Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 10:59:59 +0100
From: Patrice Riemens <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CSL]: Re: Hold the phone
That's indeed what WIRED used to call a meme going supernova (if my
memory
is right). But it might still be true since what matters is that
infrastructure investment (whether in telecommunication or other things,
eg transport, health etc.) for the common good, irrespective of its
(perceived) profitability, has become something of the past, due to the
onslaught of marketist thinking (aka 'the One Idea System' ;-) Hence,
land
telephone lines are vanishing in Africa in favor of mobile phones for
the
rich, state-run transport services are replaced by private minibuses (at
10 times the fare), government hospitals become death camps, as private
clinics mushroom etc etc. Some people take an optimistic view of this
('liberates small scale entrepreneurship') but I think it's bunk - most
of
the time. Deregulation and the 'withdrawal of the state' simply means
disengagement of responsability towards the majority of the people being
left to fend for themselves. Happens everywhere, but in some countries
of
the South it can take very, very crude forms.
On Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 05:37:32PM -0000, John Armitage wrote:
> Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 20:17:55 -0500
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> From: Bram Dov Abramson <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Hold the phone
>
> ===================================
> > >From: Miranda Mowbray [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > >
> > > Half the world's population have never made or received a
telephone
> > > call - Kofi Annan, Davos, 28 January 2001
>
> >From: Phil Graham <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> >In any case, those statistics were first noted in the UNESCO world
> >report for 1998 from data gathered between 1995-1996.
> >Obviously no progress has been made since. Makes me wonder
> >whether it is an apology or an admonition on Annan's part.
>
> It's more of a circulating meme. Statistics don't really matter much
here;
> teledensity in Africa and Asia is way below the point where a bit of
growth
> would change make the glass fuller than empty.
>
> Main lines grew at a compound annual rate of 5.5 percent between 1995
and
> 1998; for low income and lower middle income economies, this was 14.9
and
> 15.2 percent growth, respectively.
>
> (The numbers cited in a UNESCO report would have come from the ITU, as
do
> the ones I reproduce here. ITU staff gather the numbers from various
> member administrations, regulators, and PTTs.)
>
> cheers
> Bram
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