Mobile Phone – Weapon Against Dictatorship?

The Africa Phone is a project inside Motorola, triggered by people who have discovered a remarkable statistic: that when 20 percent of a population has secure phone communications, dictators get overthrown.

Take a country like Zimbabwe in Southern Africa—one where the same President, head of the Politburo—has ruled for decades, and feels free to literally bulldoze away districts which voted against him. Mobile phone penetration there is 5 percent or less.

It’s no secret that certain Western leaders are aghast at what Mugabe is doing, and spend much effort saying that he ought to be ousted. The trouble is, international law prevents sending in the troops unless there are specific conditions—and an outside desire for regime change isn’t accepted as one.

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