Clay Shirky has an excellent investigation piece on the phrase: "Half the world has never made a phone call". It made me realise, once again, how we Africans have accepted the victim jacket from the rest of the world and how we thrive on being morbid and negative about our lot, choosing pity from others rather than independent action by ourselves. Shirky makes the very good point that by repeating the phrase "half the world", we are choosing a position of stasis rather than pointing out the fact that, despite decreases or stasis in landline telephone growth, mobile telephony is exploding. The people have found a way to circumvent government monopolies and make things happen. We'll see this trend continually in the coming months in Africa - where the market will dictate better government policies so that we can keep moving along the path to better communications. Because, when it comes down to it, communication is essential to human existence - and we're not going to stand by while the rest of the world enjoys the benefits of enhanced communication.
Oh, and the next instalment would be to investigate the phrase, "the rest of the world" or the "west" or the "developed countries". Living in America, I am beginning to realise how static that term is.
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