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Cellphones Leapfrog Poor Infrastructure in Mali
Hugh Pickens writes "CBC News has up an article by Peace Corps volunteer Heidi Vogt, a woman who served in the small village of Gono in Mali five years ago and remembers letters dictated and hand-carried by donkey cart or bicycle to the next town. Vogt recently returned to see the changes that cellphone communications have made in a village that still doesn't have electricity or decent drinking water. 'Gono's elders say the phones can keep them in touch with their village diaspora,' writes Vogt. 'Villagers depend on far-off relatives to send money in time of crisis — if someone is sick, if a house has caught fire, if there's been too little or too much rain and the harvest is poor. There's a new sense of connection to a larger world. In a village where most people can't read or write, they can now communicate directly with far-off relatives.'"
Use your online minutes wisely!
Perhaps we can start by stopping our selling of weapons to them. It is revolting to the point where I almost want to cry that the American weapons manufacturers get rich off of essentially helping people kill each other easier. If the same materials and energy went into providing them with infrastructure instead of weapons then I couldn't imagine the world we'd be in now.
This however is another paradoxical example of where it is impossible to tell if it is demand driving supply or supply driving demand, just as with news media and entertainment. I always prefer to go on the assumption that the supply is driving the demand, because if I'm wrong, at least I'm erring on the side of reason and intelligence.
Nice article. Positives and negatives, with the mum worried by her sons who do not call.
The effect of cell phones is to allow a village to remain much the same village, despite the children dispersing. Over time, the kids will marry away, but the blow gets softened, and the children are stabilized by contact with home.
So it is a good thing over all. The interesting bit is: who pays for the village phones. Just the children. When you think that this is a force for stability, and how cheap phones are compared to machine guns, it is a pity that some military dollars didn't go into these phones.
but that's only a small start to our plan for world domination!
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
We (the rest of the world) would be very content with you guys just sticking to your continent and minding your own business. :)
They could use something like this: http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorcontent/sidewinder.htm. It would probably work for their purposes.
I suppose a small crank generator could be supplied to give short phone calls.
Wouldn't take much of a solar panel to keep a cell phone alive either.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I know it doesn't seem like it, but most of us feel the same way over here. Apparently though, the ones with mod points are the ones that disagree with me. (Current score: -1 flamebait)
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No it's not.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
From the article they charge them by connecting them to their car's battery.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
Ok, if you are going to be the first person to post "what do they need cellphones/computers/internet for, give them food instead" type of post in this thread, I have something to say to you. You are an idiot. Please try to understand that you are an idiot and shouldn't be posting your idiotic opinions on slashdot or anywhere else. Instead, try to improve yourself somehow, take some classes or whatever. It won't help, but at least it will keep you busy.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
That kind of stuff is what the Peace Corps does and the reason she was there in the first place. It's often though their work that many of these villages can start thinking about keeping in touch with others outside of the village rather worrying over rampid disease, crop failures, etc.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
"what do they need cellphones/computers/internet for, give them food instead"
It is obvious that in the major insurgancies in the region are going to keep blowing up the infrastructure as their power and territory waxes and wanes vs govt troop deployments so perhaps in this case, it may be appropriate to say this. Although previous slashdotters (read techno-centric people) would argue otherwise, the main factions of the Mba'Lo region do not want any of this, they simply want control and they are willing to starve people out of the region. When you are dying for a piece of bread, yeah it's great that you can call Taroosha, the nearest regional capital, but they cannot get it to you in any case.
weet. Now that they've got communication, lets get some health infrastructure and good food/water going over there. The United States of America is the richest country on the god-damned planet, there's gotta be more we can do to positively contribute to the third world.
You seem to imply that the US (and the rest of the 'west') isn't contributing a whole lot.
Bull.
I suggest that we immediately stop toppling governments.
Ok, great. And lets get them to start electing leaders who won't steal the money and foodstuffs we do send them.
I hate to be a first-world asshole, but why would be happy that a third world village is dependent upon its diaspora? Why is this an acceptable state of affairs? Doesn't it bother anyone that these means of communication aren't really sparking commerce?
Instead of sending them food, cellphones, water, or weapons, why not send them some capitalism? Microloans, an active press to fight corruption, and education in systems of law and governance?
Decades of assistance to the third world, and all manner of socialist leaders ready to aid and reform have done little except generate more poverty. Perhaps, instead of giving to the third world, we should start taking; in the form of purchasing agricultural goods, in ecotourism, and other friendly means to transfer money to these areas while simultaneously encouraging (and rewarding!!) hardwork?
It is very, very difficult to motivate yourself to do anything, and create anything, particularly in terrible conditions, without payoff. I think the current state of the third world proves this.
It is difficult for me to watch people prescribe aid, because foreign aid tends to be useless, and siphoned off into corruption. It would be far better to encourage a vibrant economy, both here (by ending 1st world agricultural subsidies), and abroad (by buying good and products from "known good" third world sources).
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Quite the emotional one eh? The world sucks, get over it.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I'm surprised they can get the range they are getting from the cell tower they're using.
People have been killing each other in the absense of American weapons for millennia. All that's needed to kill is a rock. Sometimes not even that. The abundance of rocks suitable for killing probably doesn't cause the demand for weaponized rocks. The same with pointy sticks. I think it's basic human nature. People with any sort of power are willing to kill to keep it. Others wanting power are willing to kill for it. The same goes for resources. It's quite a vicious feedback loop, but the availability of a weapon isn't the root cause.
I also really don't think it's fair to single out US weapons suppliers when probably every country that makes weapons sells them too. Russia, China, France, the UK and maybe every other "major" country exports weapons.
Dude, I DID read the article. No thanks to you for the asinine and flippant accusation suggesting otherwise.
The article seems to suggest that the cell tower was 16 miles away. I'm just saying that's pretty impressive range.
I'm part of a large movement to remove all rocks from third world countries.
Some say, rocks don't kill people, only people do...
Without a rock it becomes just that much more difficult to slay another person.
Once this is completed, we are moving onto our next project... removing hands... I know... fucking brilliant... I can't believe we didn't think of this earlier.
I'm forgoing using my shiny new Mod-points to say- ^^This^^
Look at Kenya, once a bastion of African stability (corruption not withstanding). Pretty much the nicest, most progressive and most developed sub-Saharan country in Africa, second only to SA (and what Zimbabwe once was)
In the space of a few weeks, they went from stability to killing each other with pangas, bows and arrows. Guns aren't the problem.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
no, it's not the American weapon manufacturers that are helping third world people kill each other, unless the American weapon manufacturers sell machetes.
Not as impressive if you consider that there is little to no spectral interference either.
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I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural part of Tanzania from 1999-2002 and I went back to visit this last summer. When I arrived in 1999 there was one cell network in the country. It was in the (then) capital and most populous city of 2 million people, it had a capacity of 50,000 and was maxed out. A couple of competing companies starting setting up towers and by the time I left they had covered the major cities and arteries of the entire country. When I went back this last July the companies had moved out into the villages and most people in the country had local cell coverage. The area where I had lived was very hilly and somewhat remote so I thought that they would never get coverage out there but they had it.
You don't buy a plan like in the US, you buy a phone ($30 for a cheap model) and then you buy minutes (leading to some of the shortest phone conversations I have ever heard). People who live in areas without electricity find ways to charge them. Someone might buy a generator and set up a side business charging phones. Some people have to bike hours to the nearest town with electricity.
The difference in how people communicate was astounding. Kids away studying could keep in contact with their families back in the villages. Kids who had met in school but lived in different places kept in touch (I reunited a number of my former students by passing cell phone numbers around). Farmers could keep in touch with people in the markets. It was an amazing change.
You do realize that if the US went on tilt and full isolationist the world would go into recession and war would increase.
If we withdrew our money, our food programs, and our influence, there would be short term cries of victory, followed by pandemonium, famine, and increased violence. This I suspect would be followed up by a "do something" from the UN/WTO.
I realize that our current administration is a laughing stock, and I realize that we the US have a history of meddling too much (I postulate that some meddling is nearly required), and in the wrong areas. But to wish us out of the world indicates to me that all of the NGOs that the government funds (does not control, just dishes out money/food), and government programs to supply aid (think of how quickly we had warships on peaceful aid missions after the recent tsunami) are un-appreciated.
Sorry for the rant but hey, that's my 2c
-nB
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but I lived in an African Village with no running water or electricity (90% of the time ) for 2 years. (Raise your hands RPCVs)
I had 3 (count them, one two THREE!) cell phone towers within sight of my house, and I could always hear the diesel generators at night if the winds lulled.
Would I have traded the cell phone for reliable electricity or running water?
HELL NO.
Cell phones improved my life and the life of the other people there tremendously. Electricity is about 1,000,000 times more expensive to cook with than charcoal, and kerosene lamps and candles make plenty of light. Water was scarce, but I had a no-flush pit toilet and an in ground rain-catch cistern for water. I only really used about 60l a week. The real problem was that not enough people had big enough cisterns (20% maybe), and many people had none. Water ran out in places at times, people suffered when they couldn't wash or bath as often, but no one ever died of dehydration for lack of a drink. If 60% of the houses had big cisterns, it would solve that problem.
Life without electricity and running water can be just fine. What is really needed is healthcare.
The hospital didn't have a single actual doctor after the foreign volunteer left. Pretty much everyone who walked in was told they had malaria and treated for it regardless. People suffered and died frequently from stupid, easily treated things. THAT was -IS- a tragedy.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Yes, because every third world country is exactly the same. They are all at civil war made possible by American made weapons. BTW, the weapon of choice in most third world countries is the AK-47, and guess who doesn't manufacture those. I see this article as a positive use of technology in very poor parts of the world.
"asinine and flippant accusation" is the slashdot way, man! :)
Horns are really just a broken halo.
OK, it's not that big of a deal.
Yes the US is by far the largest donor to international humanitarian aid and as a non-american I for one applaude them for that. However I think it would be the US that suffered the most if it became radically isolationist. The US is rich because of trade not despite it, what is 'unfortunate' is that the benifits have often been one sided.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Why add fuel to the fire though? If the end result of any action is supposed to be peace (I can't imagine an argument against wanting peace at large), and all people are equal, than how can you accept knowingly that there are businesses around you built on perpetuating (Or at least de-incentivized to stopping) a violent cycle for the sake of taking the resources of a land which should be used for the betterment of the people of the nation.
All I'm saying is that the economic wealth we enjoy (and if you're using a computer on the internet right now, you're probably one of the "we" I am referring to) is built solely on the pain and suffering of many throughout the globe.
Furthermore, just because something has been going on for a long time doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to make things better. Is this the ideal world you want? Is this the kind of world you want to hand down to the next generation? We all have different desires, and we all in our own way try to push the world around us in the direction of these desires, be it wanting to get a good job so you study hard or wanting to get up to get a drink. But peace is a common desire we all share, and this isn't something we should laugh about, or mock someone for being an idealistic hippie.
I acknowledge that violent conflict is sometimes unfortunately necessary to achieve peace, however. But pursuing violent conflict which doesn't have the immediate intention of achieving peace is an assault on the dignity of human kind, a blow to the single thread which gathers together all sane, reasonable men.
I was going to put the obligitory "sure go ahead mod me down" thing here, but this is really what I believe, so if you don't like it, then maybe I'm the crazy one.
While I admire your idealism here, I was never endorsing the idea that selling guns is fundamentally good in any way, I don't believe that. I was simply saying that you cannot take away or prevent the guns and expect the result magically to be peace.
Guns are tools, tools that can be used for murder, but as Africa in particular has shown us, people can and do commit murder and atrocities on epic scales without guns.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
So do France, UN, NATO, etc. The first world countries constantly have been getting involved backing corrupt governments or rebels, in countries around the world to protect their own interests. Just because places like Haiti and the Ivory Coast aren't front page doesn't mean there isn't government toppling, and calling an occupying force "UN peacekeepers" doesn't make it any different from US troops in Iraq.
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Why not solve both problems at once and send them bananaphones? I mean, the bananaphone is just perfect fot those regions. It's the best, beats the rest... Cellular, modular, interactive-odular - you name it, it is it. It'd take some financial strain off them, as well, because they won't need quarters, won't need dimes to call a friend of them. If the people in those regions had bananaphones, they'd call for pizza, they'd call their cat; they'd call the White House, have a chat. It would be commonplace to even see them place calls around the world, asking the operator to give them Beijing-jing-jing-jing.
I really see the bananaphone as the only situation where they can have their phone and eat it too.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
And let's not forget all of the other valuable stuff the Peace Corps does. Like serve as a cover for CIA agents that agitate and help set up coups.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
The differences are measures in orders of magnitude, though. Especially considering the speed at which we can communicate now. Without the widespread use of advanced weaponry, the cost of life will be limited while a resolution can be attained.
As much as I like to blame America for what's wrong in the world these days (And they are to blame 99 % of the time).
Where I'm from (Somalia), weapons are probably where you see the least American influence. The most common weapons you find are Chinese, Libyan, Russian made AK-47's. Although the M-16 was becoming popular when i was there last time. especially for it's light weight.
And similar to what the Original poster noted, our Telecommunication infrastructure is one of the top in East Africa, it is a True free market, absolutely no regulation, no taxes.
But aside from Telecom everything else in the whole, completely unstable, 17 year civil year, puppet interim governments (we have our version of Hamid Karzai).
Technology is technology. You can't have cellphones and computers without also having guns, bombs, etc. The modern combat rifle has been around for about 60 years now. Even modern jets were products of the breakthroughs made in the the late '40s. If people are wanting to kill eachother and are willing to spend the money to buy modern weaponry, no amount of naive, wishful thinking is going to stop it from being available to them.
-Grym
You're missing the entire point. It isn't about restricting technological advancement. My point is you shouldn't tolerate your government or society aiding any other group on this planet to kill another group on this planet, unless it is a direct and immediate threat from an unreasonable enemy. And the only reason it is available from us is because we sell it to them. CAPITALISM IN ITS CURRENT FORM IS INCENTIVIZING PEOPLE TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?!
I feel like the whole world is crazy and they just don't see it.
Now you may have been joking, but as a former Peace Corps Volunteer, I think I can safely speak for all Peace Corps Volunteers, past and present:
UP YOURS!
That kind of bullshit, paranoid thinking reared it's head at me and some of my friends through our service. Rumors get spread, and some un-trusting chap would come up and confront one of us for being an "agent" of the USA, and accuse us of plotting nebulous, vague "bad" things in projects like, oh say BOOKS FOR THE SCHOOL, or TEACHING PEOPLE TO MAKE JAM. It didn't matter that the person couldn't make a logical connection between JAM/BOOKS and EVIL, their trust was broken.
Trust that is hard enough to earn in the first place.
Trust is what keeps a volunteer safe.
(Not to sound melodramatic, but off the top of my head I can think of at least one situation I was in where my life might have been in danger had some paranoid-ass started saying I was CIA.)
The Peace Corps goes to great lengths to distance itself from any inkling of spying. If a person has ever been in an intelligence gathering position, they can pretty much kiss their chances of volunteering goodbye. After you have volunteered, you are PREVENTED from taking any job in the intelligence services for something like 5 years at a minimum. Volunteers are not allowed to make political statements relating to the host country, and are discouraged from pretty much anything political in nature i.e, do it and you could go home. There is no fucking spying going on in the Peace Corps.
If you still don't believe me, let me clue you in on a non-secret: Peace Corps volunteers by and large get sent to rural areas. Why the fuck would the CIA or NSA give a rats ass about what is going on in some forgotten backwater of a country, let alone care enough to put a covert agent there for extended time? As for the few volunteers who go to large cities, there would be no need for a "Peace Corps cover" with all the other options (State Department, USAID etc), and a Peace Corps cover would be a pretty shitty one at that, because you probably wouldn't get a ton of useful intel out of schoolchildren and aids patients.
Sorry, but that really touched a nerve.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Has anyone here ever used a crank generator?
I have a tourch that is crank powered and it dosent hold a good charge for long, the three leds start fading as soon as you stop cranking so you need the be cranking while using it inorder to get good light and considering how cheap it is to use batteries in an led tourch your better off just buying the batteries.
Even one of those single led tourches people have on keyrings would be better suited to most jobs, I just keep my tourch in the car for when all else fails.
~Dan
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
It is interesting to note how South Africa and Rhodesia used to be much more developed than they are now. Makes one wonder...
Certainly the have the sun there. Or is that not a major interferer with cell signals?
Take off every 'sig' !!
I don't know if by reffering to it as Rhodesia you are merely showing your age, or making some oblique reference to white rule... but your point stands for Zimbabwe. Mugabe has wrecked a jewel of a country.
South Africa, however, is more complicated than that. On one hand, I can easily point to SA's vastly increased integration into the global market since the end of apartheid, higher economic growth, lower inflation, better, more equitable access to social services and improvements in education... I'd call all that pretty solid "development"
On the other hand, things aren't exactly rosy today. HIV/AIDS is still rampant, unemployment and crime are unacceptably high. Refugees from neighboring countries compete for what jobs exist and drain resources, urbanization is increasing pressure on infrastructure etc.
All in all, is it a better South Africa than it was 15 years ago? I'd say yes, better, certainly more "developed", but crazier because of all the problems still facing the people.
Africa is a tough place, but the difference between struggling-but-working South Africa and rock-bottom-crisis Zimbabwe is the difference between democracy and dictatorship
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Let's get something straight here, yes there might be a lot of money in the US, but a lot of it is borrowed from Asia and Europe, the companies, people and the country it self have a lot of depts.
New things are always on the horizon
Yes the US is by far the largest donor to international humanitarian aid and as a non-american I for one applaude them for that.
Depends on how you see it.
Sweden gives 1.03% of GNI,
Luxembourg and Norway 0.89%
then comes almost every other industrial nation
then the US as second-last with 0.17%
And all the rich nations agreed in the UN to give at least 0.7%
Two, three competing cell phone formats? Huge areas of the country which are entirely cut off from cell service. No, lets get our communications up to at least third world standards before we start taking on the third world's water and healthcare problems. Hell, let's get a grip on our own healthcare, too, while we're at it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Or they can start by not buying them. You speak as though they are innocent victims of actions we're forcing upon them. What nonsense. Nobody is forcing them to buy anything.
If those African governments buying guns decided they wanted to instead spend all that money on, say, textbooks, I guarantee, the West would shut down some gun factories and start printing more books.
You also imply that the West is rich *because* Africa is poor, which economically is a complete load of bollocks, nobody in the West gets any richer when an African dies, only poorer.
And as someone else pointed out, pangas etc. are a far more common weapon used in Africa, maybe the innocent victims of panga attacks could use guns for self-defence. Oh, never thought of that, did you.
I stand corrected.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
In some of these villages a cellphone hosted by a local is the equivalent of an ATM. sibling in the city can pick up a long distance cell card call the local 'cell guy' and give him the code for more minutes. 'cell guy' in turn provides cash or material goods for the family of the caller after taking his fee. Just being able to send some income back to the village from a remote employment opportunity without traveling is a major boon indeed. Just another example of technology being used in ways that weren't exactly planned for.
King Kong Died For Your Sins
Most total $$, least (close enough) by %. :-)
Goes to show:
Lies, Damned lies, and statistics
Either way, to respond above the chain as well:
I fully agree it would hurt the US.
-nB
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