Cindy Lemcke-Hoong wrote: >I never seems to be able to post to DDN ... I am going to give it one more try >... > >reading the analysis by Taran and others, I have to agree there are TOO MANY >DIVIDES and not just digital. > >Read the email from Declan, one can just understand why this world has so many >divides. When World Bank stated the digital divide is 'closer', what do they >mean? Does it mean there are more computers sold and bought? By by whom? > > Actually, they used teledensity and other studies. On the surface, the report is very interesting and promising. But where the data came from is something I still have to look at.
I'll add, too, that it's easy for anyone to be critical of such a paper because new papers are released spontaneously and at odd times (apparently people writing these papers aren't communicating as much as they could). The Reuters article looked like a bad case of sensationalistic journalism, really. The report is much more balanced. Even the press release is more balanced. > >I have someone in Indonesia complained to me that 100 PC sent to the country >for the Tsunami efforts just "VANISHED' without a trace. Now even if there is >no all the 'divides' there is still one big divide -- those with POWER to take >away the 100 PC, and those literally standing on the other side of the import >clearance fence. And of course the Indonesian governmnet is putting >extrodinatry import tax on PC and any so called 'digital equipments'. >Including when the goods are for NGOs purposes (not sure if it is resolved >now) ... > Yes. Sri Lanka had a news blackout as well, as I recall. This is where I hope ARCTX will come in, if I can ever sit still long enough to work on that. When it rains, it pours. :-( >The problem with most of the members of DDN (that I happened to read here) is >they MIGHT have the good fortune to be born in the USA or other countries that >are, as Declan suggested, that have all the good governance etc. > Well, there are a few Americans who might argue 'good governance'. Deficit per capita instead of GNP/GDP per capita is an eye opening statistic. > THerefore it is difficult for them to really understand what it means to be > cut-off because of religion, race, nationalities, citizenships, migrant > status etc. etc. etc. > I'll disagree here. I've lived in both worlds (not just visited), and the U.S. has problems in very similar ways. The bar of technology is higher, but there is a definite lag. This goes back to the socio-economic/racial divide that Bonnie and I discussed last year. > AND most of all language ... > Big problem here, and automatic translation doesn't really cut it. For lack of something better, it is sometimes useful. But multilingualism is on the rise. Part of the reason I'll be in the Dominican Republic is to become conversant in Spanish. >and of course MONEY ... 100 USD per month for some is a sneeze. But even in a >country such as Malaysia which is a modern and very well developed if compared >to some countries in Africa for example, with 100 local money I can have very >nice meals for 10 persons or more ... > > Definitely! But this is not being leveraged as it could be. India has leveraged it to some extent, and is reaping the rewards - as well as the problems that go with it. >THerefore all these talks about digital divide are for people who HAS digital >avilable to them because they do not face many of the 'divides' mentioned >above ... so how can we understand what the needs of these people? >Furthermore, even if we build a teleceter for them and they can access to the >rest of the world and get a PhD in something ... what good would that be for >someone in a fishing village? It would be just like building an ultra modern >hospital without providing ultra modern doctors and nurses ... My question >during one of EU NGOs workshop --- providing scholarship to educate people >from Africa and other countries is noble, BUT why give them the education they >cannot use back in their own countries? > > Exactly - context! > I no longer belive in waiting for a big 'bang' miracles ... > > I think that's really the first step. But I don't know. I don't think anyone else really knows either. Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
