<<May 3, 2000>>

Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP <daj@utk.edu>

Peter T. Knight <ptknight@attglobal.net>

John L. Mack <jlmack@erols.com>

Gary Garriott <garyg@vita.org>

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>
 

Dear David:
===========

(1)  Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).  Thanks also for the very
     exciting info (ATTACHMENT II).

(2)  I asked John Mack to set a date and workshop place in D.C. for the
      Rescue Iridium" project after 6/16th when Peter Knight will come back from Brazil.

Dear Peter:
===========

(3)  Your final report to the InfoDev of the World Bank highly commended our
     Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF) project in the order of several billion dollars.

          See "Peter Knight's final report Lessons_from_infoDev_Projects - April
          23, 2000" at <http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve/global-univ-2000.html>.

(4)  As I said for the report, $5 million/year budget of the InfoDev is not
     sufficient for the establishment of global wireless and satellite broadband Internet.

     I hope you will suggest the InfoDev people to expand their budget at this occasion.

(5)  Inconspicuously, this new $2 billion fund seems not to include global
     distance learning and telehealth/telemedicine via narrow- and broad-band Internet.

     This fund also seems loan-basis instead of grant-basis.

(6)  Subsequently, global e-rate with severe discount (or even free access)
     with GSTF, as you envisioned, still needs to be established.

(7)  I would like to have a mtg on next step of the GSTF project with you,
     David, and Joe Pelton after 6/16th and before you leave for your summer
     cottage in Main in early July.

Best, Tak
            ****************************************
                          ATTACHMENT I

Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 21:07:17 -0400
From: djohnutk <djohnutk@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
Subject: Iridium project

Tak:

As I mentioned today in our phone conversation, the World Bank has announced a
very large grant program for education in developing countries.  The article
is in the New York Times, April 27.  I will forward a copy to you.

It seems to me very timely to invite the Bank to provide a fund to GUS to
adapt and utilize the Iridium satellite system for this purpose.  The Bank
gets credit for doing some good works and the massive investments in this
system is preserved for beneficial purposes.  I hope we can have the Bank's
participation in the DC meeting.  Peter Knight will be a good bridge, but we
might want to get someone from Wolfensohn's office, too, since Peter is now
off the payroll.

Regards,

Dave

David A. Johnson, Ph.D., AICP
Professor Emeritus of Planning
University of Tennessee
108 Hoskins Library
Knoxville, TN  37996-4015
Fax  423 974-5229

Home: 8 Hilltop Rd, Asheville, NC  28803
Home tel:  828 277-5792
Mail:  PO Box 1647, Knoxville, TN 37901
            ****************************************

Return to Global University System Early 2000 Correspondence

                         ATTACHMENT II

                          Excerpt from
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/042700world-bank-edu.html>

          April 27, 2000

          World Bank Chief to Unveil an
          Ambitious Education Program

          By JOSEPH KAHN

          [W] ASHINGTON, April 26 -- As world
              education ministers gather in
          Senegal today to discuss how they have
          fallen far short of their targets in
          poor nations, the World Bank plans to
          announce a broad new commitment to
          schooling and literacy programs.

          James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank
          president, will announce in a speech
          Thursday at the World Education Forum
          in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, that
          the bank is prepared to lend
          "multiples" more than the $2 billion
          it now devotes to education programs
          each year, bank officials said today.

          The resources will focus on poor
          nations that produce a comprehensive
          blueprint for enrolling more children
          in school, for eliminating illiteracy
          and for ensuring that girls have equal
          access to education.

          The initiative will be the bank's
          second sweeping commitment in two
          weeks to fighting poverty at the
          grass-roots level. Last week finance
          ministers endorsed a World Bank plan
          to spend much more to fight AIDS in
          developing countries. The bank has
          pledged to shift resources it once
          devoted to large-scale projects like
          dams and highways to programs that
          directly help poor people. In total,
          it makes about $30 billion in loans
          each year.

          The commitments have come at a time of
          unusual public pressure on the bank
          and the International Monetary Fund,
          its sister lending agency, to do more
          to alleviate poverty and protect the
          environment. Protesters declaring that
          these lenders often do more harm than
          good tried to shut down the spring
          meetings of the institutions in
          Washington this month.

          Bank and fund officials say they are
          wary of a backlash against
          globalization that could undermine
          their political support in the richer
          countries that provide their money.

          The World Bank is already the single
          largest source of international aid
          for education, having doubled its
          annual lending to $1.9 billion last
          year from $900 million in 1990. Bank
          officials said they were now prepared
          to devote many times that amount in
          coming years to a group of nations,
          perhaps as many as 20, that produce
          "business plans" demonstrating how
          they will use foreign aid for certain
          goals. These are to train teachers,
          buy textbooks, build schools and
          subsidize families, so that children
          who would otherwise be relied on to
          work can attend classes.

          "This is about how we move from
          rhetoric to concrete action," said
          Eduardo A. Doryan, the World Bank's
          vice president for human development.
          "The constraints on this program will
          not be money." Rather, he said, the
          constraints will be "the political
          will in developing countries to
          produce a viable and sustainable plan
          to transform education."

          The commitment comes as ministers
          convene in Senegal for talks organized
          by the United Nations.

          When they met in Thailand in 1990, the
          ministers vowed to put every child in
          school by this year. But they have
          made only modest progress. Some 125
          million children, mostly girls,
          receive no formal education today.
          Poor countries have made few gains in
          wiping out adult illiteracy, with an
          estimated 880 million adults still
          unable to read. And foreign aid for
          education in Africa has actually
          dropped since the early 1990's,
          private groups that follow education
          trends estimated.

          Education officials are now moving
          some of those goals ahead to 2015.

          The bank said it would work with four
          United Nations agencies and a number
          of international citizens groups in
          pursuing the programs. Oxfam and
          Education International are among the
          private groups.
-----------------------------------------------------------
        Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
            ****************************************

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                      List of Distribution

Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP
Board member of GLOSAS/USA
Former President of Fulbright Association
Professor Emeritus, School of Planning
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tennessee
108-I Hoskins Library
Knoxville, TN 37996-4015
USA
Tel: +1-423-974 5227
Fax: +1-423-974 5229
daj@utk.edu
davidj@buncombe.main.nc.us
http://web.utk.edu/~djohnutk/

Peter T. Knight
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
Strategy, Policy, Design, Implementation, Evaluation
1808 I Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Tel: 1-202-775-2132 (secretary), 1-202-721-0348 (direct)
Fax: 1-202-775-2135 (office), 1-202-362-8482 (home)
ptknight@attglobal.net
peter@knight-moore.com
webmail: ptknight@netscape.net
http://www.knight-moore.com
http://www.cdinet.com
IP for CU-SeeMe: 198.77.80.46
http://www.knight-moore.com/projects/GSTF.html -- about GSTF
Rio Office
Avenida Atlantica 4002/501
Copacabana
22070-002 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
Tel/Fax: 55-21-522-7068 Call first to fax
Cellular: 55-21-9752-5972

John L. Mack, CEO
John L. Mack & Associates
International Telecommunications Investment Consultant
P.O. Box 567
Upper Marlboro, MD 20773-0567
301-627-2188
Fax: 301-627-2188
jlmack@erols.com

Gary Garriott
Director, Informatics
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)
1600 Wilson Blvd., Suite 500
P.O. Box 12438
Arlington, VA 22209-8438
703-276-1800 X19
Fax: 703-243-1865
garyg@vita.org
vita@vita.org
ECONET: VITA
Telex: 440192 VITAUI
Cable: VITAINC
www.vita.org/satvitpo.htm -- Press release on Consorcio SAT/SatelLife/VITA
www.vita.org/consort.htm -- Press release on satellite-users coalition
www.vita.org/slife.htm -- Press release on SatelLife-VITA

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
Senior Research Scientist
Institute for Applied Space Research, Rm 340
George Washington University
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052
202-994-5507
Fax: 202-994-5505
ecjpelton@aol.com
jpelton@seas.gwu.edu
Or,
Acting Executive Director of CITI
Vice-Chair of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation of the U.S. (ACCFUS)
Arthur C. Clark Institute for Telecommunication and Information (CITI)
4025 40th Street North
Arlington, VA 22207
(703) 536-6985
ecjpelton@aol.com
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/index.html
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html
**********************************************************************
* 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 of CAADE                                                   *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education)      *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of     *
*   Global University System (GUS)                                   *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A.               *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu;  Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676             *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/                            *
**********************************************************************

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