We know there is a widening economic gulf between the upper and lower classes. It’s a First World gap that we tend to measure in monetary wealth.
But what about the information poor?
The Sept. 11 attacks that triggered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan also uprooted 16-year-old Abdul Ghattar from his village in war-torn Helmand province, bringing him to a desolate refugee camp on the edge of Kabul.
Yet Mr. Ghattar stared blankly when asked whether he knew about al Qaeda’s strike on the U.S., launched a decade ago from Afghan soil.
“Never heard of it,” he shrugged as he lined up for water at the camp’s well, which serves thousands of fellow refugees. “I have no idea why the Americans are in my country.”
Information inequity has always been a problem, but I think it will be a really big deal this century. Information is the real fiat money in a global economy. Some have access to information. Some don’t.
Some have counterfeit.
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But this is an extreme case. He have no computer or internet to know his country is victim of american terrorism.
The real problem, I believe, is that people with plenty of access to information choose not to learn.
If SOPA and PIPA get inforced we will see the new rise of censorship all over the internet. Information has a tendency of becoming scarce even with the internet…