Statement
by
Mr. Noah Samara
Chairman & CEO, WorldSpace Corporation

Monday, 18 March 2002

«Practical Approaches to Bridging the Digital Divide»

Your Excellencies, distinguished guests and delegates, good afternoon. I am honored to be here and I promise to be brief.

We are here in Istanbul to narrow the digital divide, a gap that we agree is detrimental to mankind. As we gather for this Conference, we should remember the issue before us is not one of technology nor cost. We have many proven technologies that are appropriate for development. I would also argue the world is full of money for deals that deliver a good return on investments; and we know that investments in human capital bring substantial returns.

We do not want for technology or money. To be blunt, the scarcity here is an absence of vision and the will that comes with a well-defined vision.

We travel to these conferences year after year, and it seems we go about this work as though it were a mere job. And the zeal we show is in proportion to the guilt we want to conceal.

But this Conference is not about a job or guilt or about ascribing fault. Rather I would argue this Conference is about saving lives.

We live in a world

• where ignorance is tantamount to death;
• where there are 80 million children out of school in Africa – a number equal to the entire population of France plus the Netherlands;
• where only two percent of Africa’s school children go to college;
• where between three countries in Asia -- Afghanistan, Indonesia and Pakistan -- 55 million school-age children are out of school.
• And where the numbers of children out of school in Latin America exceeds 20 million.

How many Nelson Mandelas, Einsteins, Mother Teresas do we lose every year for want of education? And the consequence is not just the immediate life that is lost, but the lives that life could have positively touched had it reached its full potential.

This is why I believe the work at this Conference is about saving lives. And we are qualified for this mission.

It is also important for all of us to understand that we are here to represent others. The fisherman in Gujarat that needs weather forecasts, the entrepreneur on the island of Lombok that needs data communications, the student in a village in the Sahel that yearns for education and the mother in the Andes that needs information to protect the health of her children have all sent their regrets: they could not be here in Istanbul. Instead, they have sent us here to act on their behalf.

Indeed, 80% of the world’s population that have been victims of the digital divide expect us to use our point of vantage to "vision" a solution and to will its realization. I am convinced we can satisfy their expectation.

Over the last 10 years, we at WorldSpace developed a simple solution to help bridge the digital divide. We launched two satellites over Africa, the Middle East & Asia to broadcast digital audio and multimedia content directly from the satellites to an inexpensive receiver.

How is this system actually bridging the digital divide?

• We have a broadcast today called the Africa Learning Channel that is reaching an actual audience of 6 million people with education and information on critical subjects such as HIV/AIDS along with structured programs for women on micro-enterprise;
• We are deploying WorldSpace receivers in every school in Kenya with the Kenya Institute of Education to continuously train teachers and supplement the daily education of the students. The deployment will be complete in May of this year allowing us to reach 11 million Kenyan students everyday. And after school hours, we plan to use the receivers to deliver audio-drama, infotainment and education to adults and professionals.
• We are working with two major states in India – Andra Pradesh and Karnataka – to cover every school with WorldSpace receivers on a program similar to the one we are doing in Kenya. The Kenya project is being studied by several countries in Africa as well.
• We are in near-final discussions with major institutions of higher learning – including two Ivy League schools in the United States – to deliver certificate and degree courses directly to students in our coverage areas.
• We are also working with the ITU on two initiatives – a telemedicine project in Ethiopia that is currently linking 10 hospitals with WorldSpace receivers and an intranet network; as well as a telekiosk program in four refugee telecenters in Tanzania.

In all our projects we are laser-focused on creating information affluence and measurably bridging the digital divide.

How can we collaborate with the people in this room to speed the work we are doing? I have three specific recommendations: First, include broadcast services such as digital radio, in ICT projects for development; second, deploy digital radios with computers and printers in projects intended to bridge the digital divide; and third promote the creation of local content to drive development agendas.

80% of the earth’s inhabitants expect us to "vision" a solution and will its realization. If a handful of people can birth a phenomenon like WorldSpace, I am certain the people in this room can solve the problem behind every problem plaguing 80% of the world’s human population. The issue is not technology or money. It’s vision and will.

In closing, I would like to suggest three principles that have served us well in devising our contribution to bridging the digital divide. First, we should agree to begin with the end in mind. The end is not the creation of commissions and committees and reports. As Hemingway said don’t confuse movement with action. The end is how we see our world, our vision of a final outcome that measurably bridges the digital divide. "No wind blows for a ship without a port of destination" said Montaigne. Let’s use this Conference to agree on that port.

Second, let’s agree to not make "the perfect" enemy to "the good enough." Some people worry we cannot provide an interactive multimedia service to all our coverage area. We and our market, on the other hand, are convinced our one-way service that is reaching millions of people with critical information is good enough until better, and cost-effective solutions are devised. Said Edmund Burke: "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

Third, never give up. You must know that this is something that can and must get done, and when done will unleash a huge amount of human potential for the benefit of all mankind. "What a piece of work is man" said Hamlet, "how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" Nearly 5 billion human beings, each a great piece of work, abound our planet, waiting for the people in this room to unlock their potential by visioning a solution that can bridge the digital divide and willing its realization. It can get done and we have everything we need to get it done.