Sellassie Forum -- Join! Sellassie Free Emails Sellassie BOOKS 702 Instead of writing another article I post the most recent by somebody else. Africa suffers not only because of the old and new problems, but because of the ignorance and being ignored. It's hard to find the straight report about normal everyday existence of the majority of people in Ethiopia. Just the stories about desasters and the politics from the capital. Notes Sellassie WWW? Go to... House of Sellassie Business D. Film-North mailing list vTheatre Sellassie Cyber U HIM: hyper-bio Sellassie WWW eHistory Ethio History Rasta Dir Webmasters! Sellassie Cyber Museum Ring   << Previous  | Join  | Next >>

This article from Red Herring, a magazine from Silicon Valley.

The Wretched of the Earth

What technology means to the third world
By Jason Pontin (jason@redherring.com)

FROM RED HERRING, MARCH 2000
I am in Ethiopia, on holiday, in the holy town of Lalibela, where a 12-th century Ethiopian king carved a series of churches from the living rock of the mountain. It is the day before Christmas according to the Orthodox Ethiopian calendar. There are priests and pilgrims. There are beggars, too--hundreds of them, all of them hungry, all of them miserable, most of them sick, most of them deformed. I have never been anywhere so poor.
With me I have a dog-eared copy of The Economist. A leader asks, "Will developing economies be left behind by the information technology revolution?" and answers No. The British news magazine writes, "the information technology revolution is. . .the main driver of growth, and some people worry that the gap between the developed and less-developed countries [will] widen further." But people shouldn't worry, The Economist argues, because, "The IT revolution need not prevent emerging countries from growing at an even faster pace [that America]. . .Poorer countries can copy those technologies at relatively low cost." Sooner rather than later, the leader concludes, poor countries will catch up with the rich. I'm reminded that the retired admiral, Bill Owens, the co-CEO of Teledesic, a company that is building a satellite network that will offer cheap broadband data and voice services, once said to me, "Can you imagine what a Teledesic disc, beaming broadband technology into an African village would mean?"
Now that I have seen the African village of Lalibela, I can answer: No. I cannot imagine it. The Economist, and Admiral Owens, are wrong. Both imagine a future where poor countries leap over an entire stage of industrialization and take their place in a global economy. There are two things wrong with this triumphalist millenarianism. One, it is at odds with the reality of life in a very poor country; two, it is at odds with economic theory.
The CIA's World Factbook lists the relevant facts about Ethiopia. "Ethiopia," the agency's analysts blithely report, "remains one of the least developed countries in the world." Its gross domestic product per capita is only $560. Its economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for more than half of GDP, 90 percent of exports, and 80 percent of total employment. But the Ethiopians aren't even much good at farming: there are droughts, methods are crude, and there is a nasty and stupid war with its nothern neighbor, Eritrea, that disrupts most aspects of life. Most of Ethiopia's population works the fields; the rest work for the state; only 8 percent of Ethiopians work for private enterprises. While most Ethiopians are dignified, pious, temperate, and hardworking, they are also ignorant and illiterate peasants. What would information technology do for such a place? No one would know what to do with it, and even if they did, it would change little about people's lives.
The economic theory behind the idea that technology will quickly enrich the third world is suspect, too. Robert Lucas, the University of Chicago economist, whose theories were the inspiration for The Economist's leader, believes that once poor countries start growing, they grow at a rate of 2 percent per year plus a margin proportional to the gap between the country and its richer neighbors. But is there any reason to believe such a thing? There are two reasons for economic growth: capital investment, or an increase in productivity. Ethiopia has neither. I am not arguing for hopelessness. But I do think the technology industry, and those who love it, should show less arrogance when they imagine its wonderful ability to grow economies. Most technologies would not make a difference to a country like Ethiopia. One exception is the genetically modified seeds developed by companies like Monsanto that resist drought, pests, viruses, and fungi. They might do a lot to eliminate hunger. But what Ethiopia needs first are things that the West takes for granted--political liberties, free markets, the dissemination of reading and writing, health care, an urban middle class, and the growth of basic industries.
When you are in Ethiopia you know where you are. It is the middle ages, with Russian-made tanks trundling north to an obscure border war. It will take a while for such a place to join the developed nations of the world. Technology isn't magic.

Problems & Causes: AIDs

Politics Directory @ Sellassie Cyber University

Partners Against HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

If nothing is done and current HIV trends continue, life expectancy in 2010 in Ethiopia is estimated to be:

        With AIDS                        Without AIDS

           38.6                              54.7

Source: United States Bureau of the Census, World Population Profile 1998, Population Division, International Program Center, Washington DC, 1998

AIDS-TABLE
AIDS: THE WORST HIT COUNTRIES 
GENEVA December 1 1999 Sapa-AFP
Below is a list of the countries worst hit by the AIDS
pandemic,
issued by the United Nations. It gives the situation
at the end of 1997. 
The next figures are due to be published in June 2000.

The five countries with the highest rate of infection
among the
adult population: 
Zimbabwe : 25.84 percent - 1.5 million sufferers 
Botswana : 25.10 percent - 190,000 sufferers 
Namibia : 19.94 percent - 150,000 sufferers 
Zambia : 19.07 percent - 770,000 sufferers 
Swaziland : 18.50 percent - 84,000 sufferers 
The five countries with the highest number of AIDS
sufferers: 
India : 4.1 million people - 0.82 percent of the adult
population 
South Africa : 2.9 million people - 2.91 percent of
the adult
population 
Ethiopia : 2.6 million people - 9.31 percent of the
adult population

Nigeria : 2.3 million people - 4.12 percent of the
adult population 
Kenya : 1.6 million people - 11.64 percent of the
adult population

News Digest: Ethiopian Weekly from Addis

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