN STYLE=3D'fo=
nt-size:18.0px'><B>Japan Social Development Fund of the World Bank <BR>
</B><FONT COLOR=3D"#000080"><a href=3D"http://www.worldbank.org/rmc/jsdf/approv=
als.htm">http://www.worldbank.org/rmc/jsdf/approvals.htm</a> <BR>
</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><FONT FACE=3D"Times">=
<SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:18.0px'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'>Yo=
u may follow the model of our colleagues in Malawi and Uganda — pls vi=
sit my previous list distribution “[gu-l] (07/18/03) Initial fund raid=
ing for starting GUS” at;<BR>
<a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/2003q3/000219.html"=
>http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/2003q3/000219.html</a><BR>
<BR>
Keep in touch.<BR>
<BR>
Best, Tak<BR>
<HR ALIGN=3DCENTER SIZE=3D"3" WIDTH=3D"95%">
</SPAN></FONT>
<P ALIGN=3DCENTER>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><B><U>ATTACHMENT I=20
</U></B></SPAN></FONT>
<P>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Times"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:14.0px'><H3>June 8,=
2003, Sunday <BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR=3D"#666666">WEEK IN REVIEW DESK <BR>
</FONT><BR>
</H3></SPAN><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:24.0px'><H1>The World; Why America Outpa=
ces Europe (Clue: The God Factor) <BR>
<BR>
</H1></SPAN><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:14.0px'><H3>By NIALL FERGUSON (NYT=
) 1386 words <BR>
</H3></SPAN><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:18.0px'>OXFORD, England &=
nbsp;-- IT was almost a century ago that the German sociol=
ogist Max Weber published his influential essay ''The Protestant Ethic and t=
he Spirit of Capitalism.'' In it, Weber argued that modern capitalism was ''=
born from the spirit of Christian asceticism'' in its specifically Protestan=
t form -- in other words, there was a link between the self-denying ethos of=
the Protestant sects and the behavior patterns associated with capitalism, =
above all hard work. <BR>
<BR>
Many scholars have built careers out of criticizing Weber's thesis. Yet the=
experience of Western Europe in the past quarter-century offers an unexpect=
ed confirmation of it. To put it bluntly, we are witnessing the decline and =
fall of the Protestant work ethic in Europe. This represents the stunning tr=
iumph of secularization in Western Europe -- the simultaneous decline of bot=
h Protestantism and its unique work ethic. <BR>
<BR>
Just as Weber's 1904 visit to the United States convinced him that his thes=
is was right, anyone visiting New York today would have a similar experience=
. For in the pious, industrious United States, the Protestant work ethic is =
alive and well. Its death is a peculiarly European phenomenon -- and has gri=
m implications for the future of the European Union on the eve of its eastwa=
rd expansion, perhaps most economically disastrous for the ''new'' Europe. <=
BR>
<BR>
Many economists have missed this vindication of Weber because they are focu=
sed on measures of productivity, like output per hour worked. On that basis,=
the Western European economies have spent most of the past half-century spe=
ctacularly catching up with the United States. <BR>
<BR>
But what the productivity numbers don't reveal is the dramatic divergence o=
ver two decades between the amount of time Americans work and the amount of =
time Western Europeans work. By American standards, Western Europeans are as=
tonishingly idle. <BR>
<BR>
According to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation an=
d Development, the average working American spends 1,976 hours a year on the=
job. The average German works just 1,535 -- 22 percent less. The Dutch and =
Norwegians put in even fewer hours. Even the British do 10 percent less work=
than their trans-Atlantic cousins. Between 1979 and 1999, the average Ameri=
can working year lengthened by 50 hours, or nearly 3 percent. But the averag=
e German working year shrank by 12 percent. <BR>
<BR>
Yet even these figures understate the extent of European idleness, because =
a larger proportion of Americans work. Between 1973 and 1998 the percentage =
of the American population in employment rose from 41 percent to 49 percent.=
But in Germany and France the percentage fell, ending up at 44 and 39 perce=
nt. Unemployment rates in most Northern European countries are also markedly=
higher than in the United States. <BR>
<BR>
Then there are the strikes. Between 1992 and 2001, the Spanish economy lost=
, on average, 271 days per 1,000 employees as a result of strikes. For Denma=
rk, Italy, Finland, Ireland and France, the figures range between 80 and 120=
days, compared with fewer than 50 for the United States. <BR>
<BR>
All this is the real reason that the American economy has surged ahead of i=
ts European competitors in the past two decades. It is not about efficiency.=
It is simply that Americans work more. Europeans take longer holidays and r=
etire earlier; and many more European workers are either unemployed or on st=
rike. <BR>
<BR>
How to explain this sharp divergence? Why have West Europeans opted for sho=
rter working days, weeks, months, years and lives? This is where Weber's the=
sis comes up trumps: the countries where the least work is done in Europe tu=
rn out to be those that were once predominantly Protestant. While the overwh=
elmingly Catholic French and Italians work about 15 to 20 percent fewer hour=
s a year than Americans, the more Protestant Germans and Dutch and the wholl=
y Protestant Norwegians work 25 to 30 percent less. <BR>
<BR>
What clinches the Weber thesis is that Northern Europe's declines in workin=
g hours coincide almost exactly with steep declines in religious observance.=
In the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, less than 10 perc=
ent of the population now attend church at least once a month, a dramatic de=
cline since the 1960's. (Only in Catholic Italy and Ireland do more than a t=
hird of the population go to church on a monthly basis.) In the recent Gallu=
p Millennium Survey of religious attitudes, 49 percent of Danes, 52 percent =
of Norwegians and 55 percent of Swedes said God did not matter to them. In N=
orth America, by comparison, 82 percent of respondents said God was ''very i=
mportant.'' <BR>
<BR>
So the decline of work in Northern Europe has occurred more or less simulta=
neously with the decline of Protestantism. Quod erat demonstrandum indeed! <=
BR>
<BR>
Weber's vindication has profound implications for the next year's enlargeme=
nt of the European Union, when the Baltic States, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia =
and the Czech and Slovak Republics will become full European Union members. =
<BR>
<BR>
A crucial feature of this enlargement, compared with those of the 1970's an=
d 1980's, is that the material gap between old and new members is far wider =
this time. In 1974, the richest old member (Luxembourg) was twice as rich as=
the poorest new member (Ireland) in terms of per capita gross domestic prod=
uct. Today, the average Luxembourgeois is more than five times richer than t=
he poorest new member (Lithuania). <BR>
<BR>
The impact of adopting the European Union's economic and social rules is bo=
und to be far greater for this generation of new Europeans. They should reme=
mber what happened in the 1990's to the East Germans, who initially celebrat=
ed their accession to the vastly richer West German Federal Republic, only t=
o discover it meant unemployment for roughly a third of the work force. <BR>
<BR>
This is where productivity statistics matter. Even after more than a decade=
of free-market reforms, productivity levels in the Czech Republic, Poland, =
Slovakia and Hungary are as low as one third of the French level. What this =
means is that unless wages in those countries are set at around a third of F=
rench levels, their workers will not be able to compete. <BR>
<BR>
East Europeans are currently able to compensate for their low productivity =
by working longer hours. The average Czech worker does more than 2,000 hours=
of work a year -- a figure steadily rising since the collapse of Communism,=
even as working hours in Western Europe were declining. Unfortunately, Euro=
pean Union labor legislation will reverse this, to prevent what the West Eur=
opeans disingenuously call ''social dumping'' -- the competition from low-wa=
ge economies. Czechs will be obliged to work less by a combination of legal =
entitlements to a shorter working week, longer holidays, higher minimum wage=
s and generous unemployment benefits when their employers go bust because of=
all this. <BR>
<BR>
The question is how much the Czechs will care about the ensuing enforced le=
isure. Like nearly all the 10 new members of the European Union, the Czech R=
epublic is a predominantly Catholic country. (The exceptions are Protestant =
Estonia and Latvia.) But one striking consequence of 40-plus years of social=
ist rule in Eastern Europe has been a decline of religious belief almost as =
marked as that in Northern Europe. <BR>
<BR>
ACCORDING to Gallup, 48 percent of Western Europeans almost never go to chu=
rch, but the figure for Eastern Europe is just a bit less, at 44 percent. Me=
anwhile, 64 percent of Czechs regard God as not mattering at all -- a higher=
rate than even in Sweden. In this respect the difference between ''old'' an=
d ''new'' Europe may turn out to be less than many Americans now believe. En=
largement of the European Union may simply confirm the eastward spread of th=
e leisure preference in an increasingly work-shy and Godless European contin=
ent. <BR>
<BR>
The loser will be the European economy, which will continue to fall behind =
the United States in terms of its absolute annual output. The winner will be=
the spirit of secularized sloth, which has finally slain the Protestant wor=
k ethic in Europe -- and Max Weber, whose famous thesis celebrates its cente=
nary by attaining the status of verity. <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B>CAPTIONS: </B>Photo: By American standards, European workers seem positi=
vely idle: the main Frankfurt train station during a railroad strike in Marc=
h. (Associated Press)<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'>
</SPAN></FONT>
<P ALIGN=3DCENTER>
<FONT SIZE=3D"5"><FONT FACE=3D"Times"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:18.0px'><HR ALIGN=3D=
CENTER SIZE=3D"3" WIDTH=3D"95%"></SPAN></FONT></FONT>
<P>
<FONT SIZE=3D"5"><FONT FACE=3D"Times"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:18.0px'>Niall Ferg=
uson is a professor of financial history at the Stern School of Business, Ne=
w York University, and a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. &n=
bsp;He is the author of “Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British Wo=
rld Order and the Lessons for Global Power.”<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Times"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:18.0px'><FON=
T COLOR=3D"#000066"><H2>Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company <BR>
</H2></FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0p=
x'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><FONT SIZE=3D"2"><FONT FACE=3D"Courier"><SP=
AN STYLE=3D'font-size:10.0px'><HR ALIGN=3DCENTER SIZE=3D"3" WIDTH=3D"95%"></SPAN></F=
ONT></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'>
</SPAN></FONT>
<P ALIGN=3DCENTER>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><B><U>List of Distribut=
ion<BR>
</U></B>
</SPAN></FONT>
<P>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'>Professor Alfredo A. V.=
Soeiro<BR>
President of the International Association for Continuing Engineering Educa=
tion (IACEE)<BR>
President of the Portuguese Association of Universities for Continuing Educ=
ation<BR>
Chairman, Engineering faculty of the University of Porto (FEUP)<BR>
Pro-Reitor<BR>
Universidade do Porto<BR>
Rua D. Manuel II<BR>
4050-345 Porto<BR>
Portugal<BR>
Tel: +351.2.607.35.79<BR>
Cel: +351-9-669-17698<BR>
Fax: +351.2.609.87.36<BR>
avsoeiro@reit.up.pt<BR>
<BR>
Carlos Cardoso Oliveira<BR>
SEFI2003 Organizing Committee<BR>
Faculdade de Engenharia<BR>
Universidade do Porto<BR>
Portugal<BR>
colive@fe.up.pt<BR>
<BR>
Prof. Dan Maniu Duse Ph.D.<BR>
Vice - Rector<BR>
The "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu<BR>
2400-SIBIU<BR>
B-dul Victoriei 10<BR>
ROMANIA<BR>
Tel.: 40-069-21.10.83<BR>
Fax: 40-069-21.02.98<BR>
Cel: 094-66.79.28<BR>
prodid@univ.sibiu.ro<BR>
prodid@ulbsibiu.ro<BR>
<BR>
Hassan Basri<BR>
Ph.D., M.I.E.M., P.Eng<BR>
Dean, Faculty of Engineering<BR>
Professor of Environmental Engineering<BR>
Department of Civil Engineering,<BR>
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia<BR>
(National University of Malaysia)<BR>
43600 Bangi<BR>
Selangor Darul Ehsan<BR>
Malaysia<BR>
Tel: (603) 89296100<BR>
Fax: (603) 89263151<BR>
drhb@eng.ukm.my<BR>
drhb@visi.eng.ukm.my<BR>
<BR>
Dr. Branko Jeren<BR>
Professor<BR>
Department of Electronic Systems and Information Processing<BR>
University of Zagreb<BR>
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing<BR>
Unska3, 10000 Zagreb<BR>
Croatia<BR>
TEL: +385 1 612 9950<BR>
FAX: +385 1 612 9652<BR>
branko.jeren@fer.hr<BR>
<BR>
Joseph (Joe) S. DiGregorio, Ph.D.<BR>
13421 Overland Pass<BR>
Austin, TX, 78738<BR>
USA<BR>
512-402-0324<BR>
512-461-9788<BR>
joedee@austin.rr.com<BR>
<BR>
Gary Downey<BR>
Professor, Science and Technology Studies and Cultural Anthropology<BR>
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)<BR>
332 Lane Hall (0227)<BR>
Blacksburg, VA 24061<BR>
Tel: (540) 231-4761<BR>
Fax: (540) 231-7013<BR>
downeyg@vt.edu<BR>
Engineering Cultures website: www.cyber.vt.edu/engcultures<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE=3D'font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE=3D"Courier"><HR ALIGN=
=3DCENTER SIZE=3D"3" WIDTH=3D"95%">***********************************************=
***********************<BR>
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA  =
; &nb=
sp;*<BR>
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *<BR>
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *=
<BR>
* Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of &nb=
sp; *<BR>
* =A0=A0Global University System (GUS) &nbs=
p; &n=
bsp; =
*<BR>
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. &n=
bsp; *<BR>
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu &nb=
sp; &=
nbsp; *<BR>
* <a href=3D"http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/">http://www.friends-part=
ners.org/GLOSAS/</a> &=
nbsp;  =
; *<BR>
* Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676  =
; &nb=
sp; &=
nbsp; *<BR>
**********************************************************************<BR>
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