The Drum Beat 70 - Review of Tempo, About Time, Base Line (from 10/23 - 11/8)

This Drum Beat highlights stories from Tempo, About Time and Base Line - the new C. I. Home Page format. New material for these sections of the Home Page is updated Mondays and Thursdays midnight GMT. Many of the links below are to foreign sites, and thus, we cannot guarantee how long they will remain live. We are sorry for any inconvenience due to this.


TEMPO - communication trends & strategic opportunities

1. China to Drive Internet Growth in Asia (10-23-00)
Source.
China's Internet user population is expected to double every 6 months from its present 16.9 million. This would leave China the world?s biggest online population within 10 years.

2. Schoolnet - building tomorrow's digital generation (10-24-00)
Source.
Balancing Act, Sept 00 - The growth of SchoolNets may provide a way to ensure that future generations of African leaders have the skills to digitise the continent. They exist in one form or another in up to 25 countries in Africa...

3. Slum Children and the Internet: An experiment in access (10-26-00)
Source.
Use of the Internet in India is confined to affluent urban areas but it is expected that demand will spread throughout the country. Many have worried that limited training and low levels of literacy will hinder the usage of Internet in the subcontinent. However, slum children in New Delhi, were provided with unsupervised and unguided Internet access in their settlements and observed results in the first month indicated...

4. WHO Proposes Managed Top Level Domain for Health (10-31-00)
Source.
WHO has proposed the creation of .health as a new Internet top-level domain (TLD). Under the proposal WHO would have the responsibility to set policy on how the name is distributed and used... 

5. Kenya Telkom Expansion at a Price (11-02-00)
Source.
T. AMORO, of the The EastAfrican writes that Telkom Kenya will retrench up to 10,000 (50%) of their employees. Part of a new partnership...Telkom plans to more than double the number of phone lines and reduce the ratio of employees per line from 1:14 to 1:55.

6. The World Bank's Global Development Gateway (11-06-00
Source.
NGO's and civil society groups have criticized the GDG recently over its structure, timetable, consultation strategy and overall vision. A frank discussion forum was hosted by Bellanet on GDG Principles on the $60 million World Bank Internet initiative. Interesting background material remains on the Bellanet site. The World Bank has its own GDG discussion forum and is asking for critical and constructive views.

ABOUT TIME - voices & stories from the centre of the action

7. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)(10-23-00)
Source.
A group of Afghan women have organised to promote greater equality in Taliban Afghanistan. Using the Internet they have created a web site focused on human rights, documenting abuses, and fund raising. They are involved in activities such as schools for women and children, mobile clinics and income generating projects. RAWA Website.

8. Prostitutes the Losers in AIDS Vaccine Saga (10-25-00)
Source.
Ever since it was discovered that a small group of women prostitutes in Kenya had killer T-cells which protected them from HIV after repeated exposure, scientists in Kenya and the UK have been working on a vaccine. The recent controversy regarding the UK scientists ignoring the input of the Kenyan scientists still, however, leaves one group out - the women who were the research subjects of this study. While everyone fights over recognition they will be ignored until they are needed to volunteer for vaccine trials.

9. Declaration of the First International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change (10-26-00)
Source.
"We emphatically oppose the inclusion of sinks, plantations, nuclear power, megahydroelectric and coal. We oppose the development of a carbon market that would broaden the scope of globalization. We support the development of alternative energies that foster sustainable development. We demand that the principles of transparency, prior informed consultation and consent, independent third party verification and monitoring, benefit sharing, risk reduction, appeals mechanism and compensation be guaranteed."

10. Conflicts of Interest (10-31-00)
Source.
Bangladesh, The Independent, 10-31-00: Police fired rubber bullets and teargas shells to break violent demonstrations in the capital's Shyamoli area yesterday against a government decision to declare Mirpur Road a VIP route prohibiting rickshaw movement, reports UNB. Police arrested seven people from the scene.

11. Bill Gates Says Computers Won't Help World's Poor (11-02-00)
Source.
D. Richman, of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covered a conference on the digital divide in Seattle. The theme was technology making entrepreneurs and consumers out of people earning less than $1 a day. "Let's be serious," Gates said. "Do you people have a clear view of what it means to live on $1 a day?" Gates went on to say that health care and literacy are more important than computer access.

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Drum Beat chat is presently discussing this article and Bill Gates' perspective. 27 contributions in the first 48 hours. A variety of opinions: "even with $1 a day, technology should be made beneficial and available since we do not expect the group to be eternally poor"; "the way to help the poor with information technology is to empower those that help the poor";"Gates is right";"income generation is possibly even of more immediate importance for the poor". Check and follow all contributions at Drum Beat Chat. To subscribe send an email to drumbeatchat@comminit.com and type "subscribe drumbeatchat" into the body of the message. Drum Beat Chat can be used by you to support your work in any way you wish.
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12. Guatemalan Indians Speak the Atrocities of 36-Year War (11-06-00)
Source.
E. Truglia at AMARC sent this to us. Para Nunca Olvidar (never to forget) has recorded more than 30 personal testimonials of atrocities committed against Guatemalan Indians and farmers during the war. Designed to reach the largely illiterate Mayan population and to generate national discussion 16 recordings have been broadcast in Guatemala using a talk show format. 

BASE LINE - facts that tell a story

13. Just a Lot of Hot Air? (10-25-00)
Source.
In 1996, one US citizen was responsible for producing as much greenhouse gas as 19 Indians, 30 Pakistanis, or 269 Nepalese.

14. Internet Access (10-26-00)
Bytesforall Website.
The typical Internet user worldwide is male, under 35 years old, with a university education and high income, urban based and English speaking.
A computer costs the average Bangladeshi more than eight years'income, compared with one month's wage for the average American.

15. Price of Inequality (10-31-00)
Earth Times Website.
Countries with student ratios of 3 or less females to every 4 males have a GNP 25% lower than those with gender parity.
A 1% increase in female school enrolement can amount to an estimated .3% increase in economic growth.

16. AIDS Impact on Life Expectancy by 2010 (11-02-00)
Worldwatch Website.
Zimbabwe: without AIDS 70 years with AIDS 35 years
Botswana: without AIDS 66 years with AIDS 33 years
South Africa: without AIDS 68 years with AIDS 48 years

17. If women had more power we'd reduce these numbers (11-06-00)
UNFPA Website.
80 million unwanted pregnancies
20 million unsafe abortions
500,000 maternal deaths (99% in developing countries)


Please send stories, facts and/or web sites for C. I. Home Page links to the Research Editor - Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com


NEW VACANCIES

Project Director - Project HOPE - Uzbekistan

Executive Director - Social Marketing Institute - Washington DC - USA

Behavior Change Specialist - family planning and reproductive health - AED - Washington, D.C.

Communications Adviser - STOP TB - WHO - Geneva - Switzerland

International Program Officer - Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation - Los Angeles - USA

Communication and Behaviour Change Officer - Injection Safety - WHO - Geneva - Switzerland


Contact jsavidge@comminit.com to place a Vacancy through this process.

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