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UN Secretary-General Asks for Help
knownsense writes "News.com.com is carrying a feature by Kofi Annan talking of the digital divide. He says, "But bridging the digital divide is not going to be easy. Too often, state monopolies charge exorbitant prices for the use of bandwidth." and of bringing WiFi to the developing world. This at a time when places like Panama ban cheaper means of communication and places like India instead of combating absolute illiteracy and hunger, run out to make PDAs. Is the digital divide a purely western concept?"
"Compounding this their culture is not geared towards allowing all childern to spend their time learning. Many children in India and other cultures are breadwinners."
Its not the culture mind you. NO where is it decried that you shud have more children as they are bread winners. Its an adapatation according to the circumstances. Its no different from what we do just before the exam. We know that if we dont study now we will flunk. In the same way those people know that if their children dont earn, the whole family will starve. And when one's survival is at stake, ethics dont really matte anymore. And once u do something repeatedly, you stop feeling bad about it.
As far as spending money on PDAs is concerned, the whole aim of the project was to improve the circumstances which force these people to send their children to work, i.e poverty. Its the same logic, you give a man food and he will be hungry the next day, teach him how to grow food and you have given him food for life. And the next logical question will be how will it tackle poverty. Well, majority of Indians depend on agriculture for a living. And this PDA can help them to find out about new techniques, weather patterns (it rains only four months in a year in India hence correct information about the timing of rains is very important) et. Besides it can reach people where the educational infrastructure is not very good and hence help improve the overall quality of life.
What's under yellowstone?
if i remember correctly for 'information society' classes. Digital divide is considered because of the 'universal access/universal service' idea. Kind of like we have on telephone service in the west (everybody has a phone, companies are not allowed to cut your incoming phonecalls even if you don't pay) The divide would now be that there is no 'universal access' yet so you have two classes of people. Throwing computers at them is just a quick and dirty solution (ok, it worked for phones but 'puters are more complex)
This shifts the balance of power away from the superpowers (unless they have a lot of contries they can force to vote with them).
After the colapse of the east bloc the UN (at that time the west had a majority in the UN so it was a usefull weapon) has lost its usefullness for the US.
If you look around you will notice that the US is withdrawing from a lot of these multinational forums and are instead making deals with other contries one at a time. This way they are in a better position to force their will on other contries. It makes sence if you are the big boy.But the US should be aware though that this is not the way to make freinds in the long run. It has costs...
TCAP-Abort
The problem with this concept of the Digital Divide is that it is too much like providing trucks without also providing things to carry in them. Sure, providing IT infrastructure is a good thing, but it is meaningless without a job for that infrastructure to perform. I agree that the pat answer "focus on food and poverty first" is an oversimplification, but what concerns me more is what value they get out of the IT should they be provided with it.
An example: I gather, and I'm not a doctor, that there are some easy methods of curing dystentry. Nevertheless, people still die from it. This is presumably because they don't have access to information about how to cure it. So, if we provide them with a computer hooked up to the internet, will a small village in Ethiopia suddenly cure the problem? They can, but only if they a) think to look online, b) know how to find it, c) find the information in a format that is useful to them, and d) are able to trust that information. Can they do that at the moment? Possibly, but I doubt they can easily.
And yes, I'm aware that the content will follow the infrastructure. But the question remains - if we want to get information to people, are we better off focusing on high-end IT solutions, such as WiFi, or on low-end solutions, like the provision of pedal-radios with skilled medical advice on the other end? I would be inclined to figure out what kinds of information are required, and look for the simplest and best methods of getting that information to the people who need it, before we start looking at bridging the digital divide.
btw, I am aware of good work currently being conducted (including by people whom I work with) into what role IT can play in developing countries. It isn't as if the IT world is ignorant of this issue. And it is even mentioned in the article. But the tendancy is still to focus on high-end solutions to problems that I believe should (IMHO), at least initially, be handled in a manner that better suits the situation.
Of course, I'm always open to being convinced otherwise.
Usually, the Digital Divide is usually just a bunch of newsletters claiming to put up communication antennae bridging distances less than what most villagers in some parts of india walk for water.Maybe you need to do a salary survey of the people who co-ordinate these activities in third world countries.
Maybe you dont realize it yet, but more people die of hunger, and not yet of the digital divide.
How about :
"Don't invade countries, steal all their wealth, enslave their citizens, destroy their infrastructure and put in a puppet government otherwise it will become an economic basket case and in a hundred years time you will have to loan them millions of dollars to help them rebuild a basic infrastructure and not become a hotbed of hatred against your country"?
The current world is a result of previous generations empire-building. We should try our best to avoid these mistakes again. A lot of countries are in debt because they were forced into these situations by other countries, usually through military force.
As my friend in Cambodia said to me, it's hard to get excited about IT when you're trying to clear up the landmines that no one else cares about any more. It needs to be part of a bigger solution.
India has a 52% literacy. I would hardly call that 'high.'
But that means about 500 million people in India are literate. More than in the USA.
Yet Another Web Site
But however, their counterparts in the villages continued to getting screwed for as simple a thing as obtaining records of their own land, which they used to get after bribing the village head, upwards of 1000 Rs. & wait upto 1 year. Recently, bhoomi, a project of the karnataka govt., was introduced, which basically is a s/w which gives out the land records of a famer within 3 hrs & costs Rs.10.
But, eventually something will happen. With transparency and democracy, people know they're getting screwed, and while they might "live with it" for a certain amount of time, someone will eventually say "why should I let myself get screwed?" And they'll orginize other people who will get politically active and elect someone who will change things.
Transparency will cause people to care, because no one likes getting screwed. It may take decades for it to happen, but eventually it will happen.
Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!
Koffi Annan can't actually do anything to fix anything. So let's invent a new problem and make it someone else's to fix.