Children in Africa need the internet

The English – rather arrogantly – like to claim that they invented everything useful that exists today, including the internet. One is reminded of a scene from the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics where Tim Berners-Lee sat at an old computer, inventing the internet. Though the internet was invented by Mr. Lee and a few other people at CERN, let’s just assume Mr. Lee was the mastermind. Okay so. What am I trying to say? Well, it seems that someone has decided that it is time that the internet is reinvented – a group of highly skilled professionals in California, who call themselves Google.

So what is Google’s plan to reinvent the internet? Well, Google has trialled wireless broadband networks in Cape Town, using three masts as broadcast centres to create a network. Their plan is to launch this technology in developing countries, using masts, blimps and satellites. One pictures a little boy in Burundi spotting a big balloon floating in the sky, running home, and looking at a picture of the blimp on a computer. Google are aiming to do just this – they want to bring the internet to the most remote rural areas – they want to spread the digital revolution to all corners of the world.

Unfortunately for Google, an old man who lives in their backyard feels that this is a bad idea. He says that there are more pressing concerns in the regions of the world where Google is looking to implement this technology. This old man, Mr. Bill Gates, said of the plan to implement this technology in sub-Saharan Africa;

“When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that.”

There are some people that have suggested that Mr. Gates’ comments are motivated mostly out of jealousy because he didn’t think of the idea himself. These people are probably the same people who believe that what under-nourished children really want is a blue iPod for their next birthday. Even if we ignore the misinformed stereotype that Americans are stupid, I’m sure Google understands that malaria, cholera, illiteracy and discrimination require more investment that flying internet balloons. Furthermore, I am amazed that Google didn’t consider the following flowchart.

Internet <-- Computer <-- Keyboard <-- English/Other language <-- School

Basically what this flowchart conveys is that to use the internet, one has to go to/have gone to school. Considering that this is a qualification absent from the CVs of most people who live in these regions, Google really should have thought about buying some paint before painting the wall.

Bill Gates, of course, is an individual who has worked tirelessly towards the improvement of living standards in the chronically impoverished regions of the world. An outstanding example of philanthropy, there is no doubt that he is more likely to know what it’s like in these regions that the boffins at Google who usually spend their day designing doodles that commemorate the birth of a 19th century physicist. I can’t help but wonder why Google is doing this. It is understandable that they may try to be to computing what Henry Ford was to cars, but unfortunately the majority of their target audience probably doesn’t care.  

In conclusion, more people using Google equals more money for Google equals cake and wine. Unfortunately, however, if you are one of the people that walks four kilometres every day to obtain a pot of drinking water, a floating balloon isn’t going to help you at all. You might as well just gaze at it for hours, wondering if it will drop something for your family – a container of potable water, for example. If you’re Google and this idea isn’t taking off, I have an alternative. I own a phone which has LTE connectivity, a dual-core processor, a super AMOLED screen and a Carl Zeiss camera lens. I have seen advertisements for phones that are supposed to work underwater and phones that are supposed to be everything resistant. Mobile phones have even been used on Mount Everest. If, however, you have a clue as to how to make any of these contraptions work in the ultimate proving ground – an elevator – do what is necessary – invent something, build something, or put a blimp in the elevator shaft. Just make it work.


- Chap.