global village mutterings

bluefluff reminds us of the census of the global village just as I am watching SABC news and learning that from around 8 million five years ago the number of cell (mobile) phone users on this continent has increased to 100 million and uptake shows no sign of slowing in the near future. Forget about wind-up laptops, it's a version of the mobile phone that will bridge the digital divide on this continent with wireless connectivity to the net from local government provided relay stations based in schools, colleges, community centres and hospitals. The big secret which the mainstream phone companies don't want us to know is that there is no need to wait until they put in landlines -it's actually perfectly OK to skip a technology generation and move right ahead NOW! In fact many have worked it out for themselves and there are women making a living sitting on stools by the roadside, or in the market or the shopping malls, armed with a cellphone and a car battery providing mobile support services already. If you don't have electricity at home, no worries, these women will charge your phone while you wait or, if you have a job then you charge it there. You don't actually call on your phone either, most of the transmission activity on this continent is by SMS.