[Telecentres] Re: RE: RE: [DDN] Digital Divide, Telecentres and Iraq

[Ashish Saboo]

On Mon, 09 May 2005 Dr.Steve  Eskow wrote :
>I find images of medicine more useful to my thinking.
>
>There is no medicine, no wonder drug, that is useful for any ailment, any
>patient.
>We practitioners need to adopt for our work the model of "diagnosis"  before
>"prescription."
>
>If a "community" is the "patient," we doctor-practitioners have to study the
>symptoms of that community to determine if a particular drug will be
>beneficial now..
>
>In the case of the powerful drug called a "telecenter," there are times and
>communities when that drug needs to be delayed or avoided until  there is a
>readiness to benefit from it.

Your analogy is interesting but I suspect you forgot the basic difference i.e. the entry barrier. The easy access to information offered by the modern ICT tools and relative low entry barrier in setting up the information infrastructure.
      While knowing a few medications cannot make me a doctor, imagine treating cancer with paracetamol tablets. 

Deploying the modern ICT tools do not require extensive training, as 
Elizabeth Carll described illiterate rural Bangladeshi women's experiment with making video films!  That British couple may be thanked for offering a powerful visual communication in tackling their challenges like sorting and storing paddy seeds or abhorred for offering a tool to make a porn movie.  Just give those Bangladeshi women a choice to align with options where their progress remains. 
 What people in Iraq or Afghanistan or Vietnam seek is self-determination & empowerment. American administration entered these countries with the same noble intention as you think and we all know the consequences. 
Modern ICT tools, be it community radio or Telecentre offer a powerful medium for self-expression and self directedness. Its impossible to put a lid. 

This also reminds me an analogy with communication tools used in the cold war.
  In India, I remember American consulate used to distribute heavily subsidized copies of ' Voice of America’, & soviets used to distribute 'Sputnik' Magazine. They were the best compiled magazines in India had a wide circulation much to the satisfaction of their publishers but the truth was nobody read them but they were in demand because they made great paper bags!! 
  It would be interesting to watch what creative use do the Iraqis really put your sanitized Tele-centers to. 


Best of Luck

Ashish Saboo
President
Association of Public Internet Access Provider (ApiAp)
The voice of independent Cyber cafe operators
URL: http://www.apiap.cybernook.net
Blog: http://apiap.blogspot.com





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/telecentres/attachments/20050510/b5b16eff/attachment.html