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ment of techniques and knowledge for exploiting the natural resources 

 of the LDCs, a body of knowledge not necessarily purchasable 

 abroad."" In all cases, the LDC loses. 



LDCs also incur losses from the pursuit of unrealistic and irrelevant 

 priorities, more suited to advanced countries than to those at the 

 developing stage. In "too many instances," writes Professor Nader, 

 poor LDCs follow the style and content of science and technology 

 found in the advanced countries and become caught up in the "scientiSc 

 fashions" of the times to the detriment of the priorities and needs of 

 their own countries. Professor Nader cites the case of Pakistan, which 

 for over 5 years had devoted 10 times more money to nuclear research 

 than to applied research for the production and manufacture of jute or 

 for the exploitation of Pakistan's large fishing resources, even though 

 both resources earned over $300 million in foreign exchange. Pro- 

 ponents of nuclear research on the Planning Commission (presumably 

 native scientists trained in the West) argued successfully that nuclear 

 research and its many actual and potential peaceful uses were the 

 "wave of the future" and that participation in the race of con- 

 temporary science and technology compelled funding of nuclear re- 

 search. (It is possible that this apparent misdirection of scientific 

 effort may be intensified as a response to the achievement of a nuclear 

 capability by the Government of India.) For such mismatched allo- 

 cation of resources the developing country can lose, for as Dr. Nader 

 commented disapprovingly : 



Apparently, these advocates were more vocal and better trained than investiga- 

 tors in less eye-catching subjects, such as suitable varieties of crops, of industrial 

 and agricultural technology, or fishery resources from which fish protein con- 

 centrate can be obtained, or other subjects more directly relevant at the present 

 time to the potential growth of the country .^-'^ 



Loss to the LDCs through mismatched medical training is another 

 aspect of this same problem. Dr. Kelly M. West once observed in a 

 study of FMG researchers at the National Institutes of Health that the 

 training of FMGrS from the LDGs was directed away from areas of 

 high priority for their countries, even if they did return home. In- 

 stead of their going into public health practice and rural health pro- 

 grams, the most pressing needs of the LDCs, he said, they would most 

 likely remain in research (or presumably go into urban practice). Ac- 

 cording to Stevens and Vermeulen (writing 6 years later), "these ob- 

 servations are still valid." ^^^ 



GENETIC LOSS 



Unique among the negative effects of brain drain on the LDCs are 

 the possible genetic implications. The question is raised as to whether 

 the flight of a high percentage of a nation's intellectual elite could 

 cause a genetic deterioration of the population. If true, then progress 

 and national development could be deterred. 



Prof. Richard Lynh, a member of the Economic and Social Research 

 Institute at Dublin, Ireland, explores the question of possible genetic 



«» Nader, Science and Technology in Developing Countries. 1969, p. 453. 



^ n)ld., p. 452. 



'^ Stevens and Vermeulen, op. clt., p. 15. 



