Ivor Tossell of Canada's Globe and Mail has what I think is an excellent piece that looks at how technology is shaping how both Kenyans and non-Kenyans alike are engaging in the difficult situation there. Ivor runs some of the roles that tech is playing, and then places them in a broader what-it-all-means context. Here's a taste:
The Western compulsion is to look at a crisis and ask what we can do. It's a noble sentiment, if maybe a patronizing one. The industry of Africa-saving is pretty deeply entrenched in these parts, lurching from one dubious mega-concert to the next. It only makes sense to look at the Internet -- social wonder that it is -- and ask how it can be used to extend that mission.But if you have an interest in either Kenya or what our global wiredness means for how we experience this big bad world -- particularly when it comes to the disconnect between the world that we can observe and the one we have influence, I really really recommend you read the whole thing. And in a nice one-two punch, there's an accompanying podcast that's rather funny (in a dry, north of the border way).
But I learned something from living there, something that's proved all too easy to forget: Africa, in the end, is going to save itself. There is a role for international interventionism, and aid, and education, and yes, even whiz-bang technology -- but the Internet isn't there to help us save Africa.
