The clash between World Trade Organization protesters and police last week in Seattle underscores the problems of balancing new free-trade initiatives with concerns about human rights, the environment and the American belief in a decent standard of living for all.
While President Clinton denounced last week’s violent protests, he said he sympathized with protesters’ issues. Seattle’s police chief also defended the protesters’ rights to free speech even as he imposed tighter restrictions on protesters to keep them from disrupting the WTO talks.
It’s a fine line. The very countries the protesters aim to “protect” have WTO reps telling them to shut up and go home. WTO reps quoted in the Wall Street Journal basically said they know how to help the people in their countries more than a bunch of American liberals.
I don’t profess to know even one of the answers in this extremely complicated matter of helping vs. harming nations. In all of this, however, one constant remains: Communications gives people power. And wireless communications gives them even greater power.
We even saw this in Seattle, where David E. Sanger, writing for the The New York Times, reported that “officers confiscated cell phones and gas masks from the demonstrators, denying them the two tools that allowed the protesters to run circles around the police the day before.”
Wireless manufacturers thus are practically foaming at the mouth to enter the Chinese market. With the world’s largest population and a low teledensity, China is the end of the rainbow. The pot of gold.
On the surface, it may appear manufacturers are willing to overlook everything-how China cheated companies willing to invest in the country by declaring China-China-foreign ventures illegal; its human rights abuses; etc.-just to have the chance to invest in China.
But what will happen in China when the teledensity goes from 11 percent to a penetration rate of even 50 percent? What will happen in less-developed nations when the teledensity increases from 2 percent to 20 percent?
What will happen? The same things that happened when Gutenberg invented the printing press. The same things that happened when people got access to the Internet. Power will flow from the few to the many.
It may take a few generations, but people will become empowered. And when people are empowered, they can change the world. And those people may have the power to stop the abuses to their neighbors and the environment.
