Portland should become a more international city. That’s our
best path for a prosperous future. With eighty percent of global economic
growth forecast to come from emerging markets, we should reflect upon what we
can do to increase our sales of goods and services in those markets. I’ve
advocated improving our K-12 foreign language programs and sending our high
school students to study abroad in much larger numbers. Bills to do so died in
committee in the recent legislature.
Now, we been called on our lack of “international vibes.” The
Portland Trailblazers failed to sign Hedo Turkoglu because Portland does not give
off enough “international vibes.” John Canzano, in his Oregonian article “Turkoglu
walks when money talks,” writes (here):
Turkoglu's agent, Lon Babby, said in a conference call
Saturday that the free agent chose Toronto over Portland because he and his
wife, Banu, would prefer to live in the Canadian city, which has more of an
international vibe. Toronto is five hours closer to Turkey. The place has lots
of Turkish restaurants, baths, an annual Turkish festival and a Facebook page
dedicated to the Turkish community.
I note that Portland should and could be sending many
of our high school students to study abroad in Turkey, and other places. The
Oregon Department of Education reports that for 2007-08 the statewide average
annual operating expenditures per student was $9,140 and for the Portland
School District $11,042. The study abroad organization AFS offers a high school
year in Turkey (including tuition, room & board with a Turkish family, and
international travel) for $8,900. Another large study abroad organization, ASSE,
offers a similar high school year program in Turkey for $7,550. We can afford to send our
students to study abroad.
Portland could easily, and should as a high economic
development priority, have more “international vibes.” But our political and
educational leaders are getting in the way.
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