Slashdot Mirror
UN Recommends WiFi for Poor Countries
amerinese writes "UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is now advocating that third-world countries be given funds to implement WiFi technology and 'leapfrog into the future.'"
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
No Kidding! I'm still stuck with dialup!!!
Remember AlohaNet? It is all back to square one...
Let's get them food before Internet.
19 related articles
Wi-fi is all well and good, but in a third world country, who is going to have the technology to access it?
Since these countries don't already have ancient, pre-existing infrastructure, they can roll out wireless faster than if they had a bunch of copper lines to every home.
look at estonia; ten years ago they were communist bloc peasants, now they're the fastest growing tech sector in eastern europe.
How about giving reliable electricity, then computers to poor third world countries first (and also drinkable water and sufficient food, since you're there) ?
...
Not everything in your home country looks as shiny as your UN office Mr. Annan
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It would be much more realistic to establish real industries first and then create an environment that would support an information infrastructure. If an high tech infrasture is put in place before industrial, educational, and commercial infrastructures are put in place then it would essential just go to waste. For example, there is no reason to have IT in Africa when they don't even have a textile industry in place that could benefit from more efficient practices.
Since when is it cheaper to use wireless than to plug in a wire? Price is very important in 3rd world countries, and I don't think they are willing to pay for the luxury of not having to put a cable into the computer.
Besides most laptop come with a wired ethernet adaptor, but not with WiFi. Therefore, a wire-based system makes a lot more sense.
Fast! Find old rags from the basement , stop eating and leave the house dirty! I Want WiFi!
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
A shitty third-world country like Japan with no broadband and shitty network infrastructure owned by one monopoly, some free WiFi gear would be nice.
Too bad it would probably be swallowed by NTT and sold for 10x the price.
Either that, or a bunch of japs will connect insecure AP's to their leet country-wide 64k isdn backbone.
From the article :
Pat Gelsinger, chief technology officer for Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer chip maker, said Wi-Fi was cost-effective, growing rapidly around the world and particularly appropriate for developing nations because it was neither government-regulated nor licensed and was built using industry-wide and worldwide standards.
Read : Pat Gelsinger, CTO for Intel Corp, recently visited Kofi Annan to do a sales pitch that went successfully.
Hey Pat, how about Intel donates some WiFi equipment to third world countries, to jumpstart the market if nothing else ?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Is he refering to the internet's leading role in the creation and distribution of games or pr0n?
Birth control and food, fuck WiFi! who are theses morons?
Why is IT always seen as some sort of miracle fix? Kids aren't learning in schools? Give them all computers to 'learn' on. People are living below the poverty line? Give them WiFi, that'll fix their economy.
What's that big tall white thing? Oh, it's an ivory tower.
I know what the plan is. Install IE and set the homepage as Goatse. Cure people of *any* desire to eat.
I can't imagine *internet* as a huge, huge priority. Emailing relatives "Yes, I am still hungry, homeless and the boys have dysentry again".
Perhaps more useful would be basic infrastructure for communications in general, electricity, clean water and so on.
As an italian I understand why Italy is severely technologically underdeveloped compared to the US.
:-(
To protect big Telco monopolies and cellphone companies that have invested billions in UMTS licenses, Italy has made laws that make it illegal to use wi-fi for implementing long distance links or to let private persons or small firms becoming a Wireless ISP.
You can become a WISP or do long distance wi-fi between your firm's sites but you need to ask for permission (and there is no assurance that the'll grant it to you) and possibly pay a yearly fee.
When I see communities like Seattle Wireless I'm sad because such things will never be possible in Italy (without a change of the law).
Italy is composed of many rural areas where there will no DSL for years because of the italian telcos unwilling to upgrade switches and equipement because the low return of investment.
Imagine many small towns of a few hundred people where only 5-10% will subscribe. It is economically unviable for the telcos to bring DSL in those places.
With wi-fi and small WISP it would be much easier, use a long distance wi-fi link, a a T1-like leased line or satellite and then give connectivity locally through wi-fi (point to multi-point: omni antenna at the distribution point and yagi/parabolic that the subscriber's home).
There are a couple of small towns where pilot projects where implemented but the actual regulation hinders small businesses of becoming WISPs.
sad sad
any prediction for Italy ?
Should we just ignore the reglations and start to build community networks ?
Just like in the filesharing case: you cannot put millions of citizen in jail.
The 2.4ghz spectrum is unregulated and we want to fully use it (like in the US).
Thoughts ?
So we'll have poor contries with WiFi that exceeds that of more developed countries (and as noted by another here, no one will be able to afford to use it), meanwhile the more developed countries will be too busy funding the development elsewhere and their own WiFi will suffer. That way, everyone loses -- what a great idea.
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
Give them wifi, it'll stop the wars, imprison the warlords, plant the seeds, clear the mines, pave the roads and stop the corruption.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I've heard the Cisco Aironet 1400 tastes quite good with a little Tabasco...
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Perhaps the U.N. should concentrate more on helping "developing" countries get stable democratic governments than trying to act as some great wealth re-distribution center. The sad fact is that the U.N. is as corrupt as these "developing" countries that only seem to develop new ways of starting civil wars. So we start a new WiFi initiative, I wonder who gets to oversee it? The same accountants who ran Iraq's "Oil for Dollars" program that generated tons of money which was given to the dictatorship so that it could build a soccer stadium rather than feed it's people?
But what does it matter? This is the typical action of an inept beauracracy which constantly generates new plans and initiatives, yet fails at them all or is incapable of following through, with but a few notable exceptions. The U.N. is a bastion of anti-semetic, American hating socialists (for our Euro readers: yes, I know what what socialism is, and no I don't like it)
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
I swear, as I'm sitting here typing this:
"What UNIVERSE is this, please??"
I couldn't think of a better article to attach it to.
I'm not saying these places shouldn't gettech savy, but the U.S. and similar countries are those that should be looking to build a wifi infrastructure;
These other countries should be built up to _needing_ that. For now, how about they be able to _not starve_ before they die looking at a McDonalds web site? JMHO.
While hi-tech will be a good thing, I think we need to help the 3rd world countries in other ways first. Unless we do that, the hi-tech stuff will fall apart and deteriorate unless we keep maintaining it. Why not help them build up their countries from the ground up? Make sure they have water, make sure they can grow food on their land, give them good schools and education... And add to this a truly free global market.
Get them food and basic education that lasts at least 5 years.
Then after those have been given for everybody we can consider WiFi and computers.
This is just plain stupid.
I've seen a few "what about food before internet?" posts so thought I'd stick my oar in.
I have a friend involved with a project to provide internet access (WiFi because of the lack of existing infrastructure) and cheap, reliable computers to impoverished rural areas of Asia. My first question was the same as above - is being wired more important than food and other issues?
No, but one can help the other. Currently rural farmers can usually sell their produce to one buyer in the area because of the distances involved and lack of other communications. This gives the buyer a monopoly and they therefore set the prices. The hope is that with an improved communication system farmers can deal with several buyers which gives them a a much better negotiating position. They can also start collaborating on technique.
Add to this the ability to improve health and hygiene education (disease is a major problem in these areas) and you have a situation where technology can facilitate real improvements in the quality of peoples lives.
Now of course this article just looks like some kind of corporate magic trick:-
However leveraging interest / funds / hardware from this to support programmes such as the one above could have a big and worthwhile effect.
get some southern plantation owners over there, whip anyone that doesn't call you massa', and the textile industry will boom!
Just crank up the wattage on the WiFi gear. That'll take care of birth control well enough, and reduce the number of WAPs needed to cover the area. Once the wireless net is up, they can order food online.
Why is everybody here always whining about giving poor countries food first, and then IT and stuff?
I believe in giving them a fishing rod instead of a few fish.
We can give them food. We can even give them means to grow food by. But they'll never be able to afford them for themselves. They stay dependent on foreign help.
The other thing we can do is help them make their own money. For that, the most important thing they need is education, the second is something to sell in this global economy.
The Internet is the best and cheapest way to get to information necessary for an education. Books are too expensive. Also, if they're going to have something to sell apart from bananas, they will need IT infrastructure for it in this day and age.
Getting good connectivity there is very important. There already is a fast cable running along the West African coast (SAT-3) but it's mostly unused since the land network isn't there. If Wi-Fi can help that (should be easier to setup than cable everywhere), great!
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
The telco network here in Mississippi is shameful... think we could qualify as third world and get money for WiFi?
Okay, so you say give them food first, then WiFi or other technology. You are wrong.
First; in many places most people aren't dying of hunger in their status quo. It's a flood, draught, war or whatever that makes people die in numbers. So, get them food all the time? No. Get them food when disaster strikes? Yes.
Second: in many places, the poor people are the ones who have no (profitable) profession. In today's world people can farm food much too efficiently to need everybody on the fields. What do the rest do? Drive rikshaws, play (or are) disabled, make themselves (or their kids) disabled, sell themselves (or others), or beg. There's a huge workforce with no skills in the poor countries. And, even if they had the skills, they usually don't have markets.
Now, tourism is a big player in any poor-and-warm country. To be successful, local guides et cetera will have to speak good english (education!), market their services abroad, do things so that western (or eastern) tourists will want to pay to them. In tourism and other professions innovation will also come in handy.
So, they need education to succeed. How can WLAN help that? Connectivity. In some places they have e-mail but no telephone, or the telephone is a crappy radio something, and the post office doesn't always work reliably or fast. People want to talk to each other. Second; with a somewhat fast WiFi connection, the good teachers (which are few) can teach students going to other schools. Third, the internet is a vast resource of learning material, especially when there aren't many (or good) books. Imagine volunteers teaching from their western living rooms. Or, far-away places reaching potential tourists over the internet. Or, even, people organizing their work or selling their products over the internet.
WiFi is cheaper than cable. I think I paid $2 or something (tourist price) for a 1-litre aluminium can that I turned into an antenna once.. a connector and a piece of rod made it into a nice antenna capable of over 1km. It is used between two villages 1.2km apart in Nepal, in a place where the shortest path (on the ground) between the villages is maybe 5km. WiFi tech is also being used there, to bridge distances of over 40km, with volunteer-made amplifiers.
There was a story about the place I'm talking about here. Also, I've been to the place =).
So, consider the cost and determination needed to ship useful amounts of food against the cost of helping education etc etc. One day, even the third world can count on electric communication nationwide, and that will benefit them a lot.
Let them starve to death while looking at a McDonalds web site... wouldn't that be ironic?
I'd have to say its about time, there really needs to be a stable network infrastructure implemented in Australia.
I don't pretend to be a world policy mover and shaker, but whenever we try to implement aid to 3rd world nations some self imposed autocrat always seems to get in the way of any real progress. The food is available its just not distributed. What they need is information, info on how to better maintain crops, where to locate agrarian equipment, and most importantly a collective voice. That is the seed of democracy. That's exactly why we see more and more countries like China trying futiliy to crack down on open internet projects. I'm not saying the model will work for Africa, but its a better bet than the sisyphean task of dumping food.
Last Ps0t bwahaha !!!
Teach a man to fish and you lose your monopoly on fisheries.
saddam gassed his own people, for pete's sake!
a/s/l here. Sorry, adding domain tags to your s
Odd as it may seem, wireless networking may be the only viable answer for some of these countries. Having just returned from a trip to East Africa, I was struck by the number of mobile phones in use. Most Kenyans who can afford a telephone of any variety will get a mobile phone and/or one of the prepaid phone cards available. The reason is cost - land lines are expensive to lay and expensive to maintain. From our high-density populations in the developed world, it's easy to overlook the problems of communications in a more evenly distributed population.
The same may be true for remote rural areas in europe, where the chance of seeing a xDSL enabled exchange close enough to the house are slim. Bulk wireless technology may prove to be a cost-saver there too.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
See topic. 'Nuff said.
if they don't have any fricken' computers?
or fricken' power for the computers?
to pay for it also.
The U.N. seems to have a problem with the U.S. with everything until they want us to pay for something.
Could an italian engineer hack up another kind of packet radio which could be cheaply manufactured in kit form? capture the hobbist movement, and keep the big players out of the loop until its widely installed. Smart Governments would love to be seen supporting local industry.
Don't break the law unless everyone is going to do it at the same time. You are dealing with hardware and any govt worth its salt is going to be able to interdict importers and couriers of physical objects.
then again, that kind of reminds me of that www.mnftiu.cc cartoon where the clip art guy says "You remember the war on drugs? Like how we used to have a drug problem and then they had a war on drugs and now you can't get any drugs anymore? It'll be just like that. Yeah!"
Is it possible that giving these countries access to unlimited information would cause war before it caused the end of farming problems?
Oh, it's dangerous. Dangerous indeed.
Send in The Picard.
Laws are for people with no friends.
After watching "Capuring the Friedmans" I know EXACTLY what Kofi Annan is talking about when he uses the term 'leapfrog'. The irony here is it was stated conveniently after it became totally legal and "widely accepted" (hehe) in the US. Who can stop the UN now?
Wifi in every country
A satellite with very directional antennas and low noise amplifiers
A parallel computing encryption deciphering supercomputer
And 75 cents will get you all the remotely gathered intellegence you could want.
I'd say the US should immediately donate billions of dollars of wireless equipment to every other country in the world.
Just try to avoid the comparisons to blankets soiled with disease sold to indians thing...
Honestly, though, except for the security issues, this is a valid idea. The industrial revolution came shortly after the telegraph and fast messaging. The ability to move information from one point to another quickly and cheaply can mean success for so many businesses who are struggling right now.
Like it or not, the US has really made the entire world into a capitalist environment. The only way to move a country from 3rd to 2nd to 1st world is to produce goods to be sold both internally and externally, and to make a large profit doing so. The only way to make a large profit is by knowing more information more quickly (market trends, rapid sales and purchases, asset shifting, etc) and being able to get in on the deals (and deliver on them) ASAP.
The encryption needed to prevent serious eavesdropping will come as needed.
-Adam
If I lived in a 3rd world country, the first thing I'd do is hack every US website I could so I could be extradited & spend years and years in prison. Free food, cable TV, exercise rooms, and board as big as my house! Jail is Club Med for 3rd world countries. America rocks!
All they've got to do is to figure out how to create ploughs, tractors and medical devices of WiFi base staions and cards.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Just think of the enormous distribution of wealth that will result when all the developing "third world" nations have the ability to throw down the yokes of oppression and transfer the ill gotten gains of the dictators to your bank account.
All the wealth is tied up in the estates of a few dead despots, if we give WI-FI to the masses, it will enable them to access this resource, and we can help enable their "leapfrog into the 21st Century" for just a 30% handling fee.
The US saw a massive increase in wealth after WWII because the American Legion lobbied for and got passed an increase in rights for (real) property, which lead to Levittown and the housing boom.
They were prescient. They knew that a demobilized army was nothing but trouble, look at what happened in Germany after WWI. The American Legion finessed this problem, and the US was the FIRST example in world history of peacefully assimilating demobilization.
These other poverty stricken tin pot dictatorships, including Brazil, have no provision for property rights, what you have is what you can steal. They'll never be able to feed their children.
WiFi is so cool when you can buy an AK47 for $150 and hand-grenades for $3 in such lovely spots as Congo DRC, Indonesia's lost islands, the WWI memorial frontier between Ethiopia and Eritrea, etc.
The the undeveloping nations of the 3rd world desperately need something much simpler: peace. This is beyond the UN's capacity to deliver, but a firm statement that the weapons trade is an evil that must be abolished would be a great start.
The 3.5 million dead in Congo during the last 5 years is worth something more than a campaign for WiFi, IMHO.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Yes, somes goes hungry. Karen Carpenter went hungry, and so do other anorexics, but that's disease, not distribution.
Jesse Jackson did a rally against hunger in the middle 90s on our White House steps, for black kids. Keep in mind every one of those kids was at least 50 pounds overweight. That's what passes for "hunger" in this country.
Culture is an even deeper problem than food and infrastructure. There's folks in south Africa who believe that raping children cures AIDS. I'm going to go out on a limb and just say it: "Some cultures are failures and no amount of western material aid will change that"
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
We have the luxury of as another poster put it "dipping the chicken nugget in barbeque sauce" while they starve. Maybe we should be pitying Americans.
Give them pencils and paper. Give them governments that aren't corrupt. No use having WiFi when your country is so messed up that the electricity stations can't run more than several hours per day, people drive on BOTH sides of the road, and your neighbours want to get a tax rebate for their year's bribes.
These people in high places are so out of touch that they don't understand the humanistic basics of what causes 3rd world problems.
Ask any African if they want to be given WiFi and a 1000$ computer, and I'm sure they'll tell you there are far better uses for that money.
Uhm what exactly will WiFi do for developing countries when people can't read and often die of starvation, aids, or even dehydration?
Except of course for the tourists and maybe the 0.0001% top elite who own ntoebooks and stuff.
Instead of leapfrogging, shouldn't we start at more basic infrastructural levels? Schools, roads, whatever?
It's not just Italy. I'm in Singapore, and I ran into similar problems trying to get approval for an offshore link. I think it's the case anywhere that you have an entrenched bureacracy where someone gets to sit in an office twiddling their fingers and needs to file a report as to what they did that week - "stomped on individual actually trying to *do* something instead of sit around drawing a paycheck from taxpayer money" for example.
Start by getting rid of your Mussolini-like president to begin with.
I guess you aren't aware that many countries don't have a wired infrastructure to begin with, and that putting in wireless technologies is FAR cheaper than wiring a country? See the popularity of celluar in many developing nations.. it's not because they wanna be modern or some image thing.. it's because it's cheaper and faster to saturate an area with cellular coverage than it is to wire it, by a HUGE margin. It also takes less organisation, with cable, you need right of ways, etc, and systems to make sure cables aren't cut, and just a LOT more manpower.
Let's bomb them instead, God is telling me to bomb the poor countries just like he told Bush to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq.
I think if you analyse this story more carefully, the UN is interested in the use of license exempt spectrum at 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz for third world applications, rather than 'Wi-Fi' technology..aka 802.11b/a/g.
It is common for the press to automatically relate 'wi-fi' to the license exempt spectrum, even in last mile scenarios, when in reality other proprietary technologies are used more successfully.
Although 'Wi-Fi' is currently being used for last mile applications , it is really designed for the last 100 feet.
Vendors such as Alvarion(802.11, FHSS), Proxim, Raylink, Karlnet, Motorola, Aperto, etc, are the companies being widely used for last mile use. They are specifically designed for the task.
Hence the emergence of WIMAX (http://www.wimaxforum.org) as a standard for last mile applications. This standard is being supported by Intel and Atheros, 2 chipmakers, who will rapidly bring down the cost of last mile kit...ideal for third world usage and elsewhere.
Brian
I am not worried about the 3rd world. I am worried about me, my family, my area, and then maybe my country and then way down the list, teh 3rd world.
I do not work so that my government can take, by force, money out of my paycheck to pay for foreign aid that will in no way benefit me or mine.
If the third world want wifi, or food for that matter, it's their problem to drag their war torn, ethnic cleansed asses out of the septic tank they live in and do something about it.
BTW - I am not a communist, nor a socialist. I am fully capitalist and proud of it.
"Draw them in with the prospect of gain, take them by confusion." Sun Tzu
and Kofi Annan wants civilized nations not just to give them access to computer technology, but to give it to them for free; in spite of the fact the UN is the prime enabler of this Marxism?
A better idea would be to require the recipient government to sell all stake to any enterprises to the highest bidder, hold democratic elections and create democratic institutions, chuck Marxist philosophy ( and while they are at it, chuck the UN) before they so much as see a single dusty Linux box.
By the way: The John Birch Society was right. Get US out of the UN!
http://www.getusout.org/action/index.htm
Dawn of the Dead
This fscking shit argument of food for third world countries instead of technology is the most ignorant oppressive crap I see consistently being spouted on slashdot (of all places).
/serial killer dictators
.. yours or theirs.
I am (originally) from a "third world" aka developing country. I grew up in the "third world" let me tell you this with authority. THEY DO NOT NEED DONATIONS OF FOOD. What they need is (in order of importance)
a) get rid of corruption
c) roads
b) capital to buy equipment (farming/industry)
c) cheap communications (internet, cell phones) e) free trade so their people can buy technology cheaper
d) reforms in education system (no memorization)
f) health care
g) security
h) Snoop Doggy Dogg
i) food
Donating food is the worst thing you can do to a country (except when there is an actual emergency/disaster)
Also what I hate is people running around claiming the govt. donates so much to the third world and now they dont have jobs/medicare etc. here. That's plain BS. The ultra miniscule drop of your tax that goes to "foreign aid" is not having any effect on any economy
Donate food aid to the third world.
Don't give them technology. Don't let them get out of their shitpile, keep them entirely dependent on us so that one day (when our own economy is not doing very well) we can cut them off entirely and watch them starve.
Thank you.
Yes, I'm being sarcastic.
Hope somebody gets the message.
But why not see if we can get them to stop blowing themselves up first? Then, we can focus on giving them free shzzle.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
Ok Mr Marx, I was with you right up until the distribution of wealth bit. You hint that these 'poor' countries are under harsh dictitorial rule then blame the rich instead of the corrupt (not necasarily the same thing)
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
AlohaNet and most of the cellular networks are the future of the third world (and even that of small town America). The cell sites are variable size and shape and can be scaled to meet the current AND FUTURE need just as they are in the first world.
Only the richest places on the planet can even consider copper to the home or small business better yet fiber.
-- Multics
A lot of this food aid being exported there is in the form of propietary grain crops -GM mostly-that very poor farmers will try to plant, and have crop failures then. They will be locked into to the globalist agrimonopolists cycle, and won't be able to save seed year to year, instead being forced to purchase seed, and already they are on subsistance level incomes, having to pay for seed will doom them to perpetual serfdom fpr the most part, even worse than it is now. It's the exact reason the forward-thinkers in those nations are trying to refuse "food" aid even when they desperately need it, they know it's a temporary fix, just like drugs, ie "the first hit is free". There's wheels inside of agendas with *free* "aid".
I got a GREAT IDEA!
When the U.N. has a bright idea about helping 3rd world countries....LET THEM DIG INTO THEIR OWN POCKETS.Cause right now,its kinda like if you wanted to help the poor and dug in my wallet.
I got a BETTER IDEA...Get the U.N. out of the U.S and the U.S. out of the U.N.!
Lets face it,the U.N. is made up of countries that don't like the U.S.,dont respect the U.S. and spend their time telling us how poor they are and how we (who have,because of our labor and freedom)should give them (who won't follow our example and work or fight for freedom)money which they will spend on weapons to use against us,foolish investments or just plain crap!
Next time they have a hand out....spit in it!
(and NO I dont care about your piteous example of how wrong you think I am because you think the U.N. are a good organization because of some rewritten history you absorbed in public school)
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Seriously though, if Europe would accept that genetically altered food has YET to kill the USA off, then maybe they might relay this to Africa so they will actually eat our food. In other words, Europe is starving Africa.
And what good exactly is WiFi going to do for countries where electricity is scarce and intermittent and computers are even more scarce?
If you want to give them a fishing rod, tell the US and EU to repeal their outrageous farm subsidies so the African farmers can actually get reasonable prices for their products.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Why do I have this sense of deja vu? Given how easy it is to set up very breakable WiFi, isn't this akin to encouraging the post-colonial independent nations to use Enigma for secure data transmission post W.W.-II?
I think we've been here before...
Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
This is nothing but greed. These countries have plenty of money, but like to waste it on excesses such as government palaces. Let them pay for it themselves: they can afford it.
No sense in letting a rejected post go to waste.
Here's more background on the ideas and issues at stake, especially (surprisingly) the technology press links.
At the recent Wireless Internet Opportunity for Developing Nations conference, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that 802.11b (AKA Wi-Fi) has "a key role to play everywhere, but especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition," where there is little to no telecommunications infrastructure in place. Keynote speaker Intel CTO Pat Gelsinger was understandably thrilled saying, "We see millions of people with the potential to become Wi-Fi users," and that wireless Internet was particularly appropriate for developing nations because it was neither government-regulated nor licensed. With 40-50 million PCs in use already, developing nations (including China and India) now make up the fastest growing market segment. Intel's new Centrino 802.11b laptop chipset and 30-mile-range MANs now under development that are based on 802.16 make Gelsinger hope for a sales bonanza that will put Intel in the lead for wireless notebooks. Critics say that a technology focus is not the panacaea for the poor, but instead solutions should be matched to the needs of a population.
If you were in Ethiopia in the late 1970s you'd have seen wonders - East German agriculture experts helping the locals plant their hybrid wheat. The wheat grew to an amazing height ... and then collapsed because the heads of the plants were too heavy for the root systems that grew in the thin soil. The East Germans went home, the Ethiopians starved.
Giving aid to third world countries might make you *feel* better, but if it is aid given on a regular basis rather than a one time event in response to some sort of natural disaster such as drought, you're just compounding the problem - if a country can't produce enough food, nor enough economic output to buy the food it needs, ponder how cruel it is to those children - the one who would have never been conceived without the food aid.
Its a horrible muddle, and double horrible in sub Saharan Africa, but I think we have to let things work themselves out - if you're over populated, well, you're over populated.
If you want to aid a third world country, create a scholarship fund so natives of that country can attend a first rate university, then let *them* go home and fix the problem. Its cheaper, kinder, and much more effective than recreating the welfare dependence we see here in the U.S.
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
but dont expect the U.S to keep towing your line. We remember you called bush a Nazi, so go suck up to someone else.
The internet does not cure disease, end oppression or feed the hungry.
Starving family: We're hungry feed us.
UN: Have a WIFI adapter for your computer.
Starving family: What's a computer?
UN: It's the reason there is no food in starving land.
Starving family: Can I have some rice?
UN: No, we don't have that because it's held in customs, but you can have a gross of condoms and a safe sex video on DVD.
Starving family: I must return to forraging through the trash now.
and we wonder why the un doesn"t stop wars?
-- $G
Liberate them first. No use WIFI if the resident dictator wont let anyone operate an ISP.
It furthers American economic terrorism on 3rd world countries.
The problem is that since we subsidize our farmers to produce food at a higher cost than it sells for, and thus produce more than is needed, they artificially deflate the prices of food on the world market.
Which means only farmers receiving government subsidies can stay in business. Which insures continued poverty for farmers in countries whose government does not pay a subsidy.
Farmers in third world countries produce food MUCH less expensively than we do. Wonder why people want to blow up americans?
It's because we insure their continued poverty.
paintball
In a move IBM officials are hailing as a major step in the company's
ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, M'wana Ndeti, a member of
Zaire's Bantu tribe, used an IBM global uplink network modem yesterday to
crush a nut.
Ndeti, who spent 20 minutes trying to open the nut by hand, easily cracked
it open by smashing it repeatedly with the powerful modem. " I could not
crush the nut by myself," said the 47 year old Ndeti, who added the savory
nut to a thick, peanut based soup minutes later. "With IBM's help, I was
able to break it." Ndeti discovered the nut-breaking, 28.8 V34 modem
yesterday, when IBM was shooting a commercial in his southwestern Zaire
village. During a break in the shooting, which shows African villagers
eagerly teleconferencing via computer with Japanese schoolchildren, Ndeti
snuck onto the set and took the modem, which he believed would serve well
as a " smashing" utensil.
Just after Ndeti shattered the nut, a 200 person Southern Baptist gospel
choir, on hand for the taping of the IBM commercial, broke out into
raucous, joyous song in celebration of the tribeman's accomplishment.
IBM officials were not surprised, the longtime computer giant was able to
provide Ndeti with practical solutions to his everyday problems. "Our
telecommunications systems offer people all over the world global
networking solutions that fit their specific needs," said Herbert Ross,
IBM's director of marketing. "Whether you're a nun cloistered in an
Italian abbey or an Aborigine in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, IBM has
the ideas to get you where you want to go today."
According to Ndeti, of the modem's many powerful features, most impressive
was its hard plastic casing, which easily sustained several minutes of
vigorous pounding against a large stone. "I put the nut on a rock, and I
hit it with the modem," Ndeti said. "The modem did not break. It is a
good modem."
Ndeti was so impressed with the modem that he purchased a new,
state-of-the-art IBM workstation, complete, wtih a PowerPC 601
microprocessor, a quad-speed internal CD-ROM drive and three 16-bit
ethernet networking connectors. The tribesman has already made good use of
the computer system, fashioning a gazelle trap out of its wires, a boat
anchor out of the monitor and a crude but effective weapon from its mouse.
"This is a good computer," said Ndeti, carving up a just-captured gazelle
with the computer's flat, sharp internal processing device. " I am using
every part of it. I will cook this gazelle on the keyboard." Hours later,
Ndeti capped off his delicious gazelle dinner by smoking the computer's 200
page owner's manual.
Borrowed generiously from The Onion.
He is the only fucking hope Italy has.
They are already sliding down the fucking slope of socialism quite fast - couple more decades and they are going bankrupt.
It was a joke. As in "haha, that was funny."
dear god no. whatever this kofi touches becomes a (bloody) fiasco.
No offense to developing countries, but most of them would rather have clean water, or no civil wars, than the ability to get wireless access anywhere.
This has little practical value and the UN should be ashamed of promoting something so stupid.
Well, I think your information is outdated:
Your laws have been changed
TELECOMMUNICATIONS: GASPARRI SIGNS WI-FI BILL FOR WIRELESS INTERNET (AGI) - Rome, Italy, May 28 - The Communications Minister, Maurizio Gasparri, has signed a technical law on Wireless connection. The law, made up of eight articles, offers retailers the chance to supply access to the public through general authorization. "I am very satisfied with the results obtained," the Minister said in a statement, "because the regulation approved today will contribute to increasing competition in Italy in the Internet access market through the development of Wi-Fi. The strong technological potential that Wireless Lan brings provide a further opportunity for businesses in the sector and especially an advantage for Italians in general who will benefit from the new way to access internet on the broad band". Furthermore, Gaspari hopes that "this technological option will contribute to the reduction of the digital divide, the technological discrimination between areas that are technologically more or less advanced in the country". The law offers the chance to install networks like Radio LAN to supply the public with access to electronic communication services on a band with frequency of 2.4 to 5 GHZ by a simple authorization. Retailers who intend to offer the public Wi-fi services must present the Communications Ministry with a request to that effect which gives rights to the retailer to set up the service immediately, while respecting the conditions indicated in the decree. The authorized subjects must respect the technical operating rules for use on 2.5 and 5 GHZ bands from the National Frequency Distribution Plan and so, must not cause interference with other services and use the broadcast power allowed. This because the frequencies used are collective and not assigned to each operator exclusively, as the mobile telephone system is. The decree also defines the use of Wi-fi equipment for the public: spots open to the public and areas with high public attendance. Among the chosen places for the use of wi-fi there are hotels, bars, restaurants, malls and fast food chains where people can have the chance to connect to the Internet with broad band wireless access. The decree also requires respect for rules on security and integrity of networks. It asks the retailers to use an identification code for users who access the public network. The installation of the Wi-fi network should be set up in line with the principle of non-discrimination between the Radio LAN system and the other competing technology". (AGI) 282011 MAG 03
Give it away, and it's correctly treated like garbage. Earn it yourself, and it's correctly treated like gold.
By the same token, what is the future and how did everything begin .... my crystal ball shows snakes and eels, all the way down, inside and out, in and out of control.
"Perhaps a better way to put it is. Food is being donated to the people, but often does not reach the people, but only the rich. (The seem to own all the weapons)."
You just made a very strong argument for the right of a free people to keep and bear arms. Imagine if everyone in these countries was sufficiently armed to protect themselves and their families. Most of the "bad apples" that those in power use to oppress everyone else would be dead pretty quickly. Innocent people would die as well of course, but then innocent people are dying in these places already.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
I'm particularly interested in the remarks by Patrick Gelsinger, chief
technology officer of Intel, quote "focused on the catalyzing role
lenient regulatory statutes have played in spurring growth in nations
with advanced wireless infrastructures"
Patrick said, [quote from infoworld article]I think he's absolutely right that a lot of nations governments are
basically not well-educated about Open Spectrum. They see spectrum
still as something that they get cash from licensing. How do we
convince them that they can benefit even more from adopting open
spectrum policy?
His remark "unregulated, unlicensed spectrum" though is bad. Open
Spectrum is NOT unregulated. It is REGULATED to be OPEN. That includes
the very important aspect of power-level restriction and the rule "thou
shalt accept interference from other sources".
Also, I'm very concerned when I hear from government people in the
developing world that the 2.4 GHz band is not Open Spectrum but 'ISM'
which is an old USA-ism. The original ISM didn't allow any telephony to
be done. But that's ancient history. Unfortunately the old language
seems to have somehow propagated itself into the minds of some people
so that they think that ISM and Open Spectrum are the same.
simon
home page
I did a study for a company in India. I think the concept of Wi-Fi will not work in at least one Developing Country, India, unless -
Further, even though the WiFi access points and cards are cheap in dollars, converted to local currency they are Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000. (A network LAN card costs about Rs 300.) So, for a house it would mean investing at least Rs 15,000. One month's service in India is Rs 1,000 on the cable, so it means that I would have to invest 15 months of internet subscription fees in the installation of WiFi equipment itself.
By the way, the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of the Rs vs. $ is around 5.20. It means that a dollar in India buys 5.2 times more than it would buy in the U.S. The exchange rate, on the other hand, is 1 $ buys about Rs 45.
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
The US has enough agricultural production to feed the world, it also has enough technology to destroy the world many times over. Between these two extremes lies a solution to global problems.
The problem with food distribution in starving countries is that when food is scarce, it becomes the currency of trade. The powerful warlords then hoard food in order to maintain their power while the rest of the nation starves.
If we give them internet access, they will be too busy downloading pr0n and playing warcraft to raid the food distribution efforts
Lets give them internet first!
Give them WiFi so we can get all their passwords! Muaha!
In December, the UN is convening the first ever world conference on the impact of ICTs on development, culture, and society called World Summit on the Information Society. It will take place in Geneva.
As one of the reps for a non-governmental organization participating in the preparation for this summit, I know very well the background behind the calling for this meeting. It's an interesting melange of interests. Some developing countries, particularly from Africa, look to ICTs as a way to "leapfrog" their development forward, and thus are looking for increased investments and development aid in this area. Corporations are looking to create the infrastructure so that they can operate effectively in those countries and access their markets. Aid agencies and aid-giving governments (like Japan, Switzerland, Nordic countries) want to see their loans and grants put to more effective use.
The US's sole interest so far has been protecting the existing intellectual property system from being reviewed and trying to keep out any references to the US govt's "Total Information Awareness" program and other hyper-surveillance activities.
I will agree that assuming the correct portals to organize all that chaos out there are implemented, plus education on how to actually use that information is utilized then net access will be a boon. However, I think that FIRST you must teach these folks how to fish (as in give a fish to a man, yadda yadda yadda). Once they understand the basics of this system then they can start expanding into more advanced subjects in which the info off the net CAN help.
Then again I guess the real question is, "Why do my tax dollars along with this organization seeking to undermine sovereign nations need to go for this?" This is especially the question that is most important when considering the philanthropical systems already attempting such infrastructure build up of third world countries (or "developing" which is just a PC bullshit word as nothing actually changes by switching words and phrases)
The foolish tax-and-spender justifies this with such jewels as, "if the people want something then this (tax funded) spending is justified." Hmmm, if "the people" really want it then why must it (the funding) be forcibly taken from them? I don't have to have an agency to feed me, cloth me and generally look after my hygeine do I?
I think this is the law he was refering to, check this part:
Retailers who intend to offer the public Wi-fi services must present the Communications Ministry with a request to that effect which gives rights to the retailer to set up the service
... and even ordinary consumers must get a "simple authorization" . IE, you must beg to the (corrupt, horrible even facist) government to be allowed to own a fucking AirPort base station. If you plan to share it (anyone "who intend to offer the public Wi-fi services") you must set up a contract with the fucking Communications Ministry (which is OWNED by triple-fucking Berlusconi, along with many TV channels and papers) with many cave-ats.
Yeah, that sounds <sarcasm>great</sarcasm>
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Africa, Africa, Africa.
Africa is a huge continent with varied needs.
There is Namibia, a hughe country with barely 2 million people where you drive for a couple of hours without seeing anybody, with a decent infrastructure in communications.
And you have Egypt, a relatively modern country with megalopolis like Cairo.
Namibia needs internet access to promote tourism, to connect profesionals wiith remote locations.
Egypt needs it as much as NY, London or Paris.
Many African countries have industries, commerce, communications. The Western media just talks about the basket cases and ignores the cases with a modest success, when it mentions them as all.
The fscking cable is already lying there on the ground, the non existent telco did all the infrastructure in your feverish imagination.
Get out of your country.
Travel!
Fucking enlighten yourself....
But what is bad with helping for chrissakes?
In many of these countries the media is tigthly controlled. The best way to seed democratic values is to ensure that people can have access to information that tells them different points of view.
If the internet contributes to that, it is one of the best investments to fight corruption, dictators and despots.
People could be trained about how to clear landmines via the internet.
People could learn about agricultural techniques used in 1st world countries, or they could request help from different organizations and be helped remotely.
Human rights abuses could be documented safely outside countries in conflict.
Etc.
This place is suppossed to have creative, intelligent people.
Some throw the towell at the first row.
Sad.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
There's a project in vietnam to run fibre from one side to the other. Note it is NOT a project to string wireless transponders one side to the other. They are paying thousands of workers, in a structure that (of course) has its share of corruption but is, nonetheless, providing jobs to thousands of people who had no work before. Paying them to dig, by hand, a two meter trench from east to west in which to bury a single thin strand of fibre.
Why? For one thing, because what it costs to buy one wireless NIC will pay a worker to bury several kilometres of fibre. And those wireless nodes aren't going to support any kind of "infrastructure" - they simply don't have the bandwidth. What WILL support a network of wireless nodes - that everyone could use - is a network of fibre buried in the ground. The fact this would take a trmendous amount of human effort is an asset because the one thing Africa has is people and the one thing it needs is jobs that will help them afford their own food. Warlords have power because they are stealing aid - at the point those people can afford to buy food, the entire dynamic changes and you can be sure where there's profit there will be much stronger enforcement against unfair exploitation.
This "metting" is just an industry looking to pawn off a bunch of goods no one needs in a market where no one can afford the ancillary costs. If we want to lend africa a hand entering the internet age, donate a few thousand KM of fibre and let them learn how to organize a public works project. If the warlords want to "intercept" that, let's see'em figure out how to feed their soldiers with glass fibre.
As usual, some people talk out of their ass.
The UN people in charge of the food for oil programme have stated numerous times that the programme was one of the less corrupt they have ever seen.
The reason?
If the goverment of Hussein found somebody cheating, the person was unceremonouisly executed.
If the UN is innefective it is because powerful countries, like the US, are never commited to any serious initiative. The UN does not exist on thin air, if the member countries are not interested in making it work (as the US have shown numerous times) there is no way they can do anything against the hard political realities of the world.
Oh yes, please tell us in which cave have you been hiding. There are no more than a handful of socialist and communist countries left in the world, but of course the poor US is dominated by a conspiracy of socialists in the UN.
And anti-semitic of course. Fuck the fact that they are an occupying army in Palestine, let that slip to the side, the real reason Israel is condemned by many countries internationally is that they are all anti-semitic. Give me a real break.
The black choppers are comming to get you buddy.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I can't say I've seen Korea spelt like that before.
In underdevelopped countries remote communications would be highly beneficial in order to help patients that otherwise would have no access at all to some medical expertise.
Ploughs and tractors? For goodness sake, in many cases just basic modern agricultural techniques (thought via the net) would make a world of difference.
Honestly, whay don't you think out of the fucking box and forget tired cliches?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Mobutu Seseseko.
Apartheid regime.
Somoza.
Pinochet.
Suharto.
Sadamm Hussein.
Do I need to tell you where I am going or are you brilliant enough to infer other uses of your fucking tax dollars?
BTW I am not communist and socialst, I am a democrat (as somebody that hopes for real democracy). Capitalism is fine as long as it benefits people, otherwise is as perverse as any other economic system. Nothing to be proud about it.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Man... of course this does make sense... It has absolutely nothing to do with WiFi being cheaper than this or that. And obviously neither does it with their developement. It is, as it always has been, ours which matters.
Funds to "leapfrog into the future" !!! "leapfrog into our pockets", they meant...
UN bullshit...
Most third world countries are not that desperate.
If you had talked about sewage or clean water, you my have been into something.
As it stnads you are talking out of that place dear to nmost people.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man how to fish..."
And he better stay out of my pond.
Read, L
"You just made a very strong argument for the right of a free people to keep and bear arms. Imagine if everyone in these countries was sufficiently armed to protect themselves and their families. Most of the "bad apples" that those in power use to oppress everyone else would be dead pretty quickly. Innocent people would die as well of course, but then innocent people are dying in these places already."
Your theory may have worked a 2 centuries ago, but isn't valid anymore. Even if citizens own automatic weapons, a govt. bent on remaining in power will easily slaughter these people with even decades old military technology. Just look at the 200K people killed by Saddam in an uprising in Basra, for example.
Vote for Pedro
Maybe FOOD would be a better resource to give poor countries. If all the people starve to death then who is going to use the WiFi infrastructure?
C:\>
who think that every peasant has enough for wifi, because shit they have 3 kids ranging from 10 to 20 and they all have cellphones pc's cars and college educations pending/in effect and their biggest concern is whether or not Sopranos will run another season while half the world starves
Personally I think we need to take care of our own country first, we have lots and lots of homeless starving people many of them turned out of closed mental institutions who need actual help instead of spending billions on foreign aid, for any reason much less to give some fucking cattle farmer a wireless connection (hell even I own nothing wireless, except a cordless phone)
this is ludicrous, and not the kind with the sticky icky icky =)
why don't we have the gov't let all the subsidized (that's paid-so-you-don't-grow-shit-and-fuck-up-our-"freem arket" for those you outside the US) farmers grow their crops and ship those
hell lets ship the farmers instead and teach the people how to feed themselves, etc
teach a man to fish and all that
and i still stick by my first post in this thread, we should be helping our own people first and then theirs
Vietnam and pre-era weapons laying around everywhere
might as well before some high level official sells them to our future enemies (again)
Or, look at the chaos in places where large numbers of small arms are owned by "the people" -- Iraq and Liberia are two *good* examples. There must be a better way....
ELITISM: It's always lonely at the top. Uninvited company is rarely welcome.
. . . doing it here in America first?
Attention: The President/CEO
Dear Sir,
Confidential Business Proposal
Having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the Nigerian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry, I have the privilege to request your assistance to transfer the sum of 47,500,000 WiFi cards to the United States...
Before: Hundreds of millions of starving third world people
After: Hundreds of millions of starving third world people surfing porn
"Come here my beautiful wife. See you are just as lovely as these american models."
OK... that should have finished off any remaining karma points I may have had.
Seriously though, they already have a cheep work force. What they really need are a stable safe government so businesses will ship work over there.
Will they be connecting there Wi-Fi to abacuses?