http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/18/developing-in-leaps-and-bounds

Developing in leaps and bounds

I have a theory on why Nepal is sputtering and limping into the “developed” 21^st century. I believe that we’re trying to cram 200 years of natural progression into some 20 odd years. This leads to massive gaps, inconsistencies, and major pot holes as we try to stick our fields and buffalo-ploughs into the world of hybrid seeds, and as we try to fill out our high illiteracy rates into the ever Internet dependent today.

With inventions and innovations there are bound to be some that fail to take flight even though they’re a great idea. For me, between land lines and cell phones, and snail-mail to email, two bits of technology that I skipped right over are pagers and fax machines. One I’ve never used, and the other I’ve used maybe twice in my whole life.

In Nepal, as we’re trying our best to catch up, sometimes we are required to skip a step in order to not lag so far behind, but where as a pager was never as revolutionary as cell phones, Nepal has managed to swerve through technological differences by leaving out what I consider to be landmark gadgets and gizmos.

1. We all need somebody to call

Every member of my family has a cell phone (some even have two) and so the landline now functions as the number we give to people we don’t want to give our cell phone numbers to. As far as city life goes, I think we could just get rid of all of them and we’d be fine.  In the villages of Nepal, some have about one landline per village if that. And yet, without ever spoken into a phone, villagers are now happily calling people on their mobiles and even taking each other’s pictures.

2. Internet

To me, Internet is a pretty important part of our lives and in order to have Internet, I always assumed that it would go hand in hand with computers. But I’ve been proven wrong. Again, with cell phones making their way into rural villages, a person need not ever see a computer or learn to type in order to be able to navigate the interweb. Without electricity or computers, people check email and get on Facebook though their cellular devices which I find, fascinating.

3. Electricity

So I just mentioned not having electricity but having cell phones, which means they need to be charged at some point.  This may seem like a conundrum, but it’s not. I recently went to a village where electrical poles have yet to reach, so instead of being dependent on the NEA, houses and schools are either lit up through the help of solar panels or a generator. Outside of Kathmandu, the government of Nepal subsidizes 75% of solar power which is so the way of the future, in villages. Incredible.

4. Where no road goes

Now, in order to transport these panels and generators you’d think the most natural thing would be to transport them via trucks and vehicles with four-wheel drives, but in Nepal, where roads have yet to go but have been receiving deliveries via air. No joke. There are regions where the roads are suitable only if you’re on foot and where luggage is transported by mule or donkey, but depending on the landscape volley ball fields can be used for helicopters to land and open, un-paved larger fields function as makeshift airports.

All this to say, I imagine there will be the issues that come along with jumping right over some of the most revolutionary invents that have brought us to where we are today.  But I think it’s mind boggling that we can skip over staple inventions and necessities like roads, electrical lines, computers, and landline phones to bring remote areas of the world up to date.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/18/developing-in-leaps-and-bounds