Fighting the Taliban, one text message at a time

[Robb]

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/26/fighting-the-taliban-one-text-message-at-a-time/">Fighting the Taliban, one text message at a time



(snip)

...In Afghanistan, Singh said, there is a direct link between communications infrastructure and development. As cell phones spring up in various areas that either didn't have them before or where they were destroyed by the Taliban, he said, commerce has increased and people are using mobile phone messaging to move around the country and spread information about the movement of the insurgents. Currently, between 10 million and 12 million afghans have cell phones, he said.

"Farmers are using cell phones to see what prices are in the market before making the trip into town. People are building confidence with local security forces. Cell phones really do transform areas.

The United States has also created a mobile banking project to pay Afghan police via cell phones. Bommer and Singh note an expansion of the program could both eliminate the need to build new banks and reduce widespread corruption in the country's current cash system.

The State Department also hopes to take advantage of the growth of new media technologies, such as social networking and cell phones within Pakistan, funding a new mobile messaging system. It paid for the first 24 million messages last year, but Bommer points out that more than 120 million texts were sent and about 8,000 new people are signing up daily....

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/26/fighting-the-taliban-one-text-message-at-a-time/">Read More....

[midnight]

1. Why is it our responsibility to rebuild this nation? Is it so we can maintain oil rights?

These are wonderful tools, and wonderful transformations. However, In America, we are shutting down schools. Text book companies are sending new text books to Iraq for their schools. Our kids are lucky to afford used ones.

[Robb]

2. Our citizens already have access to communication and banking.

Also, as bad as school funding may have become, no one is burning them down or blowing them up at the moment.

We can do more than one thing at a time, I believe. The notion that our resources are scarce is false, they are simply not well utilized. The solution to our domestic problems is not to stop sending aid elsewhere, but rather to do a better job allocating our strengths -- a paucity of responsibility over the past few decades in that regard will take time to overcome.