MICHEL DEGRAFF: So why was I so happy to engage in having this course be ported on OpenCourseWare? Well, first of all, I have a very deep affection for OpenCourseWare because I feel that OpenCourseWare has this potential to teach to the billions, to share knowledge, to unlock knowledge for people in very far-flung places, very remote places, like in Haiti where there's little access to quality materials. So for me, I feel that OpenCourseWare's mission is very germane to myself, as a Haitian, [INAUDIBLE] MIT, wanting to share this wealth that I have intellectually with the rest of the world, including my compatriots in Haiti who don't have that access, that much access, to quality materials.
But also, when it comes to this issue of breaking walls and building bridges, as we see, say, in the US and parts of Europe, the world moving to more exclusion, to more walls, I feel that the kind of knowledge that we're building here at MIT and how we as a people, we as a global village, as we enrich ourselves by understanding other people's experiences, be it Muslims, and immigrants, and blacks, and Latinos, it is wealth there. So I feel that it's important to take this knowledge, these discussions, and have it shared with the whole world so people can see that there's a different way of thinking that doesn't involve building walls for security, but instead creating dialogues, building bridges, so that we all can be the richer for it wherever we are, be it in Boston, Massachusetts, or in Port-au-Prince Haiti, or in Syria, or even Iran.
So that's why I feel it's important that such courses be on OpenCourseWare for the world to participate in.
