The Strategic Task Force On Education Abroad headed by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley and former Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) finds national ignorance about the world outside the U. S. is a threat to national security. And we have a president who lacks curiosity about the world in which he lives. The irony is that I read this report in the online version of the Singapore Press. Go figure. If this be (fair & balanced) pessimism, so be it.
[x Straits Times]
NOV 21, 2003
Americans ignorant of outside world: US panel
WASHINGTON - A panel of prominent US politicians and educators has decried what it called 'America's ignorance of the outside world', arguing that the reluctance to study foreign civilisations could eventually become a threat to national security.
The scathing report produced by the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad marked the first attempt to question Americans' ability to fully grasp the meaning of events abroad since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
'We strongly believe that the events of Sept 11 constituted a wake-up call, a warning that America's ignorance of the world is now a national liability,' the task force headed by former education secretary Richard Riley and former US senator Paul Simon said on Tuesday.
The report points out that the gap separating Americans from the rest of the world became especially evident on that tragic day when most of them were forced to ask themselves the confused questions, 'Where did this come from?' and 'How could anyone want to do this to us?'
The answer is that Americans are ignorant about the Middle East and suffer from 'a pervasive lack of knowledge' about the world, task force members said. \-- AFP
Copyright © 2003 Singapore Press Holdings
Saturday, November 22, 2003
What! People In This Country Ignorant Of The Outside World?
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