I’ve often mentioned that I live in the Philippines, a country that has seen more than its fair share of political and economic turmoil. Because of this, many of our citizens feel that the only way to escape poverty in this country is by working in a foreign land and sending money to their family here.
One can’t blame them for leaving. Everyone wants to give their family the basic necessities such as education, shelter, food, and medical care. If other third world countries are just like the Philippines, or even worse, then there are few employment opportunities, low pay against a decent standard of living, and little hope for the average citizen. This is what forces most people to become overseas migrant workers. However, this solution to one’s personal poverty has several disadvantages.
Today is Blog Action Day, and Web Worker Daily is participating by blogging about this year’s theme, poverty.
When I hear that word, I think of Africa, a continent that has historically been, and still is, either criminally exploited (to put it mildly), or shamelessly neglected by the rest of the world.
When it comes to web working, Africa is one of the last frontiers. In most sub-Saharan African countries, people tend to use mobile phones more than the Internet for business-related activities and communications. Factors contributing to this are high illiteracy rates and linguistic diversity. In addition, the high cost of bandwidth and lack of infrastructure are a serious problem. Many African countries also lack workers skilled enough in information and communication technologies (ICT) for web working to be a viable option. These factors are obstacles to adoption of the Internet as a tool for business, but access to computers and the Internet would contribute greatly to overcoming the obstacles that hinder their adoption and use in the first place.
We wanted to take a moment to let you know that Web Worker Daily will be participating in the second annual Blog Action Day, which will take place this Wednesday, October 15th.
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. The theme for 2008 is Poverty.
The organizers of Blog Action Day ask that we “examine the issues from our own unique viewpoints and perspectives, look for solutions on the small and large scale, and ask how the individual and the collective can make changes.”
We hope you’ll join us in this worldwide grassroots action to sensitize people to the myriad issues and stories of poverty. If you’re not a blogger, don’t despair. There are several other ways to take part!
Please let us know in the comments if you’re planning to participate!
I’ve often mentioned that I live in the Philippines, a country that has seen more than its fair share of political and economic turmoil. Because of this, many of our citizens feel that the only way to escape poverty in this country is by working in a foreign land and sending money to their family here.
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