Cellphones Leapfrog Poor Infrastructure in Mali

Hugh Pickens writes "CBC News has up an article by Peace Corps volunteer Heidi Vogt, a woman who served in the small village of Gono in Mali five years ago and remembers letters dictated and hand-carried by donkey cart or bicycle to the next town. Vogt recently returned to see the changes that cellphone communications have made in a village that still doesn't have electricity or decent drinking water. 'Gono's elders say the phones can keep them in touch with their village diaspora,' writes Vogt. 'Villagers depend on far-off relatives to send money in time of crisis — if someone is sick, if a house has caught fire, if there's been too little or too much rain and the harvest is poor. There's a new sense of connection to a larger world. In a village where most people can't read or write, they can now communicate directly with far-off relatives.'"

Phones before guns

[bornwaysouth (1138751)]

Nice article. Positives and negatives, with the mum worried by her sons who do not call.

The effect of cell phones is to allow a village to remain much the same village, despite the children dispersing. Over time, the kids will marry away, but the blow gets softened, and the children are stabilized by contact with home.

So it is a good thing over all. The interesting bit is: who pays for the village phones. Just the children. When you think that this is a force for stability, and how cheap phones are compared

Re:Phones before guns

[TubeSteak (669689)]

I actually don't think it's such a "nice" article, as it does very little to paint a bigger picture, except for this one paragraph:

The cellphone tower that services Gono wasn't built for the village. It was built in 2005 for the 25,000-person town of Douentza, 16 kilometres away, where there are people who work in offices and receive monthly salaries. Gono was just the lucky recipient of some of Douentza's spare coverage.

About 25% of Mali's population lives in 25 cities
Doutenze (at 25,000 people) ranks in Mali's top 20 cities
Mali is one of the 3rd poorest country in the world according to the UN*
The median age is 16

Here are the coverage maps for Mali:
http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi-bin/ni_map.pl?cc=ml&net=ik [gsmworld.com]
http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi-bin/ni_map.pl?cc=ml&net=mt [gsmworld.com]

Notice how little of the country is covered? This "news" is just a human interest story, a fluff piece designed to give you the warm fuzzies. That small village is not representative of Mali as a whole and anyone trying to extrapolate anything from such an example is making a mistake.

*2006 Human Development Index

Preemption

[clarkkent09 (1104833)]

Ok, if you are going to be the first person to post "what do they need cellphones/computers/internet for, give them food instead" type of post in this thread, I have something to say to you. You are an idiot. Please try to understand that you are an idiot and shouldn't be posting your idiotic opinions on slashdot or anywhere else. Instead, try to improve yourself somehow, take some classes or whatever. It won't help, but at least it will keep you busy.

Re:

[jlarocco (851450)]

Do you have any arguments other than "People who think that are idiots"?

Re:Preemption

[LehiNephi (695428)]

GP may not, but I can. I spent about half of last year in Chad for work. The situation there is similar to that described in the article--lots of people have cell phones, but nobody has electricity, running water, or sanitation systems. Nobody forced these people to get cell phones first. These people decided to spend their own hard-earned money in this manner. At some point in the future, I'm sure they'll get running water and electricity, but for now, this is what they've decided to do with their money.

It's capitalism at its finest--let the people decide for themselves what is most deserving of their money.

Re:

[Chris Mattern (191822)]

There is not a lack of food in the world. People starve because they are *poor*. The best way to prevent starvation is to help them to be *not poor*. Ready communications is extraordinarily useful in trying to climb out of poverty; a farmer who knows what crops bring what prices in which markets knows what to raise and where to sell it--but he can't spend the days it would take to go to those markets to father those prices. Give him a way to know those prices in a few moments and he's taken a big step u

Re:Preemption

[Neuticle (255200)]

I have personally seen this in action. A few villages over from where I was living in Africa there was a fertile patch of land that was a tomato producing machine, and I mean buckets-and-bushels -piled-high-year-round kind of production. One guy with no other job (like most) figured out that he could make money transporting tomatoes if he bought cheap at the source and sold them in town at the going rate. The bulk rate fluctuated at either end, and it was only worth his time when the prices were right, but that is where the cell phone came in (motorized transport costs would have eaten any profit and it was a grueling bike-ride/push).

Even though he didn't do it more than a few times, I was impressed with the idea.

And I still have no idea how they grew so many bloody tomatoes in that place. It was insane

Re:

[nacturation (646836)]

Ok, if you are going to be the first person to post "what do they need cellphones/computers/internet for, give them food instead" type of post in this thread, I have something to say to you. You are an idiot. Please try to understand that you are an idiot and shouldn't be posting your idiotic opinions on slashdot or anywhere else. Instead, try to improve yourself somehow, take some classes or whatever.

Would you recommend they take cooking classes?
 

Re:

[TheNarrator (200498)]

Let me also pre-emptively respond to those who think that because they have cellphones they are now contributing to global warming. By not having to travel to see their children or far off relatives in order to have a conversation they are reducing their carbon footprint massively.

Re:

[Comatose51 (687974)]

Fully agreed. People don't understand that one thing doesn't exclude the other. Just because they're given technology it doesn't mean that they won't have food. Believe it or not, people in other parts of the world also want things other than food. Everyone outside of the G8 aren't starving either.

Furthermore, the role of technology is misunderstood by people who say these things. Technology might not directly feed your family but it is a force multiplier and a time saver. There is a reason why most o

Why not both at once?

[Jesus_666 (702802)]

Why not solve both problems at once and send them bananaphones? I mean, the bananaphone is just perfect fot those regions. It's the best, beats the rest... Cellular, modular, interactive-odular - you name it, it is it. It'd take some financial strain off them, as well, because they won't need quarters, won't need dimes to call a friend of them. If the people in those regions had bananaphones, they'd call for pizza, they'd call their cat; they'd call the White House, have a chat. It would be commonplace to e

Re:

[Heembo (916647)]

Well, at least they will not get hot pizza delivery in 30 minutes or less. Travel by donkey is rather slow.

Wrong Solutions?

[WhiteWolf666 (145211)]

I hate to be a first-world asshole, but why would be happy that a third world village is dependent upon its diaspora? Why is this an acceptable state of affairs? Doesn't it bother anyone that these means of communication aren't really sparking commerce?

Instead of sending them food, cellphones, water, or weapons, why not send them some capitalism? Microloans, an active press to fight corruption, and education in systems of law and governance?

Decades of assistance to the third world, and all manner of sociali

Re:

[bluemonq (812827)]

Out of curiosity... have you visited Mali yet?

Re:Wrong Solutions?

[WhiteWolf666 (145211)]

No, but that's mainly because I've got a limited budget, and existing business interests in other places in northern and western africa, eastern europe, and latin america.

I've a feeling I've seen similar villages to the one discussed in the article, though.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. One of the biggest shocks to me in my life was when I visited a small village in Ethiopia dominated by a former communal farm. One of the middle level farm workers asked me, in English, why the U.S. maintained such high subsidies on cotton and rice; why wouldn't the U.S., master of free trade, import Ethiopian cotton and rice?

They didn't want aid; they didn't want "education". They wanted to know why we refused to buy their products, even though their products were produced more cheaply than ours.

How do you answer that? Coming from someone who makes less in a month than I might spend in a night.

Maybe it is just me, but there is only one answer; abject shame, apologies, and a decision to try one's hardest to pursue business in the forgotten realms of this planet.

Re:

[philpalm (952191)]

I'm in favor of microloans but you need infrastructure to distribute such loans. If the diaspora keeps sending money and returns to their villages there will be signs of progress.

Cell phones and communication with the diaspora will help in the future, look at Armenia and the Philippines where their diaspora are a big help to their economies.

Then again the deportation of American rejects to El Salvador (MS-13) was not a good idea either...

Re:

[mabhatter654 (561290)]

The problem is that "poverty" is relative. Would you consider Amish poor... without Cellphones, TV, Radio, etc, even though they own large amounts of land and animals, and bountiful crops? It's the DISPARITY that's the problem, not lack of possessions. We see natives as "kids" on a camping trip gone bad. They LIVED in a stable society of hunting/gathering/farming then somebody with a truck full of food (plus machines, money, clothes, radios, technology, guns, etc) enters the picture and trades the "wonder

Re:

[WhiteWolf666 (145211)]

I dunno about that.

I think life in the third world is similar to life in medieval societies; brutal, cruel, and short. Hunter/gatherer societies go through boom/bust periods of feast and famine, not to mention the ravages of indigenous diseases. Beyond that, I don't subscribe to pure cultural relativism. I believe all humans are created equal, I believe men are socially equal to women, and I don't believe in human sacrifice.

If one comes across a society that routinely kills 1 in 4 of its female children, ho

Re:

[WhiteWolf666 (145211)]

BIngo!

That's why whenever I see protectionist liberals, I call them selfish bastards. Globalization is the *most* efficient tool of wealth redistribution from the rich to the poor, worldwide. Just look at the Western (EU + US) trade imbalance with the Asian tigers & India.

Vastly more wealth has been transferred from the hands of the rich to the poor due to the last 15 years of globalization than the 50 years of Foreign Aid offered by the West AND the USSR.

Socialism (especially International Socialism) a

Re:

[servognome (738846)]

Globalization is the *most* efficient tool of wealth redistribution from the rich to the poor, worldwide.

The problem is perception. Those who call themselves middle class in the US or Europe don't realize they are amongst the rich when looked at in global terms.

Similar experience

[Manywele (679470)]

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural part of Tanzania from 1999-2002 and I went back to visit this last summer. When I arrived in 1999 there was one cell network in the country. It was in the (then) capital and most populous city of 2 million people, it had a capacity of 50,000 and was maxed out. A couple of competing companies starting setting up towers and by the time I left they had covered the major cities and arteries of the entire country. When I went back this last July the companies had moved out into the villages and most people in the country had local cell coverage. The area where I had lived was very hilly and somewhat remote so I thought that they would never get coverage out there but they had it.
You don't buy a plan like in the US, you buy a phone ($30 for a cheap model) and then you buy minutes (leading to some of the shortest phone conversations I have ever heard). People who live in areas without electricity find ways to charge them. Someone might buy a generator and set up a side business charging phones. Some people have to bike hours to the nearest town with electricity.
The difference in how people communicate was astounding. Kids away studying could keep in contact with their families back in the villages. Kids who had met in school but lived in different places kept in touch (I reunited a number of my former students by passing cell phone numbers around). Farmers could keep in touch with people in the markets. It was an amazing change.

Re:

[Neuticle (255200)]

Jamani! Hata mimi, nilikaa Newala 05-07, nawe? Niliondoka kabla ya safari yako. Pole sana. Medivac, umeme, moyo, etc.

Too much of the old Kiswahili will probably invoke the wrath of mods, but I'd bet we know a lot of the same people. This is too crazy. What sites did you visit when you were there?

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[SeaFox (739806)]

People who live in areas without electricity find ways to charge them. Someone might buy a generator and set up a side business charging phones. Some people have to bike hours to the nearest town with electricity.

Sounds like a golden opportunity for solar battery chargers.

Re:

[SeaFox (739806)]

On the roof of a house would solve most of those issues, especially if it's got a small ledge around the edge to hide something on the roof from view at the ground level. As far as thievery, chargers need to be designed for that sort of issue. Right now, portability is the driving force behind design. But something in a more rugged enclosure with places to attach security chains, etc would work better. Kinda like an OLPC for solar chargers.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here

[Neuticle (255200)]

but I lived in an African Village with no running water or electricity (90% of the time ) for 2 years. (Raise your hands RPCVs)

I had 3 (count them, one two THREE!) cell phone towers within sight of my house, and I could always hear the diesel generators at night if the winds lulled.

Would I have traded the cell phone for reliable electricity or running water?

HELL NO.

Cell phones improved my life and the life of the other people there tremendously. Electricity is about 1,000,000 times more expensive to cook with than charcoal, and kerosene lamps and candles make plenty of light. Water was scarce, but I had a no-flush pit toilet and an in ground rain-catch cistern for water. I only really used about 60l a week. The real problem was that not enough people had big enough cisterns (20% maybe), and many people had none. Water ran out in places at times, people suffered when they couldn't wash or bath as often, but no one ever died of dehydration for lack of a drink. If 60% of the houses had big cisterns, it would solve that problem.

Life without electricity and running water can be just fine. What is really needed is healthcare.

The hospital didn't have a single actual doctor after the foreign volunteer left. Pretty much everyone who walked in was told they had malaria and treated for it regardless. People suffered and died frequently from stupid, easily treated things. THAT was -IS- a tragedy.

Re:

[spleen_blender (949762)]

Perhaps we can start by stopping our selling of weapons to them. It is revolting to the point where I almost want to cry that the American weapons manufacturers get rich off of essentially helping people kill each other easier. If the same materials and energy went into providing them with infrastructure instead of weapons then I couldn't imagine the world we'd be in now.

This however is another paradoxical example of where it is impossible to tell if it is demand driving supply or supply driving demand,

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

People have been killing each other in the absense of American weapons for millennia. All that's needed to kill is a rock. Sometimes not even that. The abundance of rocks suitable for killing probably doesn't cause the demand for weaponized rocks. The same with pointy sticks. I think it's basic human nature. People with any sort of power are willing to kill to keep it. Others wanting power are willing to kill for it. The same goes for resources. It's quite a vicious feedback loop, but the availabil

Re:Good start.

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm part of a large movement to remove all rocks from third world countries.

Some say, rocks don't kill people, only people do...

Without a rock it becomes just that much more difficult to slay another person.

Once this is completed, we are moving onto our next project... removing hands... I know... fucking brilliant... I can't believe we didn't think of this earlier.

Re:Good start.

[Neuticle (255200)]

I'm forgoing using my shiny new Mod-points to say- ^^This^^

Look at Kenya, once a bastion of African stability (corruption not withstanding). Pretty much the nicest, most progressive and most developed sub-Saharan country in Africa, second only to SA (and what Zimbabwe once was)

In the space of a few weeks, they went from stability to killing each other with pangas, bows and arrows. Guns aren't the problem.

Re:

[spleen_blender (949762)]

Why add fuel to the fire though? If the end result of any action is supposed to be peace (I can't imagine an argument against wanting peace at large), and all people are equal, than how can you accept knowingly that there are businesses around you built on perpetuating (Or at least de-incentivized to stopping) a violent cycle for the sake of taking the resources of a land which should be used for the betterment of the people of the nation.

All I'm saying is that the economic wealth we enjoy (and if you'r

Re:

[Neuticle (255200)]

While I admire your idealism here, I was never endorsing the idea that selling guns is fundamentally good in any way, I don't believe that. I was simply saying that you cannot take away or prevent the guns and expect the result magically to be peace.

Guns are tools, tools that can be used for murder, but as Africa in particular has shown us, people can and do commit murder and atrocities on epic scales without guns.

Re:Good start.

[kaynaan (1180525)]

As much as I like to blame America for what's wrong in the world these days (And they are to blame 99 % of the time).

Where I'm from (Somalia), weapons are probably where you see the least American influence. The most common weapons you find are Chinese, Libyan, Russian made AK-47's. Although the M-16 was becoming popular when i was there last time. especially for it's light weight.

And similar to what the Original poster noted, our Telecommunication infrastructure is one of the top in East Africa, it is a True free market, absolutely no regulation, no taxes.

But aside from Telecom everything else in the whole, completely unstable, 17 year civil year, puppet interim governments (we have our version of Hamid Karzai).

Yep...

[msauve (701917)]

but that's only a small start to our plan for world domination!

Re:

[cheater512 (783349)]

We (the rest of the world) would be very content with you guys just sticking to your continent and minding your own business. :)

Re:

[The Anarchist Avenge (1004563)]

I know it doesn't seem like it, but most of us feel the same way over here. Apparently though, the ones with mod points are the ones that disagree with me. (Current score: -1 flamebait)

Re:

[networkBoy (774728)]

You do realize that if the US went on tilt and full isolationist the world would go into recession and war would increase.
If we withdrew our money, our food programs, and our influence, there would be short term cries of victory, followed by pandemonium, famine, and increased violence. This I suspect would be followed up by a "do something" from the UN/WTO.

I realize that our current administration is a laughing stock, and I realize that we the US have a history of meddling too much (I postulate that some m

Re:

[TapeCutter (624760)]

Yes the US is by far the largest donor to international humanitarian aid and as a non-american I for one applaude them for that. However I think it would be the US that suffered the most if it became radically isolationist. The US is rich because of trade not despite it, what is 'unfortunate' is that the benifits have often been one sided.

Re:

[RattFink (93631)]

Sweet. Now that they've got communication, lets get some health infrastructure and good food/water going over there.

That kind of stuff is what the Peace Corps does and the reason she was there in the first place. It's often though their work that many of these villages can start thinking about keeping in touch with others outside of the village rather worrying over rampid disease, crop failures, etc.

Re:

[Aardpig (622459)]

And let's not forget all of the other valuable stuff the Peace Corps does. Like serve as a cover for CIA agents that agitate and help set up coups.

Re:Good start.

[Neuticle (255200)]

Now you may have been joking, but as a former Peace Corps Volunteer, I think I can safely speak for all Peace Corps Volunteers, past and present:

UP YOURS!

That kind of bullshit, paranoid thinking reared it's head at me and some of my friends through our service. Rumors get spread, and some un-trusting chap would come up and confront one of us for being an "agent" of the USA, and accuse us of plotting nebulous, vague "bad" things in projects like, oh say BOOKS FOR THE SCHOOL, or TEACHING PEOPLE TO MAKE JAM. It didn't matter that the person couldn't make a logical connection between JAM/BOOKS and EVIL, their trust was broken.
Trust that is hard enough to earn in the first place.
Trust is what keeps a volunteer safe.
(Not to sound melodramatic, but off the top of my head I can think of at least one situation I was in where my life might have been in danger had some paranoid-ass started saying I was CIA.)

The Peace Corps goes to great lengths to distance itself from any inkling of spying. If a person has ever been in an intelligence gathering position, they can pretty much kiss their chances of volunteering goodbye. After you have volunteered, you are PREVENTED from taking any job in the intelligence services for something like 5 years at a minimum. Volunteers are not allowed to make political statements relating to the host country, and are discouraged from pretty much anything political in nature i.e, do it and you could go home. There is no fucking spying going on in the Peace Corps.

If you still don't believe me, let me clue you in on a non-secret: Peace Corps volunteers by and large get sent to rural areas. Why the fuck would the CIA or NSA give a rats ass about what is going on in some forgotten backwater of a country, let alone care enough to put a covert agent there for extended time? As for the few volunteers who go to large cities, there would be no need for a "Peace Corps cover" with all the other options (State Department, USAID etc), and a Peace Corps cover would be a pretty shitty one at that, because you probably wouldn't get a ton of useful intel out of schoolchildren and aids patients.

Sorry, but that really touched a nerve.

Re:

[YrWrstNtmr (564987)]

weet. Now that they've got communication, lets get some health infrastructure and good food/water going over there. The United States of America is the richest country on the god-damned planet, there's gotta be more we can do to positively contribute to the third world.

You seem to imply that the US (and the rest of the 'west') isn't contributing a whole lot.
Bull.

I suggest that we immediately stop toppling governments.

Ok, great. And lets get them to start electing leaders who won't steal the money and

Re:

[servognome (738846)]

The United States of America is the richest country on the god-damned planet, there's gotta be more we can do to positively contribute to the third world. I suggest that we immediately stop toppling governments.

You do realize many times you can't positively contribute without toppling "governments. Many third world countries are suffering because that is how those in power maintain control.

The US political system seems to do a lot of that, and not much good ever seems to happen.

So do France, UN, NATO, etc.

Re:with out power it is hard to keep your phone ba

[rbarreira (836272)]

No it's not. [amazon.com]

Re:with out power it is hard to keep your phone ba

[RattFink (93631)]

From the article they charge them by connecting them to their car's battery.

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

I'm surprised they can get the range they are getting from the cell tower they're using.

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[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

Dude, I DID read the article. No thanks to you for the asinine and flippant accusation suggesting otherwise.

The article seems to suggest that the cell tower was 16 miles away. I'm just saying that's pretty impressive range.

Re:

[networkBoy (774728)]

Not as impressive if you consider that there is little to no spectral interference either.

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[Heembo (916647)]

"asinine and flippant accusation" is the slashdot way, man! :)

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

OK, it's not that big of a deal.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Wouldn't take much of a solar panel to keep a cell phone alive either.