tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7929386.post1457843601366508175..comments2023-10-07T03:36:51.254-04:00Comments on Romulo Lopez: Freedom of SpeechRomulo Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731711833893816365noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7929386.post-18359313116743717722004-10-08T10:30:25.000-04:002004-10-08T10:30:25.000-04:00Thank you so much for the plug for the Devil's...Thank you so much for the plug for the Devil's Footpath Romulo.<br>I think your comment highlighting the importance of information is right on the money. The radio, has driven so much change step by step throughout the continent of Africa. In Kenya for example - people living in the rural areas, who have never left, hear of the capital city and the differnt opportunities available there only on radio.<br>Their curiosity builds up and they begin to look at the road leading away from their village with increasing anxiety, wondering if it is worth their while to take it, and find out whether there is a better life out there- thus the radio inspires rural to urban migration taking people to factories to learn new skills, to the city where they meet many more people and share ideas, exposing them to electricity and other forms of technology and the uses these can be put to- to increase productivity. They also get exposure to potential markets for the agricultural products that their folk left in the village produce... this is just the tip of the ice berg.<br>With increasing freedom of the media in Kenya more and more radio stations are getting licenced, thus fuelling political debate, critiquing government policy, and thus informing the discussions in civil society: parents teachers associations on education policy; transporters associations on how to self regulate to avoid getting the government passing more laws that would make their operations less efficient and the list goes on.<br>I know all this may sound rather strange as you have had radios and the television in the US widely distributed and with freedom of the media too, but for people in Kenya, this free media is very new, only 8 years ago, the media was controlled by the government and used for propaganda.<br>There is so much to say about these things, but that is my little contribution for now.<br>June Arungahttp://www.irenkenya.orgnoreply@blogger.com