Wifi IV Drip

Sitting in the first row of seats on the Greenline bus to Pokhara it dawned of me that I am totally spoiled. When I sat down waiting for the bus with no working speedometer but working breaks to head on down the road, I looked up to discover the bus offered FREE WIFI!  Why is it that I, a foreigner to this country have access to free wifi on a bus, in a café, in the guesthouses, and for pay at a plethora of internet cafes with excellent working computers?  Foreigners have WIFI on an IV drip and locals have connectivity rates of less than 45% across the country, and far less at the household level.

Anamika's husband Saroj creatively shares internet wifi
with the neighbour so they get excellent connection
at a lower cost.

I am a little preoccupied with WIFI today because I see the value it brings to my life personally, and I think it’s taken for granted in a lot of cases. I also wonder why the heck we need WIFI on the bus, when most don't really expect it there, and many if anything urgent is happening can likely wait.  Some women during interviews this week stated that they learned at training how to solve problems they have been having in their crops for many years.  When the government officers were presenting, the younger ones piped up and asked why this is the first time such training was offered? Why do they not know what’s available or what is going on that could help their families farm better? 

Internet is a problem even in Canada, in Ontario particularly where we are still struggling to get coverage on the last mile (or the First Mile as first nations prefer to call it). We have shadow areas for connection even within the 401 corridor unless you want to spend hundreds of dollars for satellite. How obscene!

Why is it such a struggle? I found a really good study presentation for a Nepal that was done in 2003 and the barriers are listed as such:

• Physical isolation and difficult topographical conditions
• Underdeveloped physical infrastructure
•  Low-income levels/ poverty
•  Low population density
•  Low level of computer education
•  Little public awareness about internet and use of computer
• Absence of local content / language barrier to transfer information, with Nepali font not yet standardized
•  Inadequate human resource development

• Lack of sufficient funds needed for huge investment in the ICT (information communication technology) sector

Not listed but included in the presentation is also the fact that less than 40% of people in Nepal have access to public electricity supply.

So the barriers are many and the incentive seems low.  Sounds similar to Ontario!  I just wish there was more creativity in this vein, because the new generation is learning more about computers and many youth I see have smartphones. The younger generation of men and women are more literate than their predecessors.  India, an ICT powerhouse is right next-door and seems to be making things work!  There are tons of positive things happening that should be pushing the case for Internet as a human right forward, but they are seemingly ignored.  

Is this the best way to teach information to farmers? It costs
them quite a bit to travel here for 4 days.

These ladies really impressed me. Despite relatively low
formal education, one spoke some english and both are
literate.  They were attending training to pass on the info
to their families.

Also, each area has a VDC, a Village Development Committee who raise funds and dole out permits among many other services to the community.  They are all organized, and each VDC has autonomous rule over what they work on in their community of about 1000 people.  Maybe it would be a good goal to just get internet working in each VDC as a start?  I am not suggesting that each and every household should have internet access, but internet hubs would certainly be an affordable way to reach a vast amount of the population.  

A lot of these issues are not constrained just to the Internet cause, and many of them in my opinion can be traced back to ‘lack of political will’.  Meanwhile, thousands of rupees are being spent on the ‘city beautification project’ for the SAARC meeting of the South Asian dignitaries (happening in 2 weeks, not this week as I was told).  Streets and houses are being painted, electricity networks are being reworked so there is continual power whenever the dignitaries may travel, street beggars and street dogs are being cleared out, all in the name of a few days of meetings.  All in the name of a political farce, really.

Perhaps these are just ramblings of a hopeless optimist, but I really thing there needs to be an attempt to get the keystone issue tackled so the dominoes can start tumbling down.  It feels like lack of the right information is starving the farmers, since basic cropping training is blowing everyone's minds.