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No, but with the right technology (like greenhouses, solar power, air conditioners, and atmospheric moisture extractors) it could be turned into one. Unfortunately that, like the loss of snow caps on mountaintops like Kilimanjaro, would reduce solar reflectivity and increase global warming, because jungle green reflects less visible light penetrating the atmosphere into outer space and coverts it to infrared that bounces back to the planet from the atmosphere, compared to bright desert yellow sand. One must wait until there is tangible evidence of the mofos on top running the show putting up umbrella like solar panels (that beam the power via microwave down to Earth or maybe to the ISS or the Moon) at the Lagrange point in sufficient amount (say 1% of total Earth surface area) to compensate for loss of reflectivity and cool the planet the fuck back down until the snow on top of Kilimanjaro reappears in same quantity as it was in 1950. Until then areas like Death Valley or Death Saudi Arabia or Death Sahara Desert must wait. And we're talking a lot of real estate: http://whiteafrican.com/wp-con...
Then go look up the land area of the Sahara Desert to realize how much opportunity to expand jungles is wasted presently as wind blown desert sand dunes with death and nothing in them. From that picture it looks like the Sahara Desert is bigger than the entire continental US not including Alaska, and Alaska might be by far the biggest state by land area, but it's pretty empty from people (except shotgun wielding hot as fuck air heads like Sarah Palin that everyone, including all the women have a crush on and want to see naked) because it does not get enough sunlight, or enough temperate temperature days to allow for farming to proliferate, unlike the jungles of India, Congo, Brazil, or Vietnam that are bursting with life and genetic variability. Alaska does get forests and safe habitat for rare or near extinct animals like grizzlies, polar bears and wolves. For comparison in land areas, Russia tops the list, for instance look at this picture: http://alphadesigner.com/wp-co...

Btw I came across another good picture worth soaking up. We all know about China being the most populous, and people in Japan being perverts who fuck like rabbits, but besides them two check out India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, VietNam, Mexico and compare to US, Russia, Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia, or even Yemen to Saudi Arabia, or even Ukraine to Russia, to find out where the most coitus is going down on the planet and where people are most strictly religious in the non-kama-sutra way and keep a leash on their dick. http://i.imgur.com/HhqlkMK.png
Based on this picture a Pearl Harbor attack by a tiny country like Japan on a humongous country like the US is not really that insane, and should a war happen between Japan and Australia alone, or even Vietnam and Australia, and it's obvious who the immediate winner would be, right? When you could human soldiers which are cheaper, more expandable and more robust than robots.

It would be nice to see a similar breakdown for the US along racial lines. For instance in the 1990's there were 17% African Americans in the US, supposedly, in the days of $25/hr union wages with a high school diploma. These days all I see is white women with black kids and everyone on welfare and white guys not having children over not having a job, or not having a job that pays well, and I'm starting to think that the racial makeup is more like 30% Black, 20%Hispanic and 10% Asian, and out of these Hispanics are the fastest breeding. As long as there is guaranteed welfare checks that leave no child left behind and starving, there is no reason not to pop as many as you possibly can, right? How you gonna tell somebody not to hit that booty, not to fuck, and not to have children,

I'm Kenyan, living in the U.S. Last time I went back home, I bought a cheap internet enabled phone for about $60, and that is what I used while traveling. Next time, I'm buying this phone, which is much better. In Kenya I had coverage everywhere . Cell phone service is pretty cheap, and Kenya does have the iPhone, but considering it costs about $600, it makes sense to spend $80 on an Android phone unless you really must have an iPhone. White African covers the Kenya tech scene, especially mobile. He has a relevant post from a few months ago. Kenya’s Mobile & Internet, by the Numbers (Q4 2010) http://whiteafrican.com/2011/02/18/kenyas-mobile-internet-by-the-numbers-q4-2010/ Mobile Web Content in East Africa http://whiteafrican.com/2011/05/22/mobile-web-content-in-east-africa-report/

I'm Kenyan, living in the U.S. Last time I went back home, I bought a cheap internet enabled phone for about $60, and that is what I used while traveling. Next time, I'm buying this phone, which is much better. In Kenya I had coverage everywhere . Cell phone service is pretty cheap, and Kenya does have the iPhone, but considering it costs about $600, it makes sense to spend $80 on an Android phone unless you really must have an iPhone. White African covers the Kenya tech scene, especially mobile. He has a relevant post from a few months ago. Kenya’s Mobile & Internet, by the Numbers (Q4 2010) http://whiteafrican.com/2011/02/18/kenyas-mobile-internet-by-the-numbers-q4-2010/ Mobile Web Content in East Africa http://whiteafrican.com/2011/05/22/mobile-web-content-in-east-africa-report/

they are:
a 400 MHz processor
256 MB RAM,
2 GB flash memory,
Ethernet,
Wi-Fi,
2xUSB
a 7 screen

(from here) as the links are down

I first heard about these via the white African (a tech guy in Nairobi). There is some interesting discussion there that revolved around capabilities, how realistic the $99 price point is outside the developed world and durability.
 
Getting these in the U.S. at $99 is pretty easy, but could one get them into an African country at that price? Max Seybold says yes, but I'd like to see it first. Then the question is how well it will sell, even at that price point when up against used hardware with better specs.
 
I'm all for more choices at the lower end of things. And I think this product is great even if for nothing more than the conversations it can generate that will bring more awareness about the needs in developing countries. But ultimately I wonder if this kind of thing is just a stop gap anyway until cheap smart phones and reliable data access are global.

It's unfortunate that this entire thread appears to be about the politics of this situation and none about the tech. Ushahidi is the work of Erik Hersman and the folks at Afrigadget. I've been fortunate enough to hang out with Erik some and he's a really cool guy with some amazing ideas around tech and the developing world (specifically Africa in his case but they are applicable in many other settings.) If you are on twitter he's worth following - @whiteafrican
 
And FrontlineSMS has been getting great press lately as people have been getting more and more creative in its use. It is producing great results in first world countries as well as the developing world. What I find exciting though is that in the FrontlineSMS forums one meets developers that are helpful and even if they can't solve a persons problem, the code is all open and others are welcome to add the functionality they need. This is huge for the NGOs that they are able to get tools they need at little or no cost while at the same time not getting stuck with vendor lock in that limits their options. And it's a great tool.
 
Every so often we have an ask slashdot about how tech types can give back. FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi are two great examples of projects that are out their doing it in a big way and provide a great opportunity for geeks to get on board. If you are really hung up on worrying about Afghanistan, go to the sites of both and see all the other places they are being used in meaningful ways to make people's lives better.

This was already done in Africa, there was even a documentary about it on TV.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=160576
http://whiteafrican.com/2008/09/26/if-it-works-in-africa-it-will-work-anywhere/
http://ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/04/15/electronic-payment-another-use-of-mobile-phone-technology/

If I remember correctly, users just had to set a different service center number (the number that receives the SMS messages) and send a sms with a text like *pin*100 to the phone number that's supposed to receive the money and that person would receive 100 in the currency of that country. Both parties would receive an SMS back letting them know that the money was sent / that they received the payment.

The documentary was showing lots of happy truckers who were no longer worried of going tens of miles through desert to deliver stuff and return with loads of money on them, they just delivered the cargo and ask the other person to sms them the payment instantly.