Poor In Latin America Embrace Net's Promise

This fairly long story in The Washington Post tells how Internet access in Latin America is spreading more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, and not just among the well-to-do. According to the article, rural villagers and urban shantytown dwellers are connecting with the rest of the world, and this is giving some of them hopes and expectations they never had before. Is it possible that near-universal Internet access might do more in the long run than plumbing and other infrastructure improvements to help raise people in developing nations out of poverty?

Comments

Latin America Rapidly Embracing the Net

[TheSync]

Perhaps it is time for someone with first hand experience with computers in Latin America to make a statement.

My fiance has family in El Salvador. They are part of the middle class there, something that had been very small in prior years, but is growing rapidly now that the US and USSR have stop paying people to kill each other in El Salvador.

One of her cousins works at Xerox in San Salvador, selling copiers, printers, faxes, all the equipment you need to run a modern business. Another cousin in El Salvador works for Teleglobe, and sells telecom and Internet. Soon there will be fiber optic running into El Salvador to replace the aging satellite Net infrastructure.

My fiance's mother uses Internet email to communicate with her family in El Salvador. It is much cheaper than voice telecom costs (which can be as high as $1/minute).

Driving down the streets of San Salvador, you can see roadside advertisements for various computer training classes.

And this is important, during the civil war, many poor people left the fields because of the danger, and went to the capital (San Salvador) to find jobs. At the time, the government was concerned with the war, and there were all kinds of nutty restrictions on industry. My fiance's mothers cousin who runs a plastic bag factory couldn't sell bags outside of El Salvador.

Now that the war is over, industry of all kinds are flourishing in El Salvador. Trade barriers set up by the government are coming down, and trade barriers erected by the US against El Salvador are (slowly) coming down as well.

Life expectancy at birth in 1999 was 70 years in El Salvador, and literacy is up to 71.5%. There is a long way to go there, but the Internet can help in many ways, ranging from education (such as Net connectivity at the Universidad de El Salvador) to helping industry. Even the government is using it.

Privatization of the state controlled telecom company will also accelerate the improvement of El Salvador's telecom infrastructure that was badly damaged during the civil war.

Our local politician's campaign

[gwolf]

As many of you may know, in Mexico we had elections last week. Many say that they were the first clean elections ever. The 71-year old regime was defeated - 71 years the same party ruled the country, not anymore...

Anyway, among the loser official candidate's strategies for advertising his candidature was to say that he would teach English and computers to every kid in urban and rural areas... Well, that was among his most foolish affirmations. Cartoonists all over the country started making jokes on him - "Finally we will be able to talk with the indigenous people who still don't know any Spanish - we will talk in English!", a little kid asking the candidate: "Mr. Candidate, Mr. Candidate! Can we have laptops on my village? We still do not have electricity!"...

The fact is, even though Mexico is among the most developed countries in Latin America, the rural areas completely lack the infrastructure needed to use computers... Let alone Internet access. There are still many small and medium sized cities that do not have a local ISP. How dare they say that our rural areas have any better luck? In Latin America, the rural areas have always been unimportant to the government.

hopes + skills = real revolution

[happystink]

"Is it possible that near-universal Internet access might do more in the long run than plumbing and other infrastructure improvements to help raise people in developing nations out of poverty?"

It's definitely part of the solution, but it's not the whole thing. Access itself is great, but training people to use it is way more useful. Check out Peoplink, an organization that goes to poorer countries and gives them computers and teaches them how to use them to sell their goods online (I may be missing something else they do, but that's my understanding of it). I think they're a great, great thing because although access may give them "hopes and expectations" (and I'm not arguing those things are extremely valuable), they need training and skills in order to translate those hopes into something tangible and useful.

But again, yay internet! :)

Re:hopes + skills = real revolution

[Tiro]

Good point.

We should remember, hope is one thing, but having no realistic means to achieve your hopes ultimately leaves you... hopeless.

The people at issue need good education, so they might be able to build a middle class, the bedrock of any functional society.

There won't be loads of IT jobs opening up in rural Peru anytime soon. A good way for them to use the internet is to learn a discipline.

Don't comment, help out

[Paolo]

Just read about the founder of Tripod's benevolent venture called GeekCorps which is deisgned to provide tech training and help to developing nations, those in South America and Africa included. Consider taking a sabbatical or doing something to try to help. Once altruism has opened up the user base, real tech companies from these areas can take hold and fuel some of the economy, Bangalore India being an example.

Of course, part of the problem with bringing in computers into places where other things are needed much more is that computers are considered frivolous compared to the more urgent needs of clean water, healthcare, and the like. These considerations aside, the collective community of those who are blessed with large salaries and tech access should be helping in all means possible.

Yeah...

[Greyfox]

American companies would rather pay $200,000 and get a dozen or more progammers in a third world country than $200,000 for one programmer here (Base salary plus assorted benefits etc, adds up even if you're only making $60K a year.)

IBM, Siemans and one other company I don't recall are doing it in Timisoara, Romania alone. IBM's also got a lot of shops in India, too. Software's easy to manipulate on the Internet and gets moved around tax free, and you don't have to muck about with getting someone a hard-to-get worker's visa. My counterparts in Romania were as good as, if not better than most of the programmers I've worked with over here, they're making several times the national average salary in Romania and at least at IBM they were doing shit work that no one here wanted to touch (Like maintaining OS/2 device drivers.) It's like getting someone fresh out of college, only better.

World Bank paper on why developing world needs IT

[Yogurt]

16 comments and already people are claiming that the developing world should have perfect health infrastructures before getting IT. First of all, it's not like there are teams of plumber/sysadmins trying to decide which projects to pursue. Secondly, information poverty can hold back health-related projects as much as lack of money and investment.

Information technology can increase knowledge of health concerns, funding sources, successful development models, social information about human rights and the environment, crop prices, and more. It can provide new training and opportunities, bridging the significant gap between rural and urban life.

If you are really interested and aren't just expressing a contrarian point to be cool, try this World Bank paper on the need for IT in the developing world and the obstacles to introducing it. It's in PDF.

Yogurt

Re:How typically arrogant

[Peter Eckersley]

Electricity, sanitation, water, food, and medical care are all necessities that we in the United States and the rest of the first world take for granted every single day that other not so fortunate nations do not have ready access to. I have yet to hear one subsistence farmer complain about his inability to gain wondrous knowledge from Internet sites such as Slashdot. I do hear about a lack of sanitary water to drink, much less to bathe, or food shortages due to corruption and infrastructural inefficiences causing famine. My parents grew up in 1940s Malaysia, and just thinking about the differences in our experiences makes me thank God that I was fortunate enough to be spared that.

You are correct in claiming that there are things that a lot of people on this planet have got to worry about for survival before they can think about net access. You are unwise to flame Roblimo for asking the question. Arguing that we must provide universal basic infrastructure before thinking about brining the net to impoverished countries is quite naive.

What you have not considered is the reason why Sudan or Chechnya (your examples) are impoverished. In most cases, poverty has little to do with a lack of resources and much more to do with politics. Also, your examples are places where conditions are extremely harsh; there are numerous "third world" countries in less drastic situations.

Providing net cafes may help communities far more than, for example, providing electricity to every home. It is only when people have some access to education and information that they can hope to actually improve their situations.

Internet help more in the long run?

[yankeehack]

I'm not quite sure about that because:

If a kid can't read, he can't use the Internet.

If a kid can't do better than rudimentary math, she can't program.

If a kid doesn't have an education, the the kid isn't going to go farther than the local factory or field. And I think the Internet can help supplement a child's education (and the local infrastructure) but I don't think online instruction can replace the real thing.

The rise and usefulness of the Internet depends on many factors, not just making PCs available or how many miles of cable can be laid.