[PEN-L:9683] Re: Re: Bill McKibben

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> It's people supporting indigenous people who are using
>the computers in this case. Sure, they might benefit from things that are
>posted on the Internet, but to say that they are using it is wrong.
>Computers exist within a very specific politico-economic framework, and to
>decontextualize them, as you seem to do, is both dangerous and naive.

The Daily Yomiuri, June 7, 1997

Nunavut The Land of the 21st Century Internet helps keep scattered Inuit in
touch

Takashi Saito Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Editor ; Yomiuri

This is the sixth in a seven-part series about the author's experiences in
Iqaluit, the future capital of Nunavut, a planned autonomous territory for
the Inuit of northern Canada.

It was on the Internet that we first found out about the impending birth of
an autonomous Inuit state in the Canadian Arctic. The information available
on the envisioned Territory of Nunavut covered a wide range of topics, such
as culture and history, and came to almost a hundred Web pages. It was more
than enough to destroy any preconceptions regarding "the primitive life of
the Eskimo."

The provider of this information, Nunanet Communications, is located in
central Iqaluit, Nunavut's future capital. When we visited the firm's
one-story building, we found a lone young man busily operating a dozen or
so computers.

Nunanet President Adamee Itorcheak, 31, who worked for seven years at the
local telephone company, started out by creating a Nunavut home page. The
page was accessed by about 20,000 visitors, many of whom wrote in with
various questions. Itorcheak began creating more and more pages to provide
answers to the most frequently asked questions. When these pages were
linked, he found he had a huge network on his hands. The Nunavut
Implementation Commission (NIC), which is overseeing the territory's
transitional phase until it achieves full autonomy in 1999, began providing
him with assistance.

"We wanted the world to know about us," Itorcheak explained. "Even in
Canada, it's like a hazy awareness that 'the indigenous people up north are
up to something.' But as we went along, we realized that it was for
ourselves that the Internet was most important."

What does that mean? "Here in this huge territory, 20,000 people live in
scattered groups. The Internet is the only way to bring us all
together--especially in summer, when the ice melts."

Nunavut, with an area more than five times the size of Japan, is home to
just 25 communities. Iqaluit is the largest, while Grise Fiord, the
territory's northernmost community, has only 130 residents. Distances
between communities range from 150 to 2,000 kilometers. Since the land is
covered by an intricate web of lakes and rivers, these communities become
even more isolated from each other in summer, as the water cuts off
overland routes that can be traveled by snowmobile and dogsled the rest of
the year. In such circumstances, the Internet is a valuable means of
communication between scattered communities.

"In Iqaluit alone, there are 602 computer users," Itorcheak told us. With a
total population of 4,156, this comes to one computer for every 6.9
residents, or almost one per household: The average family numbers six
people. In terms of computer use, Iqaluit is far ahead of Japan.

The NIC has set up a video conferencing system that permits members in
distant locations to participate in its discussions. Computer networks will
also be used for administrative and medical purposes.

"There is one problem, though," Itorcheak said as he thrust a banknote in
front of my face, blocking my view.

"Can you see me?" he asked. "No. Because when there's money staring at you,
you can't see anything else. They're still very few in number, but we
already have some politicians and officials like that.

"Nunavut is made up of three regions, with each region receiving an equal
part of the territory's budget," Itorcheak explained. "Some representatives
of the more populous regions are saying it's unfair that they get less per
capita. But public money is not personal income. How can you protect the
environment and wildlife by allocating funds on the basis of population?"
he asked.

"The Internet and television are convenient," Itorcheak continued, "but
they're just two means of communication. There are many things you can't
see or know about without actually visiting a community. Doctors cannot
make a proper medical diagnosis without touching a patient's body.
Politicians have to meet directly with their constituents. We can't have a
government that relies only on technology and uses head counts to measure
fairness."

These are things we couldn't have learned just by visiting the Nunavut home
page.

© 1999, LEXIS®-NEXIS®, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.




Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)