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Globalization Isn’t Bad: a Critique to the Rise of Mobile Phone Technology in Developing Countries

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Globalization Isn’t Bad: a Critique to the Rise of Mobile Phone Technology in Developing Countries
Globalization Isn’t Bad:
A Critique to the Rise of Mobile Phone Technology In Developing Countries

Introduction
According to Daniel G. Bates, globalism is causing increased inequality and polarization in the distribution of wealth, and the economic and social disparities, creating the Forth World—a new face of extreme poverty that is gradually excluded from the rest of the world. Bates argues that the development of globalization and technology has enlarged the distance between the developed and developing countries, and that technology isolates people, thus resulting in a poorer infrastructure and economy. However, is the Forth World solely an inevitable result of globalization? In fact, the use of hands-on technology has boomed in the highly impoverished countries, and has lead to better trajectories for many aspects in the developing world. Through a concise examination of both the positive and negative aspects of mobile technology adoption, this paper argues that mobile phone are quickly becoming an affordable, germane, and accommodating tool and vehicle to many forth-world communities, in places like Africa, India and China, to create economic opportunities and strengthen social networks and knowledge.

Health Care
Firstly, healthcare and the spread of accurate health information have clearly been improved in rural areas such as countries like China and India through the positive influence of mobile technology. In some parts of the world, the patient-and-doctor ratio is one to 20,000. Therefore, there is a huge potential to use mobile health technology to close this astonishing health care gap. Because mobile technology is relatively cheap and easy to spread, it can connect the rural areas that desperately need health care with the large populations of doctors who live in the urban areas. Advances in wireless health delivery in Mexico, India and Rwanda called “mHealth” programs (Mobile for Health) provide potentials for remote diagnostics where nurses



References: Bates, Daniel G. Human Adaptive Strategies: Ecology, Culture, and Politics. Jennifer Jacobson, 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2005. “Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women: About Us”. 2012. &lt; http://www.cherieblairfoundation.org/about-us&gt; Accessed April 08, 2012. Duncombe, Richard. “Understanding Mobile Phone Impact on Livelihoods in Developing Countries: A New Research Framework”. Development Informatics Working Paper Series. Manchester, UK, 2012. Duncombe, Richard and Richard Boateng. “Mobile Phones and Financial Services in Developing Countries: A Review of Concepts, Methods, Issues, Evidence and Future Research Directions,” Development Informatics Working Paper Series. Menchester, UK, 2009. Ferenczi, Peter. “Cell Phones Empower Women in Developing Countries” Mobiledia.com. 2011. &lt;http://www.mobiledia.com/news/90890.html&gt; Accessed April 06, 2012 “Grammen Foundation: Who We Are” Hafkin, Nancy and Nancy Taggart. “Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study”. Academy For Educational Development, 2001. Kaplen, Warren A. “Can the Ubiquitous Power of Mobile Phones Be Used to Improve Health Outcomes in Developing Countries?” Globalizing and Health. May 23, 2006. “Pop Tech: Project Masiluleke,” 2011 &lt; http://poptech.org/project_m &gt; Accessed April 03, 2012. Sandhu, Jaspal S. “Opportunities in Mobile Health,” 2011 &lt;http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/opportunities_in_mobile_health&gt; Accessed April 11, 2012. Sarin, Arun, Neil Gough, &amp; Diane Coyle. “Africa: The Impact of Mobile Phones” Moving the Debate Forward -- The Vodafone Policy Paper Series. 2005. “She’s One Smart Mom, She’s Got text4baby,” n.d., &lt; http://www.text4baby.org/index.php/about &gt; Accessed April 04, 2012) Sinha, Chaitali Trucano, Michael. “Mobile Phones and Literacy in Rural Communities” EduTech: A World Bank Blog on ICT Use in Education. 2010. &lt; http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/mobile-phones-literacy &gt; Accessed April 05, 2012. Wachira, N. “Wireless in Kenya takes a village” Wired News. 2003. &lt;http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57010,00.html&gt; Accessed April 20, 2012. [ 4 ]. “She’s One Smart Mom, She’s Got text4baby,” n.d., < http://www.text4baby.org/index.php/about > (accessed April 04, 2012) [ 5 ] [ 7 ]. Warren A. Kaplan, “Can the Ubiquitous Power of Mobile Phones Be Used to Improve Health Outcomes in Developing Countries?” Globalizing and Health (May 23, 2006): 9-11. [ 9 ]. Arun Sarin, Neil Gough, & Diane Coyle, “Africa: The Impact of Mobile Phones,” Moving the Debate Forward -- The Vodafone Policy Paper Series, 2005, 7-8 [ 10 ] [ 11 ]. Peter Ferenczi, “Cell Phones Empower Women in Developing Countries,” Mobiledia.com, 2011, (accessed April 06, 2012) [ 12 ] [ 15 ]. “Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women: About Us,” 2012, < http://www.cherieblairfoundation.org/about-us> (accessed April 08, 2012) [ 16 ] [ 17 ]. Peter Ferenczi, “Cell Phones Empower Women in Developing Countries,” Mobiledia.com, 2011, (accessed April 06, 2012) [ 18 ] [ 19 ]. “Mobile Technology and Development: How Mobile Phones are Transforming lives in Developing Countries,” 2012, (accessed March 27, 2012) [ 20 ] [ 23 ]. Evanjeline Eriksson, “A Case Study About Cell Phone Use by People in Rural Kenya,” (Vaxjo, Sweden, 2008), 17-19 [ 24 ] [ 25 ]. Katja Konkka, “Indian needs – Cultural end-user research in Mombai,” Mobile usability: How Nokia changed the face of the mobile phone. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), 97-112. [ 27 ]. N. Wachira, “Wireless in Kenya takes a village,” Wired News, 2003, (accessed April 20, 2012). [ 28 ]. Chaitali Sinha, “Effect of Mobile Telephony on Empowering Rural Communities in Developing Countries,” International Research Foundation for Development, 2005, 8-9

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