"Technology: a Blessing or a Curse?"
By Narine Khachatryan
When it comes to ICTs and development, an Armenian fairy tale, The Brother Axe, comes to mind. Instead of serving its purpose of chopping wood, the Brother Axe injured villagers, since they had never before used axes. The Brother Axe was bitten, burnt, and ultimately became the cause of a great fire that destroyed the village granaries. The story illustrates the potential effects that new technology can have on human life.
Should the emphasis be placed on ICTs and Internet access in countries struggling with electricity, food, water, and medical care? Do ICTs and the Internet have a genuinely positive impact on the development of these countries? Can they help reduce the existing gap with the post-industrial world?
ICTs are widely recognized as tools that enable societal development. On the other hand, the spread of ICTs can increase inequalities within societies and even create new forms of inequality (Mansell, 2009, p. 8), since only those able to benefit from new opportunities gain from ICTs and the Internet.
Low-income countries usually have limited resources for investment. If these resources are directed to ICTs, basic needs may still remain unmet. Mansell (2009, p. 8) argues that ICTs and the changes they bring can be disruptive for many people in developing countries and may have “destabilizing effects on the economies.” The question is how these ICTs are introduced in countries where, for instance, broadband penetration is less than 1 percent and Internet users comprise less than 4 percent of the population.
ICTs are recognized as tools for fostering social inclusion on one hand, and for promoting greater participation in decision-making on the other. They are powerful instruments for civil society to effect change through media. However, as tools of empowerment, in authoritarian regimes ICTs can also be turned into instruments of censorship, surveillance, and oppression.
A study published in Science indicates that, despite the spread of computers and mobile phones, the capacity to process information is becoming increasingly unequal. In 2002, people in the developed world could communicate eight times more information than those in the developing world. By 2007, that gap had nearly doubled, and people in richer countries had fifteen times more the information-carrying capacity.
Experts warn that those unable to participate in the dissemination of knowledge risk becoming increasingly isolated and marginalized. Access to ICTs may increase access to information and, consequently, knowledge—but it does not guarantee that people will use, process, and multiply that knowledge. Developing countries often have very limited local content; the Internet resources consumed are primarily external and largely serve entertainment purposes. The three key components—access, critical thinking skills, and the ability to create original content—are commonly defined as media literacy.
Therefore, ICT access issues need to be reassessed in terms of the skills and capabilities people require to participate meaningfully in their societies and benefit from new educational and learning opportunities. “Access questions need to be extended to include literacies related… to education, political participation, entrepreneurship, and the management of new kinds of networks of partnerships” (Mansell, 2009, p. 17).
Secondly, these countries need to reassess their ICT strategies in relation to the most pressing problems of their societies, since ICTs can help improve health, education, and income. Hopefully, developing countries will carefully and thoughtfully design their ICT strategies, and will not follow the example of the villagers from the fairy tale, who ultimately called the owner of the Axe from a neighboring village, asking him: “Come and make the Brother Axe understand something.”
The Brother Axe
Fairy tale by Hovhannes Tumanyan (draft translation from Armenian)
Once upon a time, a man traveled to a distant country to work. One day he arrived in a village and saw peasants breaking wood with their bare hands. The man asked: “Why do you break wood with your bare hands? Don’t you have axes?”
“What are axes? What does an axe mean?” the peasants asked. The man took out his axe and chopped a log. The peasants, amazed, ran happily to the village square, telling others: “See what the Brother Axe did!”
The villagers gave the man many products and useful things in exchange for the axe. They decided to use the axe in turns. On the first day, the landlord took the axe, but when he tried to chop wood, he injured his leg. He called the other villagers and cried: “Come and see, the Brother Axe cut my leg!”
The villagers gathered, took their sticks, and started beating the axe. Then they used their guns and shot at it. When the flames went out, they saw that the Axe had turned red. They cried: “The Axe became angry and looks like it’s blushing. It will bring troubles on our heads. What should we do now?”
They decided to imprison the axe in the landlord’s granary, which was full of straw. As soon as they placed the axe on the straw, a fire rose to the sky. Terrified, the peasants called the owner of the axe: “Come and make the Brother Axe understand something.”
Literature:
Jon Stewart, 11 February 2011, BBC World Service, Global Data Storage Calculated at 295 Exabytes, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12419672
Mansell R. 2009. The information society and ICT policy: a critique of the mainstream vision and an alternative research framework in Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24990/1/The_Information_Society_and_ICT_Policy_(LSERO).pdf
The Brother Axe http://armenianhouse.org/tumanyan/tales-am/axe.html
