Equal Access to Information and Infrastructure

A further discussion in the Scharer and Hilberath book got me to thinking about how I believe that people should have equal access to the Internet.  I believe that in our information age, how everything is reliant upon updated information and access, not having access to the Internet is comparable to not having clean drinking water or electricity.  A lack of any of these components puts someone at a distinct disadvantage not only in an economy, and society, but also life in general today. 

How much of what we do now is reliant upon Internet access?  A few things that come to mind:  this class; readings for class; staying in contact with family, friends, and professors; monitoring one's finances; doing one's taxes; finding answers to questions we have; finding directions; purchasing airline tickets; ordering gifts/presents... the list is obviously never ending.  But it serves a point, could you live in today's society without some kind of access to the Internet?  It would be pretty difficult. The same goes for electricity.  Could you imagine not having electricity in today's society? 

The writers of the book comment, "On the one hand, we have the economic and cultural 'real' space of the Northern Hemisphere, propagating the hope of boundless communication, but at the same time aggressively excluding the 'unnetworked' from a fair share of world resources and reducing them to virtual illiterates" (42).  This is a new creation of the "have-nots" in our world.  We have long had economic poverty, and resource poverty.  Now we seemingly have information poverty.  This is a poverty confounded by unequal access to education, or secondary education for people because of prohibitive costs or extenuating circumstances, but also, unequal access to the information world of the Internet itself. 

This is why there have been a number of initiatives to correct this.  I know in Washington State, the  Northwest Open Access Network was founded by a number of public utility entities with the hope of being able to provide access to all.  This model then was taken by former Washington state governor Gary Locke, who is now the Secretary of Commerce.  It can be seen also in the initiatives that President Obama has encouraged.

I think this is valuable work, and something that is important ministry as well.  Providing access to all, is not only social justice, its about giving people an opportunity and meeting them where they are.  By doing this, we are living out the call to serve our neighbor.

If, however, we do not reach out and help provide these opportunities to people, communities will be left behind.  The authors of The Practice of Communicative Theology rightly claim, "the greatest losers will be people in the so-called third and fourth worlds, the nonnetworked laborers, whose potentialities will thus lie fallow" (47).  In order for the gifts of God to be realized most fully in our sisters and brothers in Christ, they must have the tools and ability to access the information needed, not only for discernment and discovery, but also to communicate to those in other sectors and ministry services around the world.  If they do not, the disadvantaged and oppressed, will only sink further down the "ladder." 

I realize this is turning into an essay, so I should probably wrap it up.  I just have a lot to say, since the bulk of my economics study was on development economics.  The situation of the "greatest losers" in the paragraph above is what is often called a "poverty trap."  This is where there is a cycle of systemic poverty which cannot be conquered without a major change, such as the provision of infrastructure and open information and knowledge access.  Its a point where I feel my vocational calling strongest towards, to not only speak out about it, but to do something.  Hence the passion in this post.