It is certainly true that commercial interests would like to control for their profit the manufacture of gadgets for the world; in fact they would like to take control of the Internet as they have taken control of television in so much of the world.
BUT there is another possibility. 1. In Bangladesh the Grameen bank, a people's bank, has put a 'walking telephone booth'--a woman with a cell phone--in poor neighborhoods, one telephone for a village but it could be several. 2. And the gadget that will empower the poor in such places is the already coming-into-existence cell phone to connect to the Internet for business, e-governance, education and health care. 3. As these mature they can be manufactured in a poor developing country at a much more affordable price than would otherwise be possible. It is time now to prepare for what is going to be possible in a few years. -- Parker Rossman is exploring online in a draft textbook, free to the world, how to use the Internet to provide health care and learning for everyone on the planet. http://ecolecon.missouri.edu/globalresearch/index.html On Thursday, May 12, 2005, "Kris Dev" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have invariably seen that most world bodies fund where they can have a > hold. Hence they target the local Governments. Then they get a red > carpet welcome wherever they go. Invariably most funds are misused. It > suits everyone to make the rich and powerful, more powerful. If they > instead fund the community, whom can they approach to show off to the > world. ..snip... > The present attempts at e-Governance are a ploy by the MNC electronics, > hardware and networking vendors to push electronic gadgets and > computers on poor countries, which are hardly put to right use. It's > high time this is exposed. > > Unless true use of ICT tools and computers is done to alleviate poverty, > all forms of the divide shall continue. The poor nations are making the > rich nations richer at the cost of poor nations, thanks to the fooling > around of people through ICT. ..snip... ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
