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MISTICA: False Divide?

From: Yacine Khelladi ([email protected])
Date: Mon Feb 24 2003 - 09:56:11 AST

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_janfeb_2003/kenny.html
"DEVELOPMENT'S FALSE DIVIDE", Charles Kenny, World Bank

"Giving Internet access to the world's poorest will cost a lot and
accomplish little."

Commentary of "Foreign Policy":
"The best of motives may drive a concern to equalize
global Internet access, but not the strongest of logic." So argues
World Bank economist Charles Kenny, who believes that the benefits of providing
Internet access in developing countries do not exceed or even meet the
high cost associated with doing so. He discusses the challenge of
providing access to rural areas of Costa Rica, where the per capita
public expenditure on Internet access would exponentially exceed the per
capita subsidies for health care and discretionary spending for primary
education. Kenny also notes that the digital divide is more than just a
lack of physical access: cultural differences, language barriers and
skills development are also barriers to effective utilization of the Web
in developing countries. Kenny concludes that while communications
technologies in general provide significant opportunities to obtain
wealth, the Internet itself does not necessarily, and that the
globalization of Web access should be abandoned in favor of more
limited, targeted subsidy programs.
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Charles Kenny]

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