And it is not clear--to me, at least--that if we had a thousand telecenters in Iraq that the other divides would shrink.
If there were a thousand more medical clinics than exist now, would it be certain that the "other divides" would "shrink"?
If there were a thousand more homes that had reliable electricity, would it be certain that the "other divides" would "shrink"?
What are the kinds of things likely to "shrin" a civil war?
Well, in some cases - like the American Civil War - it is a clear cut military victory by one side over the other.
But, in many, many other cases -- such as in Timor, Vietnam, Palestine, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and now Iraq, - a "good end" will only come when there is good governance, good education, good health care, good infrastructure.
Telecenters are an aid to all of those.
Yet, can we say that 1,000 of them - or 10,000? - would **guarantee** "shrinkage" of the bad guys? Of course not.
What we can say is that owners, operators and customers inside telecenters are more likely to want to have a 21st century skill sets and a modern life style than those who are fighting for a return to 4th century barbarism.
What we can also say is that glib responses which infer that unless X action can "guarantee" Y result, that X should NOT be taken.
Baloney.
-- John W. Hibbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.bfranklin.edu/johnhibbs
_______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] 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.
