The process of planning for the autumn 2009 edition of the Washington Academic Internship Program has made us more keenly aware than ever of how rich are the resources of this city and how wise was the decision taken a year ago to move the Glenn School’s Washington office from downtown to our present location two blocks east of Union Station. Capitol Hill is the most exciting spot in town.
Yesterday, for instance, my colleague, Laura Allen, and I spent the afternoon in the Dirksen Senate Office Building attending an event called “Fighting Insurgencies with Laptops,” which featured a briefing by Nicholas Negroponte, MIT professor and author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, about a project that involves the distribution of mini-laptop computers to children in under-developed countries throughout the world. In his keynote remarks, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) explained how a “soft war” based on advanced information technology could put the madrassas out of the business of nurturing Islamist extremism. The full implications of the One Laptop per Child project were then explored by a panel that included, among others, Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States; Husain Haggani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States; and Anne Gearan, Chief Pentagon Correspondent for the Associated Press.
It was the kind of event that occurs virtually every day while Congress is in session. It was stimulating, free, under-attended (there were about 30 people, most of them Congressional staffers, in the audience), and under-reported. Laura and I had been invited by OSU alumna Rachel Szala, who works for Rasky-Baerlein Strategic Communications, Inc. Rachel is the “O” on the left-hand side of the photo above. The “H” is Sarah Binstock, and the “O” on the right is Rachel Johnston. All three were part of the class of Spring 2009 Glenn Fellows.
Yesterday, for instance, my colleague, Laura Allen, and I spent the afternoon in the Dirksen Senate Office Building attending an event called “Fighting Insurgencies with Laptops,” which featured a briefing by Nicholas Negroponte, MIT professor and author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, about a project that involves the distribution of mini-laptop computers to children in under-developed countries throughout the world. In his keynote remarks, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) explained how a “soft war” based on advanced information technology could put the madrassas out of the business of nurturing Islamist extremism. The full implications of the One Laptop per Child project were then explored by a panel that included, among others, Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States; Husain Haggani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States; and Anne Gearan, Chief Pentagon Correspondent for the Associated Press.
It was the kind of event that occurs virtually every day while Congress is in session. It was stimulating, free, under-attended (there were about 30 people, most of them Congressional staffers, in the audience), and under-reported. Laura and I had been invited by OSU alumna Rachel Szala, who works for Rasky-Baerlein Strategic Communications, Inc. Rachel is the “O” on the left-hand side of the photo above. The “H” is Sarah Binstock, and the “O” on the right is Rachel Johnston. All three were part of the class of Spring 2009 Glenn Fellows.
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