Mind the technology gap - the facts | New Internationalist

Jump to navigation

Mind the technology gap - the facts

1 May 2016

Development (Aid)

Technology can be a big enabler – yet the difference in terms of what’s available to rich and poor is vast.

This article is from the May 2016 issue of New Internationalist.
You can access the entire archive of over 500 issues with a digital subscription. Get a free trial »

Related Articles

Blueprint for a better media

11 strategies for a better media. Vanessa Baird writes.

Facebook: the new censor’s office

Social media is usurping the role of the state argues Jillian York.

Dark clouds in Poland

Violeta Santos Moura reports from Poland, where reliance on coal kills some 45,000 people each year.

Will new laws tame the tech giants?

Are these new privacy laws the best solution? Mike Morel investigates.

Humanitarian drones and other anachronisms

Aid-by-drone, what’s not to like? New tech in the sector brings many problems, Nick Dowson explains.

How creativity is killed in the Majority World

Tamara Pearson explains why the poor are not taken seriously on creative stages.

Japan: building the future, living in the past?

How Japanese society and robots match up, by Christopher Simons.

The age of disruption

The vision of the future we are fed will leave many of us reeling, writes Dinyar Godrej. For what?

Killer robots: the race for Autonomous Weapons

Noel Sharkey’s stark warning against the latest arms race.

Robots, not humans: official policy in China

Industrial robots are being put to work on a huge scale. Jenny Chan looks at the case of Foxconn.

Audrey Watters: ‘AI is ideological’

Think of computer code as new rules governing society – who gets to enforce it? asks Audrey Watters.

Plutocrats and paupers: life after robots

If automation decimates jobs, we need better solutions than these, argues Nick Dowson.

‘Life is about how we can enhance society’

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi, speaks to Danielle Batist about technology, Trump, and anger as a gift.

Will Google take over the classroom?

Tamasin Cave reports on the edtech players pushing for radical changes in schools.

Homelessness – the facts

Everything you need to know about homelessness, from this month's magazine.

A marathon without finish: Nigeria's fight against polio

The end of the battle against polio might be in sight, but violence and public mistrust are creating yet more obstacles. Laura...

Finding home: Lack of affordable housing is a crisis across the West

With house prices and rents soaring, can there be a remedy to homelessness? Wayne Ellwood investigates.

The Perils of Charity

When rich and poor worlds collide, money is inevitably a problem.

A photographic account of changes over the years in: housing; water; education; health; sanitation; food and farming; technology...

Photo Gallery: visualizing Philippine democracy through UN SDGs

For International Day of Democracy, Iris Gonzales offers snap shots of the country's corruption, poverty and drug war.

Beating the digital titans

You can take action at a practical and technological level – and a political one.

No, Mr Zuckerberg: India's fight for freedom against Facebook

Few can resist the tech titans. Prabir Purkayastha tells the story of Indians who went into battle against Facebook, for freedom...

Can search engine rankings swing elections?

Research psychologist Robert Epstein on how the new technologies invisibly shape public opinion – and what we must do about it.

Smiley-faced monopolists: how Google, Facebook and Amazon won the world

Does it matter that these titans are so successful? Vanessa Baird examines what their domination means for all of us.

Jim Thomas on the winners and losers of emerging technologies.

What will it take to get electricity to Africa’s rural poor? Ruth Nyambura explores.

Technology, whether low or high, needs to be appropriate and within reach to make a difference.

Southern Exposure: Jes Aznar

Poverty and war have hit Filipinos hard, as Jes Aznar shows through his photography.

Male baldness v malaria?

Simon Trace on the skewed priorities of medical research.

'Because the river told me'

Peasant farmers resisting the violence of agribusiness. By Nils McCune.

Technology as if people mattered*

The world's poor are still losing out. They need a better deal, argues Dinyar Godrej.

Net gains for politicians

Steve Parry explains why politicians and the internet don't get on. PLUS: Polyp's Big Bad World cartoon.

For their eyes only

Michaela Whitton considers unlawful surveillance and the crushing of dissent.

In the eye of a Twitter storm

Steve Parry experiences Trolling and is still recovering.

Is social media doing social harm?

Meredith L Patterson and Deanna Zandt go head to head.

The case against the future

Hal Niedzviecki considers the case against the future.

Transgender – the facts

This New Internationalist fact spread looks at the violence and discrimination that trans people face.

Migration and the European push-factor

For decades we have exported a Western consumerist dream to the Global South; little wonder migrants now want to share our good...

Calling time on the MDGs

No development process succeeds without the participation of those it targets, argues Maggie Black.

21st-century coffin ships

As we consider the plight of today’s asylum-seekers, the fate of Irish refugees two centuries ago is instructive, writes Jeremy...

3 ways to support us

Climate Democracy Economics Technology Human Rights Migration Minorities War & Peace

Subscribe Ethical Shop