The Digital Divide in Haiti

In class we talked about how western countries whose economies thrive off of information and communication technologies, have begun to bridge the “digital divide” in less developed countries such as the south. Businesses, governments and non-profit organizations alike are helping these underdeveloped countries by introducing technologies in order to advance their economies. However, although this may look on the outside like self-less good deeds, the poorer countries are not the only ones benefitting. With more advanced technologies being introduced they will be introduced to a larger market, which would increase productive manufacturing (such as the outsourcing of cheap labor) for more industrial countries as well.

After reading about this mutual gain from bridging the digital divide, it got me thinking about all the other kinds of groups that could benefit from helping under-developed countries, not only in the business and economic market. Specifically, the recent devastation in Haiti. Through technologies, in America we have been able to collect massive amounts of money to donate to the efforts. People can text certain numbers which will donate money from their phone, they can tweet to specific groups how much they would like to donate, and they can donate money from their online banking accounts straight to a charity. It makes you wonder that if Haiti was as progressed as we are, they might be able to do a lot more for themselves, as well as saved a lot of lives.

There are hundreds of non-profit charities or “civil societies” that are helping to collect money in the US. While this is definitely a good thing in regard to all of the help Haiti is getting, it is hard not to question the people associated with these charities, and like the businesses who seem to be a doing a good thing by helping underdeveloped countries modernize themselves, Haiti may not be the only one benefitting from this help. For Example George Clooney’s recent telethon event in which all proceeds went to Haiti, involved numerous celebrities and was said to have bridged the digital divide. However, in a world where your public persona plays a large role in your job, one might question the real motives that all of these celebrities had by going on TV and pleading for people to donate. Personally, I don’t think it really matters because of all of the money they collected which helped the Haiti efforts tremendously. However, the celebrities were gaining publicity and the TV stations were getting millions of viewers because of the celebrities, so in the end, I guess it is ok that everyone benefits. These people may be doing good for now, but if we had helped Haiti to advance their technologies sooner, we might not have had to do all of this in the first place.