There is a strange phenomenon happening in the developing world. In poor countries two parallel realities coexist, two realities that should not exist at the same time in developing nations. I am referring to gadget technology and poverty.
Nowadays we feel more and more that technology makes us complete. Possessing the latest electronic gadget is our passport to happiness. 15 years ago people changed home phones every ten years; today people switch mobile phones once every year. And still people complain that they can’t get their hands quickly enough on the latest phones. Citizens of the developed world can afford these expensive gadgets because the governments have met the basics needs of its citizens: most have access to clean running water, cities have sewage treatment facilities and trash collection services, among others.
In some of the poorest countries we visited this year, countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Bolivia, access to gadget technology is about the same as in the Western world. That in itself is not a problem. However, basic sanitary services, those that can improve the life of the greater majority, are often nonexistent.
Uyuni in Bolivia is a good example of this paradox. The city has only a few paved streets. There is no access to clean water, no sewage treatment facility, and no garbage collection service. Trash covers the ground for dozens of kilometers outside the town. We’ve seen the locals chalk their trash directly on the streets. The wind does the rest.
As the environment chokes under this plastic assault, shops containing the latest TV flicks, the latest Iphones, and the latest computers mushroom everywhere in town. In Potosi I walked with a dirty plastic bag for a few kilometers until I could find a trashcan. But I passed dozen of electronic gadget shops on the way to find an elusive trashcan. I sure knew where I could buy a Nokia phone but I couldn’t find a single trashcan. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
Please understand me, I like technology. But I like technology even more when it serves useful purposes. And the developing world has an urgent need of technology that can serve useful purposes.
Now who should we blame for this state of affair? Is the government to blame for failing to push down essential priorities to a deprived citizenry? Or are the citizens to blame for failing to understand that clean water ranks higher, much higher than owning a mobile phone in indices of the Human Development Reports?
Governments need to be able to collect taxes to pay for basic sanitary services (there is such a dearth of public toilets in Bolivia that men routinely pee against buildings on the street, and in broad daylight too), and Bolivia is notorious for lacking stable government revenues due to tax evasion. Of course more taxes means less discretionary spending on gadgets. Taxpayer-paid public toilets and sewage treatment facilities or mobile phones and flat-screen TVs for the populace? For some it is a hard choice. For others it is a no-brainer.
There is such a thing as putting the cart before the horse. In this case the cart is way ahead of the horse. At least two hundreds meters in front of it.
The irony is that I come from a country whose mining companies have taken heavy flak for polluting the environment in poor countries. Before I started this long trip I used to blame multinationals for holding the locals hostage and destroying their environment.
Well this trip has been an eye opener. I have realized that true, multinationals have done considerable damage to the environment in poor nations. But they are not alone.
No mining company in Uyuni has forced the locals to chalk their trash in the wild. There is no mining company responsible for the decision behind Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, to dump its raw sewage directly in Rio Choqueyapu, a river that flows into the Amazon basin. Likewise it is not Barrick Gold’s fault that I couldn’t see a single trash can in the centre of Potosi as I tried to find a resting place for a dirty plastic bag. It is not Newmont Mining’s fault that ballooning revenues from tourism have not been used to create the basic infrastructure that Bolivians need. No, multinationals are not to blame for the awful state of the environment in Bolivian cities. Bolivians alone are to blame for this mess.
It should come as no surprise if I told you that there was an outbreak of cholera in La Paz a few years ago. After all more than 200 000 tons of raw sewage is dumped annually in Rio Choqueyapu, and that’s not counting the industrial chemicals being dumped in the river as well. No, mining companies are not to blame. Poor local governance and terrible priorities can explain this mess.
However, the skyrocketing number of gadget shops tells me that connectivity is more important than basic sanitary services. I guess the prospect of living in a cholera infested city is not a strong enough reason to revisit basic priorities.
A UN report indicated last year that far more Indians have access to cell phones than a toilet and basic sanitation in India. According to the same report one billion Indians will be connected to a network by 2015 while a staggering 665 million Indians still defecate in the open.
“Wait. I heard that the next generation of IPhone will be released shortly. Quick, let’s cue in front of the store before the first batch sells out.”
Expect more misery, more cholera outbreaks in some of the poorest cities of this world.
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