Technology Transfer

Ivan Illich's `Tools for a Convivial Society':
An individual relates himself in action to his society through the use of tools that he actively masters, or by which he is passively acted upon. To the degree that he masters his tools, he can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree that he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image. Convivial tools are those which give each person who uses them the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruits of his or her vision.
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The landscape is littered with tools we have not mastered. Rather, we are mastered by the tools we use. In over 100 years that transnational corporations have been engaged in "technology transfer" in our oilfields, what is the extent to which we have competency in the energy business? Does reliance on this Foreign Direct investment not activate against local participation? Why then do we persist in transferring control of our foreign reserves, trans-ports, telecommunications, international travel, mineral deposits and other strategic assets into foreign management or control?