by Caroline Breeze

Created on: October 19, 2009   Last Updated: October 20, 2009

Today, anyone who has to rely on the traditional slow methods of communications and information search is bound to lose their competitive edge in whatever business and even social development endeavors they undertake, and risk failure. Unfortunately, this is the case in many parts of Africa.

Why the submarine cable initiative is important to Africa is a question that can take many words to answer or one where visualization can be invoked to best provide an illustration:

To all readers who have internet access at home and at work and who get on the web daily; try imagining what it would be like to be informed that web services will be unavailable for half a day and the service provider companies are very sorry for the inconvenience.

How would it feel?
Think of all of the things you use internet services to accomplish and how 'stuck' you would feel without the internet and there you have it!

Such are all of the things and services and more, that are totally unavailable in certain parts of Africa and that the submarine cable initiative would make available if and when fully implemented and, might I add, if implemented with a certain degree of public social interests in mind.

For many people, access to food and shelter are more important than anything else in poor sub-Saharan countries, but one could beg to offer a variation on that belief, sort of along the lines of: Teach a man how to fish

Gaining access to knowledge, information, education, training, and improved communications systems is most probably one of the key aspects of development efforts that can precisely help people improve their means of gaining access to food and shelter and improving their standard of living; and most importantly to be able to do so without constantly having to rely on third party assistance.

There are tons of reasons why the cable initiative is important to Africa. Many of those put forward often have to do with banking and other businesses, but here, let's focus a little on education and what it can do for Africa.

Teleconferencing for example could replace expensive travel and accommodation costs for, doctors, teachers, students, underrepresented and underprivileged groups within the various African countries, and the list goes on.

Books are far too expensive for the average person in Africa and libraries are practically non-existent in many sub-Saharan African countries except for the resource centers provided by certain foreign embassies present in those countries. Internet

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