Chapter 1: Americanizing Palestine

Though Internet Devel-opment

Helga Tawil-Souri Information Society &

MulticulturalismProfessor Han Woo Park

Presented bySe Jung Park

2009.10.1

IT4Youth is internet development project in the Palestinian Territories. It describes itself as a non-profit project.

It’s aim is enhancing the learning skills and em-ployability of Palestinian youth through the cre-ation of in-school computer labs and regional IT centers open to the public.

The program is a collaborative mission between two NGOs, the Welfare Association and Interna-tional Youth Foundation, US Agency, the Intel Corporation, other US-based corporations.

The case of IT4Youth

IT4 Youth’s goal is to “build a ‘digital bridge’, re-ducing the digital divide and helping to create a educational playing field for Palestinian youth.” It hopes to develop a pool of IT proficiant youth and national IT industry.

The project provides implications on the role of the Internet in non-Western societies and the de-velopment process.

The objectives of this chapter are not only to heighten awareness of local Internet practices but also to analyze the relationship between commu-nication technology, development, and the ex-pansion of capitalism.

Palestinian government has had little direct involvement in pursuing a managed IT strategy. Internet develoment has been driven by foreign privaate donors andmostly American NGOs.

The Second Intifada opened the way for making the Internet “one of the few growth industries in the Plestinian economy.”

Behind iInternet growth

Intetnet usage in PalestineDate Internet Usage

(penestration rate)

2000 35,000

2001 60,000

2002 105,000

2003 225,000 (10%)

2009 355,500 (14.4%)Sources from www.internetworldstat-s.com

The popularity and use of the Internet in Palestine society hasn’t been universal. There is a clear di-vide along class and geographical lines.

The Internet and other new media are more popu-lar among the elete(urban, middle-upper class, educated, employed citizens).

Based on in-depth interviews, observations, us-age statistics at IT4Youth, the new mediun is used as an online dating service and entertainment tool,

(Online game, chatting.) but rarely as an ecomonic neccessity of for the political struggle.

Toward a digital divide?

In palestine, like IT4Youth project ensures Palestinians’ status as “developed” but it causes Americanization of Palestinian soci-ety.

1) The need for competence in the English language

2) The increasing number of Amercan capi-tal, finally, the uncritical adoption of neolib-eral strategies for develoment

The Americanization of IT develop-ment

Actually, the Internet requires English profi-ciency.

One young man said “of course there are Arabic wesites, but we all know that the world of the Internet is the world of Eng-lish.”

His friend added “I think to use the Internet without knowing English is to miss a lot.”

Without knowledge of English, the Inter-net

was limited and limiting.

Americanization is taking place in the mate-rial realm through the dominace of Ameri-can NGOs and corporations as the forces behind Internet development.

In every sector of Internet development, the majority of projects have been driven by the interests of American nonpofit, for-profit or-ganizations.

Expansion of American capital

This is perpetuated expecially as peace pro-cesses and negociations continue to be sponsored by the US.

So, this brings out Palestinian policies are globally oriented rather than internally.

Eventually, Palestine becomes a node in the blobal expansion and exchange of American capital

The Americanization of IT develop-ment

It is important to recognize the chansges have happened at a particular time in his-tory and are charged with a particular ide-ology in the Territories.

The recomfiguration of the global economy post-1991 led to anxieties among the Pales-tinian eletes regarding where they would fit in the new world ecomonic order.

Internet dependency

Americanization processes have led to a deepening dependency on the Western core.

Developing countries uncritically adopt the claims that the Internet enables to jump-srart a nation’s economic capacity. It is based on purely financial perspective.

But real is different. Rather, IT development cannot offer economic benefit to the soci-eties of developing countires. This is be-cause Profits are repatriated offshore.

Like the case of IT4Youth, American high-tech firm, developing countires became more dependent on others to provide es-sential infrastructure services and sustain ins hiche market than before.

E.g.) Since its grand opening in mid-2003, IT4Youth has had to hire experts from the US, overpay for its Intel-and HP-approved hardware, and left huge debts.

Internet dependency

The irony is that the goal of training locals to obtain Internet and technical skills were not to be used for the center of Palestine.

Information society as an icon of moderniza-tion becomes a new form of colonization, re-inforcing a world of contact and influence between asymmetrical economies.

Internet dependency

Conclusion While the Internet can link users globally and en-

able information to flow across borders, location still matters in shaping both the creation of the infra-structure needed and online activities.

It is important to consider that offline activities also determine the development and expansion of the Internet.

While Internet development brings liberating, de-mocratizing, and positive possibilities, in this case it also creates a form of unequal exchange between the industrialized West and the Palestinians.

Thank you for your atten-tion!

Se Jung Park

madeinpsj@gmail.com

Dept of Media & Communication, YeungNam University, KoreaWCU Webometrics Institute , YeungNam University, Korea

http://english-webometrics.yu.ac.kr