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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?
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.
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.
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