

Sorry Bill, but connectivity trumps vaccines - joosters
https://neilcollinsxxx.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/sorry-bill-but-connectivity-trumps-vaccines/

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DanBC
Obviously Internet connectivity is important.

But so is that other stuff. Dead people can't browse Wikipedia. Illiterate
people have trouble with online documentation.

Mamaribe Hata-Hata, a 17 year old girl, caring for her father. He's just been
diagnosed as HIV+. her mother is dead.
[http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/200706267/mamaribe-
hat...](http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/200706267/mamaribe-hata-
hata-17-and-her-father-ramarumo-hata-hata-who-has-just-tested-positive-for-
hiv-20)

Lineo Makojoa, a 15 year old girl, cooking dinner. She's an orphan. She often
cooks for her grandparents and her siblings.
[http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/2007062619/lineo-
makoj...](http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/2007062619/lineo-
makojoa-15-cooks-dinner-at-her-home-in-ha-majoro-village-in-lesotho-orphaned-
by-hiv-and)

A boy getting a vaccination in a village built health centre.
[http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/2007082131/a-young-
boy...](http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/2007082131/a-young-boy-is-given-
vaccination-at-health-centre-in-clinic-in-gongoni-malindi-kenya-july-2007)

"Blood samples are taken by horse from Semenanyane clinic in mountainous
eastern Lesotho to an urban centre for testing"
[http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/201202161000100395/blo...](http://www.irinnews.org/photo/details/201202161000100395/blood-
samples-are-taken-by-horse-from-semenanyane-clinic-in-mountainous-eastern-
lesotho-to-an-urban)

------
bentaljaard
Connectivity is a bit hard without infrastructure or electricity...you have to
start with the basics. Healthcare and education are still big problems in
Africa, especially in the rural parts. Once you have a stable base to build on
things like connectivity becomes more important. I agree though that in the
more developed areas, governments shouldn't underestimate the value and boost
decent and cheap internet connectivity can make to the economy..

~~~
mtgx
Internet will play a huge role for education in the future (it already does
for self-taught people) not just all over the world, but _especially_ in
places like Africa where there is no time, nor money, to build schools fast
enough across the whole of Africa, and then fund them, and get trained
teachers to teach in them. That's _orders of magnitude_ less efficient than
the Internet will be for the people there, if you combine everything together.

Technology has always raised the living conditions of countries. The more
there was, the faster it has done it.

------
joosters
"The poorest farmers can see real-time information on world markets and trade
on it"

Yeah, like every small rural farmer tending their modest allotment regularly
checks the markets before deciding on what crops to plant!

