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armchair experts by Paul Riesz 12 March 2002 14:57 UTC |
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Referring to a recent polemic between Adam Starr and David Smith I should like to make the following comments: Starr criticized the fact that armchair experts gave opinions on the Islamic State without having had the opportunity of personally knowing the conditions of such countries He then recounted his experiences with "development experts" from the 1st world, who recommend useless technologies, while spending the funds intended to reduce poverty on luxury items for themselves. It appears to me that both observations are quite to the point and raise the important issue, that academic training and theoretic knowledge, though being extremely useful, might often not be sufficient for addressing the grave problems afflicting our societies. As to wasteful use of development funds I personally have witnessed such occurrences in several Latin American countries, where millions are being squandered without achieving their intended purpose where and studies are conducted from air-conditioned offices without the needed and often essential fieldwork. Smith’s answer did not refute these reasonable arguments, but only made deprecatory observations on Starr's "undergraduate" standing, which is not a good example for the high level of this groups discussions. Regards Paul Riesz
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