One�s faith in the world-wide economy bringing good economic times to U.S. workers can be shaken by looking closely at how U.S. multi-nationals are exporting work of all kinds to low-cost countries. General Electric�s Sr. VP in charge of treasury and global funding operations, Jeffrey Werner, stated that GE logged $75 million in pre-tax savings by moving major portions of its labor-intensive operations to New Delhi, India.

Whether you work for a multinational in a blue collar job, a secretarial pool, a software engineer, an accountant, on the phones talking to customers, operation manager, or in a business serving workers, those jobs moving away can leave you in a lurch.

And when that move is made, it won�t be noticeable to the business� clients that depended on your service. It is a seamless transfer.

For instance, there are good odds you have had personal contact with GE�s India operation and had no clue that the "Jesse" talking to you in a Southern or Midwestern accent was an Indian in India that GE had put through its "accent-enhancement classes." They teach the Indians to use phrasing and accents familiar to you. Also, the computer screen your Jesse was using gave him chat lines about the weather in your area and who won the ball games last night just like he was nearby.

Don�t think for one moment that GE is the only company planning to increase their use of India�s low-paid highly skilled and motivated English-speaking workforce.

According to the Treasury & Risk Management trade magazine, AOL, Time Warner, IBM, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems and Deutche Bank have recently unveiled plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars apiece on software development centers in India.

The same technology that allows the Indian "Jesse" to talk as if he is in the next block spreads information all over world.

Since we all have brains, no individuals, races, nor countries have a lock on technology.

Because of past history, some individuals, groups, or countries are ahead of others now. However, technology and modern communications can make catch-up relatively easy. Whether it is a country or an individual, it just takes desire, planning and focused action.

India didn�t just suddenly come up with the ability to attract new technology companies.

A few decades back Indian leaders saw that the new silicon-based technology was passing them by. They saw they didn�t have the resources or the ability to attract investments to compete on the hardware level.

However, on the software level Indian, leaders saw they had the essential elements: People with brains that could be focused in that direction. They did it and are now a software center that services the world.

Furthermore, engineers and physicists from India are not only the technocrats but also the principals behind many of the companies that operate in "Silicon Valley" type centers in this country.

In the early �60s, leaders in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo decided they needed an organization that would "work on the frontiers of science while addressing issues of social and economic relevance," according to Dr. Jose Fernando Perez, the scientific director of Research Support Foundation for the State of Sao Paulo.

It worked. Last July a consortium organized by the Foundation decoded the genome of a plant pathogen that infests oranges. A few months later they completed the genetic genome of a citrus canker. Both of those pests plague Brazil�s valuable fruit export industry.

Those successes gave them an international reputation. They are recognized as doing science of the highest quality. As a result they have received a contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to sequence bacterium that plagues vineyards in California and are part of a European project to sequence human cancer genes.

Again, they started out without having the scientific capability. But, like India, they had the raw material, people with brains. They began by focusing those resources on science by offering scholarships to young scientists to study abroad with the quid pro quo that they would return to Brazil for four years to teach in the university system.

They did. The result is that Brazil now has a growing cadre of scientists with quality scientific ability in a number of fields.

As we look into the future it seems clear that the next 50 years can easily be a replay of the past 50 years that started with the invention of the transistor, which moved us into the silicon age. During this past half century of solid state dominance, increasing knowledge has been the stepping stone to success for countries, groups and individuals.

Failure to get on that knowledge-track has been disaster for countries and individuals. The gap between those on and off the track is going to steadily increase.

That is what is happening with us, Black Americans, in this country. We are off that knowledge track and going backwards. Our leaders need to focus on getting us on that track.