My girlfriend is going on a Field Study program with a Canadian university. She will be there for five months and have "very little" Internet access. She's forbidden from bringing her own computer, and the 40 students share a professor's laptop.
Sure, there's Internet all over Africa. It's one of the most connected continents, at least with mobile. But people going on programs there, from the West, typically don't get to access the Internet much. This is not a reflection on access to the internet there, but a reflection on how the Field Study students spend their time and money.
Please don't read into things that I said and be insulted by them. I meant nothing about how well Africa is connected, and I most certainly did mean to insult anyone.
Yes, I agree! She and I had a bit of a fight about this, actually. I think it's absurd (and they're allowed to bring cameras that are as bulky and expensive as netbooks!). But those're the rules. shrug Anyway, it's not that big of a deal in the end: they have very little free time when abroad, and most (all?) of them aren't software devs :) so they can live a few months without holding their own computers.
It seems like a size/weight limit on luggage would be the right answer there; the specific items being brought are none of anyone's business assuming they aren't illegal.
Please don't play that card. I can imagine that the places that would need some kind of aid program don't have that at hand (f.e. fair parts of Zimbabwe & Tanzania). We all know Nigeria does have the access, and NOFI but a lot of people have suffered from Internet enabled Nigerians through Hotmail ;)
I imagine the parts of Africa that need aid may be somewhat less internet-enabled. Do you have the internet in rural areas where most aid workers would likely be stationed?
Different example: Xinjiang, the largest administrative region in China (17% of the land area) was disconnected from all internet and phone from early July 2009 until May 2010 (because China wanted to be the sole purveyor of information regarding ethnic unrest in the region). There may not be many people using hotmail in that region, but anyone who could not afford to travel 1000 kilometers to a different region for email would not have logged in during that period.
That is more insulting.
We have Internet here so you can check your mail.