I have returned to Africa (and to blogging). Some light reading during my down time is The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. This book makes an interesting argument that the world has been “flattened” through technology so that more individuals from around the world can take part in the global economy than ever. However, one of the fundamental requirements for flattening is the internet. As I try to blog from a continent with shamefully low bandwidth, it seems obvious that Africa has been left out of the flattening.
Attempts are being pursued to bring more bandwidth to Africa, but are still years away. So, most of the continent, while increasingly filled with connected individuals eager to be part of the internet age, is forced to crawl along at monotonous speeds.
I have returned to 
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My sister only recently moved from kpbs to DSL. They have no competition and no choice of companies, apparently. My sister-in-law works out of her home and also crawls along at less than 28. She is only 18 miles from a small city and 2 miles from her town. So if that is all available in the states, I can imagine that bringing something faster to Africa is difficult. Satelite service is way too expensive for most people.
In our area, the "rich" people who live at the lake also have slow internet unless they go to a satelite based system and pay quite a bit.
OOps. Number lock was on. My sister was at 19 kpbs.
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