Optimism for the Impoverished:
How Computers in Every Classroom Would Help Ethiopia Meet Millennium Development Goal Two
Ethiopia is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. In 1974, on a dry lake bed in Ethiopia’s Welo province, archeologists found the fossilized remains of Australopithecus afarensis. Otherwise known as “Lucy”, her remains date back some two million years and is the second oldest humanoid remains ever discovered [1]. Ethiopian recorded history dates back to approximately the 5 th century B.C.E. in a kingdom known as Axum [2]. Ruled by monarchies for much of its history Axum was torn into provinces by war in the 18 th century. In 1916, Haile Selassie led a revolution which reunited the provinces and he was crowned Emperor in 1930. Known as Abyssinia to the western world at that time, Ethiopia was occupied by the Italian army during WWII. Haile Selassie spent the war years exiled in Britain. After the war, the British returned Haile Selassie to power in Ethiopia. Selassie remained monarch until 1974 when he was deposed by a military junta led by the Derg [3]. The Derg, Amharic for committee, was a consortium of leaders from several provinces in Ethiopia. The Derg created a socialist state with close ties to the Soviet Union and Cuba. Under the Derg and their leader, Major Mengistu Mariam, Ethiopia never saw peace. The Derg were responsible for mass murders of Ethiopian citizens. They controlled access to the food supply during a famine that killed over a million people. Internal and external skirmishes with resistance fighters and Somalis, as well as famine, kept the population of Ethiopia constantly moving. Some Ethiopian refugees went to Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya. Those more fortunate refugees emigrated to the U.K. or the United States [3]. In 1991, Mengistu was deposed by the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A representative transitional government was set up and in 1994 Ethiopia adopted a constitution. In 1995, Ethiopia held the first democratic election in its history. The present government was elected in 2001 and Meles Zenawi was elected Prime Minister for his second term. Ethiopia’s next elections are scheduled for November 2007 [4].
With over 440 thousand square miles of land, Ethiopia is the 10th largest country in Africa. Almost half of Ethiopia’s land mass is arable high plateau, suitable for agriculture. Only 3% of this land is currently irrigated because most of Ethiopia’s 7.4 thousand square kilometers of water reside below the plateau [5, 6]. Ethiopia became a landlocked country when Eritrea’s secession was internationally recognized in 1993 [6].
Ethiopia ’s population is estimated to be 77.4 million (2005 numbers) by the 2006 – 2007 Global Information Technology Report (GITR) [7], or 76.5 million (2007 numbers) by the 2007 CIA World Factbook [6]. It is hard to get an accurate population number because some of the population is still nomadic and some refugees are returning daily. The total population percentage between men and women is approximately equal. Most of Ethiopia's population lives in rural areas, not in urban cities. This is a significant factor when considering access to information and education as described in the South African Dwesa Project study [23].
Ethiopia ’s literacy rate is among the lowest in the world with only approximately 50% of males and 35% of females considered literate [6]. Living in one of the poorest nations in the world, Ethiopian families often keep their children working so that they may have enough food to eat.
