Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Buy a cell phone, help the poor

African Leaders Back Tech Tax to Help Poor Nations Hmmm. The 'trickle down' approach. Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's President, says the tax is designed "to empower the South with information technology equipment, telephones, fax machines, the Internet and to ensure training on how to use them." But technology is not necessarily the most crucial thing for people on the wrong side of the digital divide. All depends on how much money is banked and how it will be used. Otherwise, someone will have to invent a new phrase: whitewashing and greenwashing and, now, high-tech poorwashing.

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