Text messages open window in developing countries

First of two parts

“Text your dreams for a new Zimbabwe to +2639124522201.” The rate of inflation is more than 160,000 percent, food and fuel are hard to come by, torture victims flood private clinics and the government for five weeks wouldn’t disclose results of the presidential election. Maintaining a sense of hope in Zimbabwe is difficult, if not impossible.

But Kubatana, an alliance of human rights groups in the small southern African nation, is trying. And one of the most effective ways of reaching people, they have found, is through text messaging.

“The mobile phone is used much more widely in Zimbabwe than any other communication tool,” says Bev Clark, an activist who manages Kubatana.net. “Thus we see SMS [short message service] as a way of bridging the digital divide.”

The organization uses texts to interact with more than 2,000 citizens signed up to receive their messages, which aim to lift morale as well as update those who might have no other access to media. During the country’s recent elections, Ms. Clark said, residents of Beitbridge, a southern border town, said the group’s texts were the only source of news during power outages.

More than 60 years after the first mobile telephone call, cell phones have evolved into perhaps the world’s most revolutionary device. And with 3.3 billion of them worldwide, they’re touching everyone, regardless of class, gender or nationality.

“It’s the printing press. It’s the telegraph. And it’s happening right in front of our eyes,” said Dr. Joel Selanikio, a physician who co-founded DataDyne, a D.C. maker of mobile software for public health officials in developing countries.

Unlike the Internet, access to cell phones is affordable enough that the number of mobile subscribers in developing countries has tripled in the past five years. The majority of the world’s cell-phone subscribers - 58 percent - are now found in the developing world, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

“People may well not have shoes, but they have a cell phone,” said Brian Richardson, chief executive officer of Wizzit, a South African mobile banking firm that targets the low-income population. “It just shows how important communication is.”

In the West, mobile technology means keeping in touch, checking e-mail, listening to music, watching videos. In the developing world, it’s a source of news and inspiration, a tool for reporting violence or distributing food, a lifeline.

‘Politics loves a vacuum’

Robert Mugabe seized power in Zimbabwe 28 years ago. Formally, he holds the title of president, but citizens often describe him as a dictator. During his rule, political opponents have been exiled or found dead, white-owned farms have been seized and more than one-third of the country’s population has fled. The average life expectancy for women is 38. For men, it’s 40.

On March 29, there was a glimmer of hope for Zimbabwe’s opposition: Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was said to have won the presidential election. The Mugabe regime refused to release the election results, however. Amid accusations of vote-rigging, the government announced May 2 that Mr. Tsvangirai’s margin of victory was narrow enough to merit a run-off election on June 27. He returned to Zimbabwe on May 26 after spending six weeks away for fear of being assassinated.

“After the elections, as time progressed and the delay in announcing the results grew longer, rumors started to fly around and some of the rumors were very fear-based,” Ms. Clark said. “A lack of information causes fear and despondency - something that the Mugabe regime banks on to keep people unmotivated and obedient.”

To curb brewing hostility, Kubatana sent a text to followers encouraging them not to “fuel fear” by sharing only positive information with each other, she said.

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