I love the web. I love the way web 2.0 is as much about attitude than it is about technology . I love social networking, blogs, online shopping, recommendation engines, wikipedia, online file sharing and google earth. I tweet and skype and facebook and buy things online. I love the way TV channels in the US broadcast shows from their sites. I love the way Venture Capitalists in the US and Europe pour huge sums of money into online ventures that may only make money in years to come, if at all. I love the way they reckon they know a good thing when they see it.
And then I get a bit miserable about living and working in South Africa. So little of it applies to us. We are years behind in both bandwidth and mindset. Americans have a cultural history of purchasing through catalogues and the switch to online was easy for them. And they trust their postal delivery service. Computers are readily available and internet connections are cheap and fast. My brother in law in the US has the cheapest connection he could possibly buy at home – it is cheaper and faster than the most expensive one I can get here. South Africans are mostly poor, do not have access to the internet or computers and do not have bank accounts or credit cards. And we are distrustful of both providers and delivery systems. We are not a worthwhile investment. The web-savy of us make up such a tiny percentage of the population that local companies see no reason to apply the fantastic new technologies here. It saddens me, it really does.