>Date: 9 Jun 1999 05:00:59 -0000
>Mailing-List: ListBot mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: Campaign for Digital Democracy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: Campaign for Digital Democracy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: A Digital Future for Kosovo?
>
>Campaign for Digital Democracy
>
>A Digital Future for Kosovo?
>
>by Marc Strassman
>
>
> Half a century after it wrecked havoc in Germany, the U.S. Air Force has
>again reduced the infrastructure of a European nation to rubble. Again,
>the time has come to talk about rebuilding a country's devastated physical
>plant.
>
> Why not do what worked so well for the Allies after World War II and
>rebuild Kosovo, not as it was, but as it could be? Why not use the
>billions that will no doubt be appropriated and spent there to give its
>million people the technology to not just restore their level of
>subsistence, but to move them, en masse and now, into the 21st century,
>the internet century.
>
> Before addressing some of the inevitable objections to such a suggestion,
>let me just sketch out the rudiments of what I have in mind. Integrated
>broadband telecommunications is at the heart of the new technological,
>economic, and cultural paradigms that are emerging throughout the
>developed world. The people of Kosovo are just as entitled to benefit
>from these tools as anyone, and, with billions of dollars in aid money
>soon to be coming their way, they'll be better able than most to afford it.
>
> Instead of replacing antiquated, "legacy" phone systems in Kosovo, the
>province ought to be made a testbed for the latest and best technology,
>systems that can deliver wireless broadband communication services to
>every farmhouse, village, and city apartment and house. To jump-start the
>local economy, every resident of the province should be given the
>opportunity to generate and use a personal, unique digital certificate.
>This certificate could be stored on a smart card, and used to identify and
>authenticate its owner in e-commerce, in transactions with the government,
>for educational purposes and other in other appropriate situations.
>
> The wireless broadband digital internet communications web that would be
>created using cellular or related technologies would, in conjunction with
>a good, basic, Pentium III-based laptop computer, enable every resident to
>access educational and medical services, to communicate with friends and
>family, and to participate in the democratic political life of their
>country as it rebuilds.
>
> Far from destroying the benefits of having a mixed economy that includes
>intellectuals sitting around urban cafes while hardworking farmers
>actually grow crops and raise animals, overlaying a powerful
>telecommunications grid on Kosovo would allow those in the country to stay
>there, while making all the cultural advantages of living in the capital
>available to them right where they are.
>
> As for the transportation of goods and people, if there are a few billion
>dollars left after building the telecomm grid and supplying everyone with
>a computer, I don't see why it might not be possible to build a network of
>fast and quiet maglev trains to carry people into the capital for a visit
>and whisk them back by bedtime.
>
> One might imagine that there is something romantic about a people
>innocent of the joys and tribulations of a fast-paced, diverse,
>up-to-the-minute urban existence. Perhaps there is. But it would be hard
>to argue that bringing the people of Kosovo into internet space on
>internet time could be any more disruptive of their lives and their
>beliefs than what's been done to them already in the last year.
>
> Even if pre-ethnic-cleansing Kosovo was an arcadian paradise, it no
>longer is. Of course, the people themselves need to be consulted and
>asked what they want for themselves and their country. If they want it
>rebuild just the way it was, they deserve to have that done. But if most,
>or some, of them now decide that what they want is to experience, learn
>about, and benefit from tools developed elsewhere that can make them more
>productive, better informed, and better able to cope with all the forces
>sweeping the world, some of which have recently swept them into exile with
>much attendant suffering, then perhaps we should begin thinking about how
>we can give them these tools, as a way of making amends, and of empowering
>them against any future such incursions into their lives.
>
> On top of this, of course, there is the fact that none of this
>paradigm-shifting, transformative reconstruction will be offered to the
>people of non-Kosovo Serbia until the engineer of the extended season of
>ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, Slobodan Milosovic, is removed from
>office. By itself it may not be enough, but when the general population
>of Serbia sees how those in Kosovo are prospering while their economy
>withers, they may be moved that extra bit in the direction of making a
>change in their leadership.
>
> Indeed, setting up Kosovo as a testbed for the most advanced internet and
>telecommunications technologies will go a long way in showing those in the
>advanced countries (and in less-developed ones also) what the benefits of
>adopting these tools can be. In the same way that Singapore has sought to
>establish itself as a world economic power by wiring itself and training
>its people in internet skills, Kosovo could conceivably move up in the
>economic rankings by coordinating its reconstruction efforts with measures
>designed to upgrade the educational level and technical proficiency of its
>people.
>
> By so doing, the people of Kosovo, already a model for the world of
>dignity and courage in their reaction to their forced banishment from
>their country, could become also an equally powerful model of
>self-transformation in the digital age. It might not make up for what
>they've had to endure, but it would certainly give them an alternative
>self-image to focus on and give everyone else a compelling example of
>turning banishment into triumphant return.
>
>-30-
