Understanding the Digital Divide, Stratification and Empowerment in the Kingdom of Tonga

[Samiuela Loni Vea Taufa]

Please remember that apart from engaging the Private Sector, one of our national goals for ICT is bridging the Digital Divide which can also be stated as engaging the poor and disaffected in society.

Fonongava’inga Mangisi (?) at Keio University/Japan seems to have made a presentation at PTC 2007 with a nice summary of what is the “Digital Divide” and the related issues of vendor solutions versus actual solutions.

The questions she is able to raise seem pertinent to a number of technology solutions for developing countries such as the One Laptop Per Child and SPIN. Vendors seem to be the predominant winners for introducing ICT Solutions in Small, Least Developed (Developing) Countries.

is not just ‘unequal sharing’ of development benefits, but also the “transplantation of Western consumption patterns while transnational corporations control access to modern technology.”[1]

Please add this to you toolbox of knowledge about ICT potential, potential failings. 

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[1] Arndt, H. W. (1987). Economic Development: The History of an Idea. University of

Chicago Press: Chicago and London

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Samiuela LV Taufa
sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com
www.nomoa.com; www.tongatapu.net.to
Ph: +676()62-717 Fax: +676()24-099