July 13, 2004

War on Drugs is damaging Colombian science

Posted by tomo at 03:32 PM in drugs , politics , science . | 1 Comments

Scientists from Colombia experience disproportionate difficulties obtaining visas to attend conferences in foreign countries. Isolating Colombian researchers from others in their field stifles progress (on both sides) by limiting knowledge transfer from and to the Colombian scientists.

According to Wasserman, such visa restrictions contravene articles 13 and 27 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Poveda and Wasserman suggest that scientists should be eligible for special visas for scientists, in order to ensure that 'science knowledge' can move freely around the world.

Comments

This a real tragedy because Columbian scientists get twice as much work done as your average scientist on account of all the cocaine they have at their disposal.

Posted by: ryan at July 13, 2004 8:20 PM