It is really a tough task to try to introduce, in just few lines,
someone like THE Professor. Actually the question is whether there is
at all any need for introducing such a world-class scholar as Professor
Mahdi Elmandjra.

Professor Elmandjra is already widely known among
international communities, since he has been actively
serving as member or President of several world organizations, like
"World Futures Studies Federation", "Futuribles International", "Club
of Rome" and others. He is also well known as a high official at
UNESCO. Science and research communities also already know Professor
Elmandjra very well, as a highly requested lecturer, who has been
teaching at various universities throughout the world.

Therefore, to slip away from this tough task, I rather let the
Professor s own rich list of publications talk about their author. The
list includes many of his famous books such as "First Civilizational
War", which considers the North-South conflict where the fundamental
issue is basically of a cultural nature. Click here for more about
Professor Elmandjra s publications and activities.

Professor Mahdi Elmandjra, who is Founding Member and Vice-President of
the Morocco-Japan Association, is currently in Japan as Visiting
Scholar at Tokyo Keizai University . I was extremely pleased to meet
with him on-line via "Couscous-Sushi Crossroad" mailing list**. He
generously shared with us some of his very interesting papers about the
"Globalization" and the semantic abuse of its concept, where he
stressed the imperative need for a "reglobalizing" of the
Globalization". After what, Professor Elmandjra kindly took the time to
answer my questions. The following summarizes the constructive moments
that I spent on-line recently with Professor Mahdi Elmandjra:

Youssef Iguider: I was very pleased to receive your email via
"Couscous-Sushi Crossroad" mailing list. I would like to use this
opportunity to warmly welcome you among our Moroccan community in Japan
and wish you all the best in your work at Tokyo Keizai University.

Professor Mahdi Elmandjra: Many thanks. It is always a pleasure to be
in touch with compatriots especially when their number is very limited
as is the case in Japan.

Y. Iguider: Thank you for sharing with us the lecture that you gave at
Hokkaido University (Need for a "Deglobalization" of "Globalization"),
and the interview you gave to Tokyo Keizai University's publication
"CAMPUS NETWORK".

I personally enjoyed very much reading both documents, and could not
help but agreeing with you on the ever increasing weight of cultural
values and cultural communication in the international relations,
especially in this age of Internet.

Your approach to analyzing economical (and political) facts from their
cultural dimension came to support my strong belief that the road of
every nation toward its prosperity may only pass through its own
cultural values.

Professor Elmandjra: I thank you most sincerely for the generous
comments you have made with respect to the papers I sent you. I read
your article on the homepage of "MARS" and appreciated the manner with
which you undertook the comparative analysis between the Japanese and
American corporations.

Y. Iguider: Since we talked about the "age of Internet" in the
beginning, I would like to know Dr. Elmandjra's opinion about the
following: What do you think of Internet with respect to users in
developing countries? Do you see this powerful informational tool as:

1. A border-less window and unique opportunity for people in
developing countries to satisfy their thirst for information
and knowledge?

2. A democratic round-table for improving communication and
cooperation between people of "North" and "South"? Or as,

3. An efficient remote-control for "downloading" North-made
concepts into the folder of South, and "uploading" South-made
brains into the folder of North?

Professor Elmandjra: [As for 1] This is the hoped promise and the
expected promise as we move from a "society of production" to a
"society of knowledge". The problem is not the hypothesis but with its
application. There are some very basic prerequisites, which must be met
before this objective can become operational :

(a) The elimination of illiteracy and the generalization of
primary and secondary education. More than half of the
population of the developing countries is illiterate at
present.

(b) The need to reduce the huge socio-economic gap between
the rich and the poor are huge - almost a ratio of 1 to 100
between the top 5%-10% of the population and the 20%-30% with
the lowest incomes. This gap in income is greater than the
one we observe between "developing" and "developed countries"
which is around 1 to 70 or 1 to 80.

(c) A minimal effort in scientific research and a sizeable
increase in the amount of resources devoted to scientific
research ? they do not presently even attain an average of
0.1% of the GNP in third world countries.

(d) Last but not least an environment where freedom of
expression is unquestioned is essential to ensure the
creativity and promote the innovation required to benefit
from and contribute to the new knowledge society.

Unless these conditions are met the technology of the "Internet" and of
all other advanced technologies may, for reasons independent of the
technologies themselves, contribute to increasing the inequalities
within countries of the third world. The problem is one of development
models and basic strategic options at the national level. No myth of
any kind be it that of the "Internet" is likely to change this basic
reality.

Questions 2 and 3 are in fact one and the same. They are just two sides
of the same coin. Here again the essence of this North-South
Problematique has always been and remains almost unchanged
independently of advances in technology even if the latter are always
well exploited by the North to further its political, economic and
socio-cultural policies and interests in the South.

Yes, the Internet could no doubt improve communication and cooperation
between people and I think it is already doing so by breaking all sorts
old fashioned concepts concerning the Nation-State, nationality and
nationalism which are presently explosing. Concepts foreign to the
cultures of the South, which had always been more universal until the
colonial exports, arrived. Communication between people is presently
almost totally of a random nature. Maybe it is better that it remains
as unstructured and as informal as possible.

The "remote control for downloading North-made concepts into the folder
of the South" is a reality we are living today. Without questioning in
the slightest way the right and the importance of the free flow of
information, this "downloading" has a name: "globalization as the
highest state of postcolonialim". The very serious danger is not so
much the "downloading" of the North, which is simply using its power to
impose a system of values on the rest of the world.

The big threat is an inner one - "it takes two to tango". There can be
no "downloading" without a "loading" at the other end. The South has to
"download" a good number of its political structures and many of the
leaders which go with them. A part of the "elite" which is directly
responsible for the serious crisis which the third is living ought to
be strongly encouraged to put an end to its destructive work. These are
also indispensable conditions if one is to meet the challenges, which
the "society of knowledge" imposes.

The South has a trump card. It is its brainpower per say regardless of
its geographical location. The sad story, one I can talk about with
some experience, having been closely associated ever since the first
study on "brain drain" undertaken jointly by UNITAR and UNESCO, is that
of the scientific and technological diaspora of the South in the North.
The story is still to be written. In fact it is being indirectly
written through the countless exchanges taking place through the
Internet. It is more than a story? it is a shameful tragedy.

Underdevelopment, in my view is characterized first and foremost by an
incapacity to make a useful and rational use of the competence
available in a country. This incapacity has evolved into a conscious
desire "not to" use this pool of knowledge. This is one of the major
problems of the South where national expertise is not only not
efficiently associated the development efforts but is even fearea and
at times even, directly or indirectly, chased away.

The battle today is one of human resources and of information, which is
the energy, which enables these resources to create and innovate.
Internet is at the crossroad of the two. It has become a key element in
all the dimensions of life within and between North and South. Let us
however forget that it is today the largest monopoly ever constituted
in the history of mankind. All this new Cyber Empire is in the hands of
one and only one country. This huge power is called by strategists
"Soft power" in contrast with "hard" (military) power.

Y. Iguider: Thank you very much for kindly taking the time to answer my
questions. It was a great pleasure for me to go through each word of
your analysis.

------------------------------------

* Youssef Iguider: Information Technology Engineer, currently working
at Panasonic Telecom Research Laboratory, Japan.

** Couscous-Sushi Crossroad: A mailing list attempting to reinforce
mutual relationship between Morocco and Japan, by enhancing the
communication between Moroccans living (or interested) in Japan and
Japanese people interested in Morocco and Moroccan culture. The list is
managed by Mr. Khaled Jamaleddine (Kyushu University, Japan).

Mahdi Elmandjra

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