Unit 6 Report

I definitely just got finished listening to Bosnian rap music! It seems to be a lot more folk-ish than rap music here, and seems to have political messages. Which is interesting to me because NONE of the mainstream rap music in the US is political in nature - I have to search long and hard on iTunes to find non-misogynistic rap music with a message!

One thing I had to look up before reading about this area was to find exactly which countries are in Eastern Europe. I found a GREAT map on Wikipedia - it's hard to see here but the orange-ish area is Eastern Europe:

I also read that these countries (historically and currently) seem to be divided from Western Europe for either political or religious disagreements. It seems like such a shame that an area of the world so rich in culture can’t share their histories!

As I was reading through the information on the Digital Divide I began to wonder, what was it like when books were being printed for the first time, before there were libraries? Was there a print divide? I'm assuming that libraries were created to close this gap; how will we close the digital divide? Is it the responsibility of libraries to offer free high-speed Internet access for their patrons? Given the history of libraries (at least public libraries) I would presume that yes, libraries should take on the responsibility of providing access to the Internet. Now, given that I know that libraries have even trouble as it is with budgeting, how can they begin to pay for PCs and high speed Internet? The government should be stepping in – they should be taking more responsibility to prevent the digital divide. By ensuring that rural areas are in a state such that fiber optic cables can be run underground, allowing for Internet access should be the primary responsibility of the government. Not to mention the social implications – why are these people unable to get to digital information in the first place? My guess is because of an already corrupt economic system. Unfortunately, the information ‘have nots’ are only going to get farther and farther behind the information ‘haves’. Even though the article we read is a bit dated, this continues to be a huge issue. As my friend Sam Kome said, ‘you don’t have to travel the world to find the information poor; it lives in our own backyards’.

This is a problem that needs to be remedied from the ground up. Every child in every school needs to learn how to use the Internet properly and how to find trustworthy information online. Not only should the government ensure access to the Internet, they need to make sure that people in rural areas know how to use it – and the public school system is a great place to start.

By changing who has access to digital information, we can change the hierarchy. Giving people information is the most powerful gift in the world. It goes right along with ‘Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.’ Give people access to information and you will dramatically change their lives.

As I was reading through some of the information on specific countries, I realized how unfortunate it is that in Croatia telecommunications services are being monopolized. As the government makes attempts to provide access to information, corporations are taking advantage of this unfortunate situation. From the document, however, it sounds like the government is fairly aware of the problem and working towards remedying it.

These countries are so different from Finland – the difference I think is the level of commitment made by the government. Finland’s government seems to be educating people at all levels and working with corporations to give rural areas Internet access.

Allowing Turkey into the EU is an interesting topic. I see both sides of the issue – if they meet all the criteria then, yes, technically they should be allowed into the EU. It also seems that all the reasons people are giving for Turkey not being in the EU are predicaments that other countries are in – countries that are already in the EU. For instance, Wikipedia says that Turkey hasn’t been accepted yet for economic reasons (because they are poor) – though not as poor as Bulgaria and Romania - who will become full members next year).

It seems that the EU’s current stance is that while Turkey’s government has made attempts to radically change its policies to match those of the EU, they’re not quite there yet. In all fairness, Turkey should meet the qualifications that everyone else has to meet. It seems that everyone is so apprehensive about it because Turkey is essentially part Middle Eastern, part European. If religious bias is what is keeping Turkey out, then the EU isn’t the organization it should be.

While the EU seems to be a good thing (in general) – regulating currency and banding together, I worry about exports. Mary mentioned in her slides that France wants to be the only country producing wine – boy I bet that made Italy VERY angry. And what if I like Italian champagne? While regulating the currency and organizing policies (like making LIS education standards the same from country to country) I really worry that some of the countries in the EU will loose their culture, the same culture that attracts so many tourists there and makes people proud of their heritage.

The information on CEENet was very cool! It seems wise that these countries band together and share information. One thing I noticed was that Turkey was on the list of members of CEENet – the EU seems to be committed to uniting the countries, but technology and this type of education probably isn’t on the top of their list of priorities. CEENet provides a means for educators to work together and solve common problems, working as one unit. My rule is always two heads are better than one and I think CEENet has that idea in mind. These countries can get along and work together because there is no underlying political agenda – they exist simply to educate and share information.

The National Library of Estonia had interesting information on cartography. In their collection they have maps dating back to 1856 of the local area:

It’s interesting to look at that map and then this one from 1937:

I just love learning some of the histories of these countries!

As a side note, while the National Library of Ukraine’s site was NOT in English, they have a beautiful library:

To end on a happy note, the video of Prague was beautiful – I had no idea! One of my friends teaches English there and I am definitely going to visit!