It's one of those goofy stories that the BBC always seems to have on its sidebar so that I can read those before my brain warms up in the morning, but this one caught my attention because of the piss-poor state of internet penetration in Africa. internetworldstats.com has (no shit) data on internet usage worldwide, and the level of net access and use in Africa - and specifically Sub-Saharan Africa - is woeful.
I would imagine that for many people, basic amenities and human security are significantly more important than reliable internet access - that I understand. That being said, the easiest means to participate in economic and social life worldwide has got to be a computer with a reliable internet connection. According to the BBC article,
South Africa is one of the countries hoping to benefit from three new fibre optic cables being laid around the African continent to improve internet connections.
When I was still in high school, I volunteered with a project that sent computers and computer equipment, along with other education materials, to a youth community centre in Kinshasa. It's a pretty big city, so I imagine that broadband access is more or less reliable, if not speedy. Still, given the rate at which technology becomes "obsolete" to our Western points of view, and the number of projects of which I've heard that send second-hand computer equipment to schools and community centres in the developing world - not to mention the continued desire to create something like the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, it seems to me as though making an investment in broadband cable as part of ongoing economic development projects would be a worthwhile endeavor.
Comments? Or is this post just really patronizing in a way that I definitely did not intend it to be?
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Unbelievably condescending. How third world get pragnant, Sarah? How?
ReplyDeleteBy hanging out with you, you BAG OF DICKS.
ReplyDelete"I would imagine that for many people, basic amenities and human security are significantly more important than reliable internet access"
ReplyDeleteSarah, have you even seen those two guys do a wrestling dive off the roof of their house and totally epic fail it? That is a basic amenity of the human spirit.
And anyway, can't you just order everything on the internet nowadays?
But no, you are not being patronizing, despite Lion's probing question. Patronizing is my MCGILL UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR of Sociology WHO HAS A PH.D PRESUMABLY who wondered allowed to the class whether there were still any COLONIES in Africa and then assured us that some African women still give birth to their children in JUNGLE NESTS.
Or maybe "patronizing" is the word for that. Anyway, sorry about the comment-section worth Capslockin'.
Hey, I'm about to say something serious!
ReplyDeleteMy mother, who has been working on and off in Rwanda, has several times reported to me that there is a massive push there to get everyone computer literate as quickly as possible. There have been some stumbling blocks, however. Rwanda, for instance, barely has any computers.
So the will is there, certainly, though the will for what, I don't know. It can't be a bad thing for there to be better access to technology in Africa. I do think that until recently, computers were cast in the same light that heavy industry was in the two or three decades that followed the Second World War. Then, it was widely believed that the presence of manufacturing would set a country on the road to prosperity. What was ignored were all of the institutional factors that had made Western, and certain Asian, countries achieve industrial prosperity.
In Rwanda's case, there is the (rather lofty) intention of its president to transform the country into a Singapore of Africa which guides its approach to technology. However feasible that may be, it's at least an ethos. In the case of South Africa, which is probably one of the most gallingly inequality-stricken places on Earth, and which seems to have no clear national policy on AIDS, let alone anything else? I fear that, just as in another country we all know and love which offers near-unlimited access to consumer goods but refuses to set national goals or promote social outcomes, we might simply find a slew of rooftop pile drivers and nasty big-fake-dick-porn.
I laughed out loud about the JUNGLE NESTS thing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the South African government would enact some oversight legislation with regards to MNU, it would be able to cooperate with the prawns to harness the power of their advanced technology for the betterment of their constituents.
ReplyDeleteI mean, spoiler alert.