23 

 The scientific researcher who has dedicated his time to an examina- 

 tion of technologically-significant problems is a scarce resource in short 

 supply. He is correct in endeavoring to strategically deploy his time using 

 such perceptions as he can acquire for this purpose. The problem is that 

 these perceptions - appropriate to an age now drawing to a close - may be 

 no longer valid. Events have moved so rapidly that the advice he is getting 

 from recent returnees about the nature of foreign research affiliation - advice 

 having to do with the importance of extended foreign residence, the role of 

 language ability and cultural sensitivity, the relevance of his interests to 

 the problems of underdevelopment, and the place of these problems in his own 

 battle against obsolescence - needs reevaluation. 



In many cases, extended foreign residence - and extended absence 

 from one's professional and institutional base - is no longer a condition of 

 foreign serviceability; it may have become a block to such serviceability. 

 Let us consider Latin America which happens to be of special interest to the 

 authors. At the beginning of the present decade a trip to a South American 

 country provided a chilling prospect for the first-time traveler deeply com- 

 mitted to important work at home; so much so that the trip was frequently 

 postponed or never seriously considered. There was the matter of finding 

 an adequate block of time, rearranging one's schedule and exchanging cor- 

 respondence with those to be visited, packing for a different climate and 

 the prospect of a long and tiring trip. This perception is still current; 

 but the fact is that by the end of the decade, the same trip will represent 

 little more than an early-morning flight, lightly undertaken with no more 

 preparation that a phone call to one's Latin associates and the stuffing 

 of an extra shirt and toothbrush into a briefcase. Two of the authors col- 

 leagues recently flew to Rio de Janeiro on a Friday evening. Saturday they 



