Maybe Zimbabwe should spend their money on something besides Internet connectivity
September 20, 2006So News.com has this piece about how Internet traffic throughout Zimbabwe has been cut because the government hasn’t paid their $700,000 bill to Intelsat. Now I know personally, Internet connectivity is vital. I couldn’t live without it. But in a country with Zimbabwe’s many many problems, maybe they should not be spending $700,000 on Internet. That money might go to better use solving some of the country’s more fundamental problems.
I mean, they’ve got an annual inflation rate of 1,200%, which could go to 4,000% next year. That seems way more dire a situation than, say, whether people can surf Google or not. Spend the money on fixing their internal economic problems, rather than spending it on fixing the external Internet connection.
And there’s shortages of bread and other food products. Yet another place where the $700,000 might be put to better use.
It’s almost comical to hear people in that country complaining about their broken Internet connection. I think they’ve got plenty of other needs far more important than fixing their Internet connectivity.