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Internet penetration varies widely around the world, with the highest penetration rates of Internet usage being in Iceland (86.8%), followed by New Zealand (76.3%), Sweden (74.9%), Portugal (74.1%) and Australia (70.7%) making up the top 5. Only 32 countries in the world have a penetration in excess of 50% of population, according to Internet World Stats. At the other end of the scale in Afghanistan and Myanmar only 0.1% of the population uses the internet, due in no small part, one would assume, to the internal strife in both countries and its impact on infrastructure. The information superhighway in such places is clearly littered with potholes.
Which raises interesting questions about this "global economy" and its impact on wealth distribution. One suggestion could be that it only allows the rich to get richer, and the poor are not helped all that much, evidence in India by its rapid economic growth over recent years, with only a 0.7% decline in those classified as 'poor'.
I don't believe that the solution is increasing access to the internet in every place, particularly as food and fresh water seems a much more basic need around the world. But we spend billions on new technology and its development each year while fresh water for everyone on the planet could reasonably be attained by much less expenditure. Perhaps free enterprise and market capitalism is not as morally neutral as we might think...
Posted by gary at November 10, 2006 05:43 PM
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