From: Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Date: Tue Nov 17 1998 - 17:54:02 MST
At 08:14 AM 11/7/98 EST, GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>This is something I've been thinking about for a long time. How do we help
>people like women in Afghanistan, or peasants in Indonesia, or all of the rest
>of the folks who are cut off from the information revolution? I've envisioned
>a technology that could help, something I call a "Brain Seed".
I've finally read your posting carefully, Greg, and I do appreciate the
sentiment that you and Spike express. I think, however, that many of the
postings on this thread have been based upon the assumption that this
particular culture of women in Afghanistan are illiterate and largely
ignorant of their own rights. This is, unfortunately, not the case. A
significant portion of these woman are highly educated, they are doctors and
lawyers and professional businesswomen. They worked hard for many decades
to improve their status. Now they find themselves completely imprisoned and
beaten in the streets when they attempt to carry out the daily business of
living. The streets are policed by uneducated young thugs who have been
offered power through a fundamentalist religious regime. Any men who
support the women seem too intimidated by the threat of force to speak out
openly.
I have trouble envisioning how a memetic bomb or plant can alter the
situation. Who would you aim it at? The women are already fully educated
as to the direness of their own plight. They have, at great risk, spoken to
western reporters and to social researchers who have carried their story to
the world. The young men who police the streets are for the first time
being given influence in their own society. What incentive do they have to
take on new ideas that would remove them from a position of high status?
The Taliban leaders have been fighting long and hard to take power in their
country, and it goes without saying that they would not relinquish it
voluntarily. Have I missed something about this idea?
Kathryn Aegis
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