Contrary to popular belief that Information Technology will be the great leveler, there has been no significant achievement by IT to reduce the disparity between the rich and poor nations to a greater extend. The anti-globalization riots in Seattle, Genoa have brought into sharp perspective the contradiction in perceptions of economic development of the G7 nations with the non-G7 nations.
As some seer has said 'capital has no character', indeed capital has no character at all. The capital of the rich nations has gravitated towards economies like India, China, Vietnam, Philippines et al nations. Whilst this has contributed to thicker cash flows and bottom-lines of MNCs -- it has made no significant contributions towards alleviation of third world poverty, malnutrition and hunger.
The much hyped IT revolution has been a mirage for most of the world’s have-nots too -- making disparities even more clearly juxtaposed between the rich and poor, the developed and the under-developed or developing. Take for instance, the silicon satellite town of Bangalore, where the best minds of India rub shoulder to shoulder, thread to thread, cell to cell, manipulating chromosome layers in genetic laboratories and software houses, have ambitious plans to attract foreign capital to the city, discarding the needs of the poor & widening urban/social gaps of living standards. Pushing the light towards the darker end -
In his recent studies the Peruvian economist Hernando DeSoto -- warned about the problems of poverty & held the mundane laws of the developing country responsible. The rules that do not allow the "poor" & “deprived” to formally legitimize their business, home, equipment, cultivation land, machinery, permits – depriving them to function in accordance to the standards of capitalist economy & forging potential societies towards energy dump camps! To our surprise, the size of these undocumented assets far exceed the value of all the development projects undertaken to date, but are they accessible to anyone?
Global outsourcing, a business strategy, clearly driven by the strengths of IT infrastructure; is a case in point. Vast numbers of lay-offs across the world in companies have disenabled people. If Environment, Empowerment and Employment are the key criterions to be considered for human development then IT in itself may have detonated the biggest social time bomb of our time.
Not only will it spar inequalities within society; but it could bring the level of crime rate, anti-social transactions at par with economic developments of IT in the third world economy. An interview cited by Gopal, editor of the largest selling Tamil Magazine 'Nakheeran' with Veerappan relates to dozens of would be sandalwood smugglers; ready to fight for their rights of water – food – social discrimination & their father god, “AS HE STRICKS AGAIN AND AGAIN” – Are we a bunch of Southern forest intellectual inhabitants, aspiring to develop Silicon alleys?
True democratization needs to transcend beyond information technology & information transfer, impacting healthcare, utilities, transport and above all towards digital rights. Take for instance, health care; which fairs to a major indicator in the economic status of any nation, is appealing to India, in the sense of miniscule section of the masses getting access to the latest technology driven Medicare system. How the un-powered Chinese “Barefoot Doctors” for a few decades, have managed to medicate patients & townships with virtually no facilities & superstitious beliefs, is a secret of its own.
“When there are no Safety Nets in the economic order of third world economies, it is a veritable suicide to initiate first world prescriptions.” as stated by the Noble Laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen -- is a true concern of its own. Is increased, sustained & non-democratic use of IT -- one such prescription of its own?
The call of ‘TIME’ ordains – Neither, Information Technology nor Capital access can alone squeeze the bottom less chasm between the haves and have-nots. This ‘WILL’, will be a harmony of new technology-driven companies, tech-savvy managers, and ministers sophisticated to the possibilities of IT, joined by social entrepreneurs, anti-social activist and NGO teams – breathing Wisdom Management, & mobilizing Content / knowledge Management towards equal rights.