You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 5th, 2009.
I have no real clue how the internet really works. I just know a bunch of tricks to try when my wireless system decides not to cooperate. Given easy frustration with the last steps of the connection, it is easy to overlook the fact that the global internet system relies on actual cables. Until, of course, they get cut. Evidently three of the cables providing service to countries in the Middle East and Asia are “thought to have been damaged by a ship” off the coast of Sicily earlier this month. While the affected countries have been able to re-route much of their communication, and ships with robotic subs have been deployed to fix the cable, many African nations are working on a new high-speed fiber optic cable.
The proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) would run from the Arabian Peninsula, to Mombasa, Kenya, speeding up internet service across the continent. The cable is being funded by roughly twenty of the countries that will be connected, various telecom companies, European and African development groups, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a body of the World Bank. According to this article, consumers along Africa’s eastern coast pay some of the worlds highest prices for international internet connections, and the new cable could reduce these prices by two thirds. There have been delays, and frustration among the supporting members, but an effective cable would mean a great deal.
Why is high speed internet valuable? Well, besides making one less crazy when trying to look at image heavy pages or even just pulling down news sites, I see three broad reasons why it’s important to increase connectivity:
1. Making the internet cheaper. Hopefully, the higher bandwidth of the cable would help drop the cost of internet access, especially for those who use internet cafés as their primary source of connection. These connections are not tremendously expensive but they can become a significant cost if one expects use it regularly or spend a long time exploring the web, and the prices exclude many of the very poorest. Lower costs for internet connections might also allow the expansion of internet services to a wider area allowing more people easy access to internet connections. As I discussed in my previous post, access to information is crucial for spurring innovation.
2. Building an information economy. East African counties can work towards building their economic strength on IT based industry, helping to diversify the country’s sources of income and providing a sector that could experience sustained growth, producing more skilled and high paying jobs.
3. Providing easier access to educational and research materials. Students in universities and secondary school should be able to utilize a wide range of internet resources. However, the lack of cheap internet connections, especially high speed connections that make it easy to download large PDF documents and access major databases are an impediment to providing the best possible access to information. Hopefully cheaper internet could increase the number of students accessing the internet and higher speeds would make it easier for them to do research online.
This list is far from complete or extensive, but here’s to hoping that the recently under construction cable stays connected.
Though I am soon to depart overseas to London to blog with a more international perspective, I report to you today live from the future Californian Republic of China.
For those of you not familiar with the coming establishment of this Chinese-operated province in what will-once-have-been-formerly the Western U.S., you can read more about the impending breakup of the United States as predicted by a prominent Russian professor and foreign minister here.
The Wall Street Journal describes the circulation of such theories in elite Russian circles, telling us a lot about the disposition of these circles toward the United States. Can anything be done about this anti-Americanism?
If you’re curious to whom you should address your citizenship application or where you should plan your next vacation without needing a visa, make sure to check out the map of which nation will control your state.
Thinking ahead to the non-existent next election, Sarah Palin will be getting a much closer view of Russia. However, if she were to use this newfound foreign experience when she runs for President, she would be doing so in Russia, and I doubt the potential for success in that strategy. Still, if she were to be successful, Russia, according to the map, would hold no control over my home state of California, which would effectively choose Chinese control over the potential of any more Sarah Palins coming around.
Otherwise notable is the reclamation of the southwestern territories minus California but plus the South by Mexico, though the Mexican officials might not be in the right state of mind to take full advantage of the seizure for some time.
Also, a large group of Mid-Westerners are going to have to end their dispute with Canada in a fairly embarrassing way.
—-[More after the fold]—-
