Diaspora and the Integrity of Information
Return to Politics and Culture
Annexe to initial Paper for One World
Date: 22/02/2002
Article
One of the key problems in improving information flow in developing countries so that they become effective lubricants for the engine of development is the simple matter of trust.
Throughout the de-colonial and post colonial eras, information supply has relied upon the unhelpful dichotomy of Western-oriented information sources and indigenous state broadcasting and, to a greater or lesser extent, state control of the print news media. Of course there are exceptions to this rule - India immediately springs to mind - but what is interesting about the exceptions is the extent to which diasporas have had a direct influence on indigenous media channels.
In reinforcing the main areas where appropriate content is required, it is important to modify the term "local" because the central thesis of this Paper is the centrality in content creation for developing countries of their diasporas.
If we examine the key information sectors:
- Health
- Veterinary Health
- Agriculture
- Meteorology
- Women's Issues
- Education/Training
- Commodity Information
- Citizenship and Politics
We can see that some of these simply require that the information be appropriate: that the health classification deals with local conditions; that agriculture deals with local crops; that veterinary health deals with local breeds; and that in all three cases the advice relates closely to available resources, as well as conditions. Other topics, however, require a great degree of trust as well as appropriate content. For example, meteorology and commodity information may be manipulated by local commodity monopoly purchasing agencies; and there is a natural suspicion of information on citizenship and politics if it comes from an official source.
The rise of publishing on the Internet, together with the development of cross platform and cross interface applications means that it is now possible to produce information which is not only available as a broadcast on a number of computers but can be middle cast to a list or narrowcast to an individual with a mobile phone. This dramatically cuts the cost of production but it also allows a role for diasporas in preparing locally relevant information which consumers will trust.
Until now, the major sources of trusted information, such as the BBC, have not been able to drill down deep enough to be truly local. The international aid NGOs have a great deal of local knowledge but they 'suffer' from a brand of - albeit benign - cultural imperialism, trapped in the recursive liberal question: "What do you do when there is a conflict between local self determination and doing the right thing?"
The best form of mediation between open, liberal, 'Western' values and local needs in a developing country is its diaspora. Of course, there are exceptions, such as a highly politicised diaspora of exiles or expelled people but most of the members of a diaspora have family links back to their country of origin which provides a peculiarly strong kind of accountability. These people can also be balanced interpreters of the world, filtering large amounts of information down to essentials.
Diasporas also contain a great many professionals who can look at our listed subjects and provide information in their specialist fields. An obvious candidate is meteorology which is now well represented on the Web but which is not then translated across platforms to local community leaders and farmers.
London, Toronto, New York and other major cities in Europe and North America contain massive concentrations of diaspora power, energy and resources. Helping to mould these into effective working operations may require some external assistance but this should be slight.
I believe that the UK development community should seriously consider establishing a very small Institute of Diaspora Content Creation to:
- Set standards
- Design templates
- Establish networks
- Run pilots
- Design successor bodies/networks.
KEVIN CAREY
Director, humanITy