Global Voices Online » Development

Algeria: 50 Top Algerians

Amira Al Hussaini — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:12:20 +0000

Looking for the 50 top Algerians? “Jeune Afrique has run an nice special on the 50 people who make Algeria what it is — politicians, policemen, generals, business people, cultural luminaries, and others,” writes Alle, at the Maghreb Politics Review.

Bhutan: The Purpose Of Saving The Earth

Rezwan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:43:40 +0000

Bhutan is a low emission country but its progress and the increase of standard of living risk more carbon emissions. “Why protect our environment if it comes at the cost of economic development?”, questions Di at On The Job blog while discussing about how Bhutan can progress. She argues: “between humans and the environment, humans must always be the priority.”

Serbia: Sinisa Boljanovic Wins Climate Change Blogging Contest

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:10:54 +0000

Sinisa Boljanovic, a GV author and Lingua Serbian editor, became one of the winners of Round 1 of TH!NK2: CLIMATE CHANGE blogging contest; here's Sinisa's winning entry: Black Point of the Danube Basin.

CEE: “20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall” - a Poll

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:42:17 +0000

Foreign Policy Association's Russia blog writes about the results of a Pew Research Center's poll on poverty, wealth and attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe “20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

Trinidad & Tobago: Silicon Reality

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:45:43 +0000

Taran Rampersad debunks “the Myth of a T&T Silicon Valley.”

Morocco: Here Comes the Sun

Hisham — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:27:13 +0000

Morocco has announced this week the launch of a solar energy project, with an estimated cost of $9 billion, aiming at raising the share of renewable sources in the country's energy production. Mostly supportive bloggers have been sharing their thoughts.

I See the Light by si David on Flickr

The plan, unveiled in the southern Moroccan city of Ouarzazate during a ceremony attended by king Mohammed VI and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will, according to the local news agency, enable the country to equally divide its renewable energies' national production between solar, wind and hydroelectric sources by the year 2020. By then, renewable energies will account for 38% of the country's overall energy production, according to the source.

Taha Balafrej, blogging on Vue du Maroc [Fr], explains that there might be a viable economic basis for the country's new policy inclination. He writes:

Dans le milieu des affaires, un intérêt grandissant est perceptible. Il faut reconnaître que l’effet Obama n’est pas étranger à cette prise de conscience animée par les opportunités économiques qu’elle engendre. Un pays comme le Maroc qui dépend presque entièrement des importations pour son énergie, et dont les ressources en eau se raréfient, a tout intérêt à rejoindre les pays qui y croient et y investissent.

There is an obvious interest among business people. And one must recognize that the “Obama Effect” has something to do with this, backed by the economic opportunities it creates. A country like Morocco, which depends almost entirely on imports for its energy, and which water resources are scarce, has all interest in joining the countries who believe and invest in clean energy.

The solar project, which is both publicly and privately funded, will benefit from American solar and steam technology, which seems to have won the market over traditional investors–primarily French–which is something thestrategist, blogging on Genesis Morocco, unequivocally endorses:

Seems the Europeans are out on this one. A clean shot for [American investors]. I'm all for it, the Europeans cannot match the Americans expertise in managing large scale programs…

thestrategist, publishing an open letter to the Moroccan king, further explains [Fr] his enthusiasm. He writes:

[Cette technologie pourrait] nous libérer des aléas de la pluviométrie en utilisant l'énergie abondante et renouvelable […], afin de dessaler l'eau de mer et approvisionner outre les besoins de l'industrie et des ménages, un système d'irrigation nationale en appoint, voire en remplacement, de la stratégie des barrages…

[This technology could] free us from dependency on rainfalls, by using the abundant and renewable energy […], to desalinate sea water and provide for the needs of industry and households, and a state-of-the-art national irrigation system in replacement of the dams building strategy…

Whilst the majority seems to be supporting the scheme, not everybody is impressed. Jebli, commenting [Fr] on a post published by online news journal, Hesspress [Ar], finds the cost way too expensive. He writes:

[C]e projet solaire va produire 2000Mega Watt/h, pour un cout de 9 milliards de dollars, ce qui est TROP TROP TROP cher.
Une centrale nucléaire, sa construction de bout en bout coute 1,5 milliard de dollars et produit 1000Mega watt/heure.
Ainsi, avec 9 milliards de dollars le Maroc aurait pu créer 6 centrales nucléaires, et aurait produit 6000Mega watt/heure.
Franchement, je ne comprend pas le choix de nos dirigeants, ils choisissent des téchnologies au hasard, sans réflichir, vraiment ils gaspillent l'argent public.

This solar project will produce 2000 Mega Watt / hour, at a cost of $ 9 billion, which is TOO MUCH expensive. A nuclear power plant construction would have costed 1.5 billion dollars and produced 1000 Mega watt / hour. With 9 billion dollars Morocco could have created 6 nuclear plants and have produced 6000 Mega watt / hour. Frankly, I do not understand the choices of our leaders. They choose technologies at random, without planning. Really, they are wasting public money.

Commenting on the same post, Hay Bin Yaqdan sees in the project [Ar] another stranglehold of foreign powers on local resources. He writes:

نرجو أن لا يخصخص هذا المشروع و نصبح في رحمة شركة ما (في الغالب فرنسية).
لمذا انتظر الملك حتى زيارة كلنتون للإفتتاح صحبتها؟ نظرتي نحو هذا المشروع هو تكريس هيمنة الدول المتقدمة “أمريكا” مثلا

I hope this project will not be overly privatized, so that we don't fall into the mercy of corporations (mostly French). Why has the King waited for the visit of Clinton? My view about this project is that it is devoted to the dominance of developed countries, like America

Barbados: Whipping Boy

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:21:02 +0000

“We seem determined to deny our history, rather than learn from it. Why else would we, who have been so wounded by the whip, venerate it?” B.C. Pires puts in his two cents' worth on the recent flogging of schoolchildren in Barbados.

Japan: Debating the fate of Shimokitazawa

Chris Salzberg — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:50:36 +0000

Tokyo has no lack of small, winding streets. Shibuya has its maze of criss-crossing shōtengai, Roppongi its club-lined back alleyways, Ueno its open-air street markets. But no neighborhood in Tokyo packs more complexity per square foot than Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood whose layout bears closer resemblance to a ball of thread than to anything an urban planner would come up with.

View Larger Map

Shimokitazawa's spaghetti-like mess of streets and train lines evoke passion among some, frustration among others. The area has earned a name for itself as a breeding ground for creative young artists with its dozens of small theaters, art galleries and music venues. While eccentric characters like Rikimaru Toho fit perfectly into this urban environment, others see the maze of narrow streets as a dangerous fire hazard and a giant urban congestion knot in need of unwinding.

Planned route through Shimokitazawa (Subsidiary Route 54)

The entire area happens to lie in the path of a would-be thoroughfare running through Shimokitazawa to Shibuya, originally set forth in a “War damage revival plan” drafted all the way back in 1946. After several changes, that plan was brought back to life in 2003 and demolition and construction work has been slated to start in 2010. Should it be executed, the plan will split Shimokitazawa apart with a 26-meter wide expressway, Subsidiary Route 54 (補助54号線).

While the basic shape of those redevelopment plans had been known for some time, it was only a few weeks ago that the first glimpses of the new design finally emerged on the blog of Kuniyoshi Yoshida, a local landowner and head of the Shimokitazawa South [ja] shopowners' union. Comments which began to appear on the blog, blasting the new design for its failure to respect the Shimokitazawa atmosphere, were swiftly deleted, but hostility against the plans only grew.

New Shimokitazawa Station design

In a blog entry [ja] that drew a large response [ja], blogger and writer Hideaki Matsunaga [ja] explained why:

リリー・フランキー氏をはじめとして、下北沢の文化や町並を愛する人たちが、下北沢再開発に反対の意見を表明している。そこには、住人も、住人以外も含まれる。しかし、今、下北沢で何が起こっているのか、なぜこのデザインがこんなに反発を受けるのか、その経緯について簡単にまとめてみる。

A great number of people who love the Shimokita culture and streets, starting with Lily Franky and including both residents and non-residents, have voiced their opposition to the Shimokitazawa redevelopment project. What I want to do here is to outline the details of what is going on right now in Shimokitazawa, and why there has been such opposition to this design.

The blog entry starts with a bit of history:

下北沢は「Ｘ」の交点に当たる。新宿から伸びる小田急線がその一つのラインであり、渋谷から吉祥寺に伸びる京王井の頭線がもう一つのラインである。新宿・渋谷・吉祥寺、そして小田急線で成城の東宝撮影所や祖師ヶ谷大蔵の円谷プロ旧本社などとつながる交点、それが下北沢である。

Shimokitazawa is located at an X-shaped intersection. One of the lines in this X is the Odakyu line from Shinjuku, the other is the Keio Inokashira line stretching from Shibuya to Kichijōji. So Shimokitazawa is at an intersection connecting Shinjuku, Shibuya, Kichijoji, as well as places such as the Toho Studios in Seijo and the former headquarters of Tsuburaya Productions in Soshigaya.

(Note: all photos of Shimokitazawa reproduced with permission from the blog of Hideaki Matsunaga.)

かつて農村地帯だった駅周辺は次第に郊外の宅地化していった。やがて、横光利一、東郷青児、宇野千代、萩原朔太郎、斎藤茂吉らが住み、「下北沢文士町」という要素も持つようになっていく。萩原朔太郎の『猫町』も下北沢地域を舞台としている。この街と切り離せない作家として、森茉莉らもいる。（→萩原朔太郎猫町散文詩風な小説）

戦後の闇市の時代を経て、下北沢は住宅地から繁華街へと発展していった。さらに本多劇場をはじめとする小劇場やライブハウスが次々と生まれ、演劇・音楽・サブカルの街、あるいは演劇や音楽を目指す若者たちが多く集まる街となる。

闇市の記憶を残す下北沢北口の駅前食品市場は、やがて衣料品「アメリカ屋」ブームを起こし、その記憶は下北沢に多く見られる古着やファッションの小さな店に引き継がれているといえよう。

Once a farming district, the area around the station gradually transformed into a residential area. Before long, it had taken on the character of “Literary Shimokitazawa”, home of the likes of Riichi Yokomitsu (横光利一), Seiji Tōgō (東郷青児), Chiyo Uno (宇野千代), Sakutarō Hagiwara (萩原朔太郎) and Mokichi Saitō (斎藤茂吉). The Shimokitazawa region is also a stage for Sakutarō Hagiwara's “Nekomachi” (猫町). Another group of writers inseparable from Shimokitazawa are Mari Mori (森茉莉) and company.

After the post-war black market era, Shimokitazawa developed from a residential era into a shopping district. Starting with the Honda Gekijo, small theaters and music venues started appearing, and Shimokitazawa became a city of theater, music and subculture, and a gathering place for young people with an interest in theater and music.

The market in front of the station, which embodies the memory of the black market era, soon gave rise to a boom in “America stores” selling clothing, and this memory has been kept alive in the used clothing stores and small fashion shops that can be seen all around Shimokitazawa.

迷路のような、とたとえられる下北沢。狭い路地が複雑に走るゴチャゴチャ感あふれる街は、徒歩によって回遊できる空間として親しまれてきた。

この下北沢の街が大きく変わろうとしている。そして、その変化は下北沢を「破壊」するものであると考える人が、下北沢住人にも、あるいは下北沢に来る人にも、非常に多い（一方で、その変化を歓迎する商店主もいる）。

Shimokitazawa is like a labyrinth. Tangled in complicated ways, its jumble of narrow alleyways conveys a sense of disorder, but one that is walkable by foot. It this atmosphere that people are so fond of.

This neighborhood, Shimokitazawa, is on course to be drastically transformed. And there are a large number of people — both local residents and people who have come from other places — who feel that this transformation will destroy Shimokitazawa. (On the other hand, there are also shop owners who welcome this transformation.)

In the next section, Matsunaga points out that there are actually two parts to the redevelopment plans for Shimokitazawa. The first part, which he does not personally oppose, is already underway and focuses on expanding the number of tracks on the Odakyu line and burying them to reduce the number of crosswalks.

The second set of redevelopment plans are of a different kind:

さて、この小田急線地下化工事はすでに始まっているが、一方でこれとセットのようにして進められているのが「都市計画道路補助54号線（以下、補助 54号線）」という26メートル幅道路の建設計画、ならびに下北沢駅前にバスロータリーを造るという計画（世田谷区画街路10号線）である。この道路・バスロータリーが、下北沢の街を根底から破壊するものとして反対されている。そして、小田急線地下化と道路事業がセットで行なわれることで世田谷区は補助金をせしめたと考える人たちもいる。

Now, this construction work on burying Odakyu Line has already started, but they are also pursuing plans for a 26-meter wide road referred to as the “Urban Strategy for Subsidiary Route 54 (Sub-Road 54 below)”, along with a plan to construct a bus roundabout in front of Shimokitazawa station (Setagaya District Street 10). The road and bus roundabout are being opposed on the grounds that the project will destroy the city of Shimokitazawa from its very foundations. Some even believe that Setagaya Ward may have packaged the burying of Odakyu line tracks and the road construction plans together as a way to wrangle more subsidies.

補助54号線は、下北沢演劇文化発祥の地ともいえる「スズナリ」を背後からたたきつぶし、北沢タウンホールの北側を抜けて本多スタジオを踏みつぶし、下北沢北口の街のど真ん中を貫いて、環七と同じ幅の自動車道で街を分断・破壊しようという計画である。そして、環七と都心を結ぶ道路となる。

Sub-Road 54 is envisioned in plans as coming from behind to crush the Suzunari, an area of Shimokitazawa which might be called the birthplace of the local theater culture, carving through the north side of Kitazawa town hall to flatten all of Honda Studio, and then running through the middle of the area around the north entrance of Shimokitazawa station, dividing and destroying the city with an expressway as wide as Kan-nana [Tokyo's No. 7 ring road]. The new road would thus connect Kan-nana to the urban center.

また、この補助54号線から旧小田急線路跡地に沿って下北沢駅北口に伸びる道路は、駅前食品市場の雑然とした空間を取っ払って作られる駅前ロータリーにつながる。

Also, a road stretching from Sub-Road 54, along the site of the former Odakyu line tracks, to the north entrance of Shimokitazawa station, will connect to a bus roundabout to be built in front of the station, sweeping away the disorderly atmosphere of the current station-front market.

In the next section of the blog entry, Matsunaga points out some implications of the redevelopment project:

駅前ロータリーができることで、高層ビルの高さ制限が大きく緩和される可能性も指摘されている。下北沢一帯の建物は低いものが多く、これも歩く街としての性質を生み出しているが、これが一転して高層ビルの町へと変貌する可能性もある。

With the completion of the station-front roundabout, it has been suggested that the height limitation imposed on tall buildings could be considerably relaxed. There are a lot of low-rise buildings in the Shimokitazawa area, and these buildings lend themselves to creating a pedestrian-friendly environment; this may all at once be replaced by a city of high-rise buildings.

And he explains:

もちろん、再開発については（今回の白髪爺さんを筆頭に）「地元」でも歓迎する声がある。今回の衆院選前に各陣営に確認したところ、自民党は再開発こそが地元の活性化につながると全面的に賛同していた。民主党は、本当に必要な道路か再調査して不要不急であれば計画見直し、という、どちらともとれる見解だった（一応、無駄を省くという趣旨ではあるのだが、八ツ場ダム中止のように明確な態度を示しているわけではない。ある民主党都議会議員は、「消防車が入れない狭い道は防災上問題」と、事実上再開発賛成を表明している）。みんなの党は、下北沢については詳しくないが、下町風情は残したい、という見解であった。それはさておくとしよう。

Of course, there are also locals who welcome the redevelopment (with Kuniyoshi Yoshida being first on this list). When I last checked the positions of every [political] camp prior to the lower house elections, the LDP [Liberal Democratic Party] was completely in favor of the redevelopment, arguing that it would rejuvenate the local area. The DPJ [Democratic Party of Japan] position was that if a re-examination of the plans found that the road was nonessential and not urgent, then they would review the current plan, and thus the DPJ is not firmly in either camp (of course the aim is to eliminate wastefulness, but they have not expressed a clear position in they way that they did when they halted the Yanba Dam project. One DPJ Diet member has in fact indicated their support for redevelopment, [on the grounds that] “roads that are too small for fire trucks are a fire hazard”.) Your Party [Min'na no Tō] have not elaborated their position on Shimokitazawa, but their position has been that they want to protect the old city atmosphere. Let's put that aside for now.

この再開発歓迎派は、要するに、今までのゴチャゴチャした下北沢が大嫌いなのである。闇市の記憶を受け継ぐような、北口食品市場が平成の今に至るまで残存していることが許せないのである。自動車が入ってこれないのが発展と進歩を阻害していると感じているのである。

In short, those who welcome the redevelopment plans are the same people who hate the messy Shimokitazawa of the past and present. They cannot accept that the market by the north exit, which carries on in the tradition of the old black market, has survived to this day. They feel that development and progress are being hampered by the lack of car access to this area.

Returning to the original topic of the design for the new Shimokitazawa station, Matsunaga writes:

下北沢という街の記号として存在するもの、たとえばそれはスズナリであり、駅前食品市場であり、車の入ってこない（タクシーさえもなかなか入って来たがらない）「徒歩空間」の路地であるが、そういうものが補助54号線と駅前ロータリー計画によって、文字通り「ブルドーザーでならされようとしている」。

The things which symbolize Shimokitazawa, the Suzunari, the shops by the station entrance, the alleys that create the area's pedestrian atmosphere and which cars cannot navigate (and even taxis have a difficult time navigating) — all of this is to be literally flattened by bulldozers under the plan to create Sub-Road 54 and the station-front roundabout.

そしてその後にやってくるものとして提案されたのが、よりによって今回の「下北沢駅駅舎整備イメージ案」なのだ。なぜこんなガラス張りの幾何学的な（つまり非人間的な）ものが「下北沢にふさわしい」のだ。「きれいさっぱりすっきりで直線的な、清潔で明るい駅舎」のどこが、ゴチャゴチャくねくねチマチマでジグザグの、雑然としているが活気のある下北沢の街にふさわしいのだ。

And then, of all things to come after this, they present this picture as a proposal for the new station design. What is it about this glassed-in geometric (in other words dehumanized) thing that is “befitting of Shimokitazawa”? What in the world does this clean and neat, linear, immaculate, bright station building have to do with the jumbled, meandering, zig-zagging little neighborhood around Shimokitazawa, chaotic but also full of life.

多くの下北沢フリークがこの案に対してほとんど反射的に反発を覚えたのは、決して偶然ではない。まさにそれは「今までの下北沢」のイメージ（あるいは下北沢を守ろうとする人たちの持つ下北沢のイメージ）と、「今までとは根本的に異なる下北沢」を作りたい人たちの願望するイメージが、まさに正反対、明らかに対極に位置するものであったことを意味する。

It is by no means an accident that so many of Shimokitazawa's hardcore fans [”Shimokita freaks”] have reacted with such knee-jerk revulsion to this proposal. What it is, in fact, is an indication that the image of “Shimokitazawa of past and present” (i.e. the way that people who are trying to protect Shimokitazawa see the neighborhood), and the image envisioned by those who want to create a “new Shimokitazawa” thoroughly different from what came before it, are in complete and total opposition to each other, at polar oppose extremes.

Reflecting on his own relation to Shimokitazawa, he continues:

別に下北沢に生まれ育ったわけではないが、その街の雰囲気を楽しみ、好きになってきた一人の人間として、そんな感傷やノスタルジーを感じている。そして、それを共有する地元の人たちと、そうではない地元の人たち、あるいは外部の人たちがいる。

下北沢再開発問題は、決して（八ツ場ダム問題のような）地元VS外部の闘いではない。街とは何か、街の発展とは何かについてのイメージの対立である。

It's not that I was born and brought up in Shimokitazawa, but as someone who has enjoyed and become very fond of the neighborhood's atmosphere, I feel sentimental and nostalgic about the area. And there are people in the area who share this feeling, as well as people who are not from the area, who are from outside.

The Shimokitazawa redevelopment problem is not at all a battle of “locals” versus “outsiders” (like in the case of the Yanba Dam problem). It's an opposition between visions of what a neighborhood is, and of what neighborhood development is.

(In response to many bookmark comments, Matsunaga wrote a follow-up post [ja] in which he clarified his position on a number of points. In particular, he emphasized that while he is personally against the Sub-Road 54 plans, he is not against the expansion/burying of Odakyu line tracks. He also responded to many comments claiming that the redevelopment is necessary for safety reasons.)

Update (Nov. 7)

Some more pictures of Shimokitazawa:

The Suzunari theater in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

Building in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

Cafe in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

Hong Kong: Luxury housing Ads

Oiwan Lam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:39:35 +0000

ESWN brings the readers' attention to a recent judgment by the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority on an Ads of a luxury development project for being misleading. You can see the Ads and the actual site via ESWN.

Madagascar: Economic Update

Ndesanjo Macha — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:07:25 +0000

Is the economy going down in Madagascar?: “If recent trends persisted during September, three new developments seem to indicate a deterioration in public finance and economic activities: (i) the Government borrowed on the domestic financial market (about half of its monthly expenditures) for the first time since the beginning of the crisis…”

Kenya: Blogging the first open map of Kibera

Ndesanjo Macha — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:43:59 +0000

An initiative aimed at creating the first open map of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya: “And yesterday we spent the whole day at MS ActionAid Kenya, where the Danish students were introduced to mapping techniques along with several others from organizations as diverse as Ushahidi, UNICEF, Umande Trust, and World Bike.”

The future of ICT4D: How soon is now?

John Liebhardt — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:29:27 +0000

Our previous two posts concentrated on what the future of ICTs for development could look like. This post will provide a taste of what it does look like. We’ll tackle a few lingering issues facing information and communication technology before investigating a few ICT projects.

These ventures weren’t picked by any scientific method; nor do they constitute any consensus of how ICTs will look in the next few years. These are just projects that caught my eye. Because these projects leverage technology in rural areas, let’s start with a discussion on how public internet kiosks could develop in the next few years.

Broadband? by wseltzer on Flickr.

In his blog ICTlogy, Ismael Peña-López wonders whether public internet kiosks like telecentres and cybercafés will evolve into enhanced e-centers, “where communities will gather and benefit from several community resources, computers and Internet access among others? Or will they just disappear?”

He continues:

As libraries have provided more than books, but a place where to learn to read and find kindred souls, it is my guess that public Internet access points will disappear as such, and will either be embedded within existing structures (libraries themselves, or civic centres, to name a few) or the existing telecentres and cybercafes will evolve into a next stage where the learning and community factors will be much more relevant. We are indeed seeing plenty of examples of this, and it is a matter of time that priorities or the focus turns upside down: instead of going to access the Internet and finding people, one will go and find people and use the Internet as an enhanced way to socialize. At its turn, this should be accompanied by the end of this false dichotomy on whether your a citizen or a netizen, as if the network had a live and a citizenry on its own. But time will tell.

Shilpa Sayura

Shilpa Sayura, which means sea of knowledge, is an interactive digital self-learning system based in Sri Lanka. Shilpa Sayura’s course of study began with eight subjects that parallels the national education curriculum so students in remote and rural areas can prepare for national school examinations in Sinhala, the country's predominant local language. The project has added another three courses, including lessons in Tamil and English.

Shilpa Sayura's open-source software was given away to non-profit educational providers and to rural Nansalas, a chain of government-developed telecentres. These telecentres in Sri Lanka fulfill many roles: Some provide connection to the web, but also offer fax, photocopying and printing services. They make money from phone calls, VOIP, and provide a bill-payment service. They are also places, the government hopes, where other ICT projects can bloom.

Harsha Liyanage, originally from Sri Lanka, blogs at Sustainability First: In search of sustainable telecentres. He records some of the issues Shilpa Sayura is attempting to overcome.

[The] Absence of competent teachers and adequate facilities handicap rural students in 80% of the Sri Lankas population. Now over 500 telecentres at rural outskirts provide a new window of opportunity. Shilpa Sayura enables students to interact with ICT to study 8 subjects digitally at tele centers and develop their knowledge to prepare for national examinations.

In March, 2008, Liyanage explained that Shilpa Sayura was undergoing growing pains.

Having a success story of a very compelling pilot, the project struggles at scaling up. Every telecentre operator of over 500 telecentres in Sri Lanka needs to have Shilpa Sayura installed in their telecentre. But, e-Fusion acknowledges it is not feasible at this present state.
• It needs technological improvements to ensure trouble free smooth run.
• Also needs technical capacity building at the telecentre operators to assist the users.
• Need to improve help-desk capacity to accept escalating demands
All these needs significant capital investments. They recognize it is not reasonable to tax the government to support further. Thus eyes at the CSR goodwill of the corporate partners.
In the mean time they plot the plans for an appropriate business model.

The blog Technology and Cultural Festival in Kandiyapitawew from Sri Lanka explains the educational benefits of the project.

We believe ‘Shilpa Sayura’ could contribute to addressing the issue of the shortage of school teachers, especially in distant rural area one which continues to be a setback to the county’s educational system.

The ‘Shilpa Sayura’ e-learning package covers eight school subjects, in Sinhala from grade six to O level. Shilpa Sayura’s simple interactive means of self study caters to students in remote communities with no access to urban educational resources. Still in its pilot stage Shilpa Sayura now operates in 20 ‘Nenasalas’ or tele-centers located in distant villages and promotes the concept of self learning among students in these secluded communities…The next phase would be the transformation of Shilpa Sayura into a National project to strengthen rural education and bridge the gap between rural and urban students.

M-Pesa

The next project takes place in Kenya, where the blog Global Warming contends the mobile phone is revolutionizing society.

There are presently over 17 million [mobile phone] subscribers and the fact that it is presently facilitating money transfers almost says it all. There are the two things that make everything work. One is communication and the second is convenience of transferring cash. After that you are in business anywhere.

M-Pesa began in 2007 as a way to perform simple banking transactions through cell phones. The telecom firms behind the project didn’t charge registration fees or require customers to have a bank account, often a major hurdle in Kenya because few people deal with traditional banks. Once signed-up, customers can use the M-Pesa application to pay bills, purchase more phone credits and transfer money within Kenya through data-enabled mobile phones. M-Pesa now allows customers to book airline tickets. Safaricom, the company responsible for M-Pesa, is beginning a pilot project to let customers pay for water usage.

M-Pesa agent in Bunda by emilsjoblom in Flickr.

In July 2009 M-Pesa totaled more than seven million subscribers, who collect or send money through a network of more than 1400 bank agents, making it the largest bank in the country. These customers transfer more than $2.5 million every month.

Just a few weeks ago, M-Pesa went international, moving into the United Kingdom by allowing people to send money back to phone numbers in Kenya through a web interface. The transaction costs as little as $8 US for sending 150 Pounds. A 2005 study found traditional money transfer firms charged fees between 2.5 and 40 percent of the transfer for anything below 100 Pounds.

David Zarraga, from the blog Mobile Behavior has a good rundown on how M-Pesa works.

Registered M-PESA customers can “deposit” hard currency with any M-PESA agent in exchange for e-money, which is uploaded into the customer’s M-PESA account. For 38 US cents, the customer can then transfer this money to another registered customer’s M-PESA account via SMS. Once the recipient receives the SMS confirmation, the hard currency can then be withdrawn from the nearest M-PESA agent, completing the money transfer process.

How does the M-PESA service benefit the average Kenyan? Olga Morawczynski, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh who spoke at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona last February, shared the story of Martin, a shoe-maker in Kibera, an informal settlement just outside Nairobi. Martin makes about US$ 20 a day from his trade and sends a quarter of his earnings to his wife and mother, who live in Western Kenya, over 100 miles away. M-PESA saves Martin time, allowing him to work his trade instead of having to travel far outside his place of work to find a bank. The service also enables him to make frequent transfers – about 5 times a month – thereby allowing him to send a week’s earnings when his family needs the money most.

The blog Bankelele: Nairobi Banker lists advantages and disadvantages for banking with M-Pesa.

Benefits of m-pesa banking
- 24 hour banking: More reach & access than any bank or ATM network
- Mobile banking with operator tends to be cheaper then mobile banking via bank provided services
- Saving in transport costs and banking transaction costs
- Can pay a variety of bills for utilities at a low cost
Challenges of m-pesa banking
- Lack of float at dealers to transact/occasional mpesa system downtime
- No credit history; and the clumsy expensive statement from Safaricom not useful yet
- Calls for discipline to build savings
- Funds are not insured, and are more prone to crime. And dealing with a stolen phone in Kenya is not a pleasant experience.

eChoupal
Indian Tobacco Company, one of India’s largest exporters, created eChoupal, a series of rural information centers where farmers can communicate directly to other farmers, different markets and experts through the internet. These village internet kiosks were first installed for farmers to learn in local languages the latest information regarding national and international prices in soy, wheat, tobacco and shrimp. But the platform has morphed to providing other important information, such as weather conditions and the latest scientific practices. In 2006, eChoupal counted 3.5 million farmers who used 5,200 internet kiosks throughout more than 30,000 villages.

Harvesting Wheat #1 by Meanest Indian on Flickr.

The farmers pay a local coordinator a small sum to use the kiosk, which can also be used to order seed, fertilizers and other goods.

The blog NeoProducts Kiosks, from the UK, makes the point that part of eChoupal’s success comes from leaving behind the traditional buyers.

e-Choupal has been created by ITC Limited to enable rural farmers in India to buy and sell agricultural produce like soya beans, wheat, and coffee. It does this by allowing them directly to negotiate the sale of their produce via a network of PCs and kiosks in 6,500 centres spread across 100 districts in 10 states. Previously, the farmers had to go through numerous and sometime corrupt intermediaries.

What a great idea and what a fantastic use of kiosks! Allowing shared public access to interactive technology is what kiosks are all about. And this is only the beginning.

Chirag Jethmalani is a management student from Mumbai who blogs about Indian business in Squamble. Here he provides his take on e Choupal.

e Choupal was conceived to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterized by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries…

Traditionally, these commodities were procured in “mandis” (major agricultural marketing centers in rural areas of India), where the middleman used to make most of the profit. These middlemen used unscientific and sometimes outright unfair means to judge the quality of the product to set the price. Difference in price for good quality and inferior quality was less, and hence there was no incentive for the farmers to invest and produce good quality output. With eChoupal, the farmers have a choice and the exploitative power of the middleman is neutralised.
ICT platform that facilitates flow of information and knowledge, and supports market transactions on line.
* It transmits Information (weather, prices, news),
* It transfers Knowledge (farm management, risk management)
* It facilitates sales of Farm Inputs (screened for quality) and
* It offers the choice of an alternative Output-marketing channel (convenience, lower transaction costs) to the farmer right at his doorstep
* It is an interlocking network of partnerships (ITC + Met Dept + Universities + Input COs + Sanyojaks, the erstwhile Commission Agents) bringing the best-inclass in information, knowledge and inputs.

Just because e-Choupal has a good platform and business model doesn’t make it a gurantee for success in India. To do this, people must understand rural markets.

Rural markets are both economic and social networks and there is a strong connection between the operation of social and economic transactions. Understanding the operations is vital before the systems are conceptualized. Use of local population, as much as possible helped the network to get the acceptance closely.

Syria: The Best or the Worst Article Ever?

Jillian C. York — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:20:54 +0000

One of many billboards in Syria featuring President Bashar al-Assad (photo by jilliancyork)

Syrian bloggers frequently decry travel writing about their country - often it's too stereotypical, sometimes downright false. And for a country considered long “isolated” at least from the United States, it can be particularly frustrating to see such writing promoted as accurate. Therefore, when popular Syrian blogger Sasa, who pens the blog Syria News Wire spotted a recent piece in National Geographic that he deemed “the best article on Syria in a decade,” he just had to say something:

This article is the real Syria. It is a checklist of points which Syrians know about their country, but which foreign journalists skip over, in the rush to confirm their own stereotypes.

Unsurprisingly, in a country often divided, not everyone agreed with Sasa's interpretation of the article. Syrian Ambassador to the United States Imad Moustapha (himself a blogger) penned a letter to the editor of National Geographic that was republished on the blog Syria Comment, calling the National Geographic article a “misrepresentation of the Syria that I belong to.” Though Syria Comment's Joshua Landis didn't comment on the article himself, his posting sparked over eighty comments and a lively discussion.

Commenter Alex of Creative Syria was critical of the National Geographic article, stating:

I have no problem with most of what was written .. by I have an issue with the obvious impression the article leaves through its 90% emphasis on negativity … I don’t think an American reading it will hesitate to cancel his planned first vacation in Syria. Who wants to enjoy lunch in Bab Touma if poor brave Syrian people fighting for democracy are being tortured next door in Bab Touma?

Another commenter, Ghassan, liked the article:

the articale is rational, reasonable, and accurate . my support to NG, and to the free press and speach which do not exist in syria.

Norman, also commenting on Landis's post, aptly remarked:

It is interesting how Syria loving Syrians can disagree on the same article.

Other bloggers outside of Syria had strong feelings about the National Geographic article as well. Evan Hill, who writes for group blog The Majlis, felt that the article displayed Syria as behind the times, stating:

We're left with a Syria that seems stuck, economically and politically, in a mindset that's at least 40 decades old. The manager of a government-owned cotton plant, oblivious to or concealing any knowledge of the workplace dangers there, stares at Belt in seeming confusion when asked if he's ever made a profit. Academics and activists still fear the intelligence services created many years ago by Assad's father to destroy the opposition when his famed political wiliness wouldn't work.

After reading all of the criticism, Syria News Wire urged readers to read both the original article and Imad Moustapha's criticisms before making up their minds.

CEE: A Travel Roundup

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:59:44 +0000

A selection of travel posts - Belgraded: travel from Belgrade to Sarajevo by train for the first time in 17 years, ‘Red Star' stadium possibly to be renamed ‘Gazprom Arena', the Avala TV Tower rebuilt; Croatia-Expert.com: travel to Trogir; MoldovAnn: Ukrainian village museums; The Czech Daily Word: industrial architecture and decay in Brno; The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks: travel to Břeclav and to Třeboň; The Foreigner's Guide to Slovakia: “Slovak Impressions of America.”

Nepal: Kathmandu In Trouble

Rezwan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:08:46 +0000

“Kathmandu is officially dead,” declares Blogdai out of frustrations due to the increasing problems in the capital of Nepal. Read the post for details.