Estonia: Where the Internet is a Human Right

securitas writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports on technological change in Estonia, where an enlightened post-Soviet era government believes the Internet is essential for life in the 21st century and backs that up with legislation declaring Internet access is a human right. Estonia is a country where hot, running water was a luxury a decade ago. It's now a place where farmers have broadband Internet, 80% of the people use online banking, Internet usage and broadband penetration rates are comparable to Western Europe, and the government conducts most business (meetings, votes, document reviews, etc.) virtually through a system of networked computers. Not bad for a country that only 10 years ago was a crumbling, bankrupt mess with a network infrastructure to match."

Comments

Reality

[kantor]

"declaring Internet access is a human right."

Oh that feels so much better ...
Now, who is going to pay for that right ?

This reminds me of EU constitutional drafting

[jensend]

The EU is working on a bill of rights equivalent- and included are things like the right to free job placement services, workers' comp, etc. IMHO, this is ludicrous. The conflation of universal human rights with the universal benefits of an advanced semi-socialist society does no favor to either human rights or human welfare.

Re:This reminds me of EU constitutional drafting

[geek]

Once again the Euros get it all wrong. I predict another 50 years before we have to bail them out again of some world war. It's certainly heading there with the vast number of socialists in France, Germany and even the U.K. They have an average 14% unemployment, Argentina collapsed at 10%. They can't maintian this stupidity much longer, evident in Frances welfare and social security systems being officially bankrupt. They just keep passing the buck to future generations the way our liberal socialist democratic party does.

ooh

[CausticWindow]

Religiously fanatic moderators.

Christianity is Americas biggest problem.

Re:A further comment - Did you even read it?

[banzai51]

And that didn't tell me the before and after picture, did it smartass? That statistic by itself doesn't allow me to draw conclusions on weather the county as a whole is seeing better income or if a small minority is become super wealthy while everyone else remains poor.

But thank you to everyone else who did answer my question.