Edition 124: Digital Narnia

Hello again! I’m Anjali Ramachandran, Director at Storythings, co-founder of Ada’s List, and this is my regular space to comment on noteworthy things happening outside of the Global North.

Shibuya Girls by Yacoyon. Shibuya Pixel Art 2020 is accepting submissions till the end of June.

What’s Up

It is incredibly anger-inducing to witness the world as it is today. I could say that it is heart-breaking and tragic that more and more black people have to die for racism to come back on the agenda - but it’s more than that. A few resources that I’ve gone back to again and again recently: this Twitter thread on ideas for people in the UK to read/think/do in response to what’s going on in the US. A list of US bail funds to financially contribute to if you’re so inclined. A way to empower black communities in the UK by becoming a part of the Kwanda village. This Google doc of Anti-Racism Resources For White People by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein. The Conscious Kid, an ‘education, research and policy organisation dedicated to reducing bias and promoting positive identity development in youth’ - they sell books with underrepresented groups as lead characters.

And a reminder that being livid, fearful, just overwhelmingly sad is all OK and well warranted - but also, remember that what we need more than ever is for people to be kind.

Links

Useful to read about a project by N-Frnds, Quicksand and Microsoft’s Kaizala (no, I hadn’t heard of Kaizala before either) to digitise informal supply chains which were previously paper-based. N-Frnds’ digital distribution platform can be reached by any device, even without mobile data - which makes a big difference to its usability in the hinterland, whether in Asia or Africa. Watch this 2-minute video where you see its impact in Indonesia:

Mini-grids are “small-scale, self-sufficient electricity distribution networks” which electrify low-income communities that are not served by the main grid. However they can be time-consuming and expensive to operate. So Elizabeth Nyeko, who grew up in Uganda, set up Modularity Grid in 2017, which uses AI to streamline the operation of mini-grids. Read more about her work in Wired.

A glimpse at Thailand’s digital ID through the biometric profiling of Malay Muslims in the country. As an interviewee in this piece says, reminding ourselves of the context under which such ID systems are introduced is always, always important: “So, when any new digital policies are introduced, we have to remind ourselves that those technologies will be implemented under a military mindset.”

A shopping mall in Delhi requires customers to download the government of India’s Aarogya Setu coronavirus tracking app to check their health status before allowing them in. A Public Interest Litigation has been filed.

Absolutely fascinating episode of Changed My Mind, a podcast by my friend Alison Goldsworthy, CEO of the Depolarization Project, with behavioural insight expert Alex Chesterfield and director of campaigns and communications at London First, Laura Osborne. In this episode the trio talk to Aimen Dean, an ex-Al Qaeda bombmaker who became an MI6 spy and is now in banking, helping banks to combat terrorist financing. Also part of the conversation is Thomas Small, an academic who was born into an evangelical Protestant family, became an Orthodox Greek monk in training, studied Islam and Arabic and then became a filmmaker. (Aimen and Thomas have their own podcast called Conflicted). In this episode the group traverse all sorts of issues along the path of learning what and how made the two change their minds during their intriguing lives. One of my favourite parts is Aimen’s analogy for why Saudi Arabia is a hotbed of interference by foreign powers: “But as I have always said about the village analogy, when I said basically imagine the world as a village and you have four corners and a centre. So at the four corners you have industry, in one corner you have commerce and another you have agriculture and in another you have finance. So the finance industry, agriculture and commerce and in the centre, there is water. And the people in the four corners are depending on the centre to give them water. So agriculture can flourish. So basically there is a commerce. So there is the finance and there is an industry. But if there is instability in the centre where the water becomes disrupted, the water supplies become disrupted. Then one of the corners or two or three of them will interfere. So I always tell Muslims it's where you are, where the oil and the gas is, this is the water in the story. It's not because of who you are.”

Instances of domestic violence are up during the coronavirus crisis as people are forced to spend longer periods at home, potentially with their abusers. So Chayn, a volunteer run project that provides resources for survivors of abuse in multiple countries around the world, have adapted a trauma resilience course they were planning to run in person and made the recipe available online via Catalyst.

Definitely worth paying attention to the telco wars in India: in less than a month, Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, attracted more than $10 billion in investment into his Jio Platforms, the telecom and digital services holding company he owns. Investors include Facebook who have a 10% stake, along with various private equity firms. Twitter, Microsoft and the Abu Dhabi State Fund are rumoured to be interested. Meanwhile, Google is considering taking a stake in Vodafone’s India-business Vodafone Idea, which is mired in debt as they owe the government a huge amount in adjusted gross revenues. Google’s parent company Alphabet on the other hand is considering taking a stake in the above-mentioned Jio Platforms, so I don’t know how that will play out.

In a previous newsletter edition recently, I wrote about India’s problems with fintech apps that have essentially become digital versions of loan sharks. Here’s a link to what the situation is like in Kenya and Nigeria, as OKash is doing a similar thing, but with even bigger repercussions: it threatens to notify everyone on your contact list if you default on payments.

Fans of Japan’s football teams could have their voices beamed from their smartphones into stadiums that are otherwise empty of audiences post-COVID, via speakers: “In a recent field test, users in multiple remote locations chose from a range of on-screen options that sent their cheers, applause, chants and boos into the 50,000-seat Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa via 58 speakers set up among the empty seats.” Somehow I don’t see this working in the UK!

A mobile app in Mongolia allows citizens to have a say in where local taxes get spent. Part of the Asia Foundation’s Urban Governance Project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, it is an ongoing collaboration with the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar (MUB) to find creative new approaches to public services and civic engagement. It had 43% of the population voting in 2020, significantly up from the previous 2 years, and priorities reflect where citizens live: “those living in apartment complexes mostly voted for children’s playgrounds, more green areas, and the installation of more security cameras.” This is the kind of thing that just makes sense for any municipality/district/state government to do.

Opportunities

DFID’s COVIDaction initiative has launched an Open Call to explore the role of technology and innovations in supporting countries, particularly those in Africa and/or South Asia, to build resilient health systems as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis. The deadline for applications is 18th June. More information and how to apply here.

The title of this newsletter…

…is from this piece in The Atlantic asking why the US can’t be as digital as Estonia, which is often lauded as an example of using digital identity with perhaps the most efficiency of any government that has tried to or has implemented a digital ID system. Yes, Estonia is a tiny country compared to most others who want to or have implemented similar systems (the US, India, the UK), but in response: “In 2007, the country was the victim of a digital offensive, known as a “distributed denial-of-service attack,” that originated in Russia. Some media and banking sites were overwhelmed, but Estonians’ personal data was not compromised. Awareness of what is perceived as an ever-present threat from its much larger and more powerful neighbor is part of the reason that Estonia is so far ahead of the U.S., Lorelei Kelly, who studies congressional modernization at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, told me. Estonians “see democracy as a defense issue,” she said.” Food for thought.

Endnote

Do reply if you’re working on anything that might be of interest to readers of this newsletter - I always like hearing from you! And please share if you know anyone else who might be into what we discuss - much appreciated.

Till next time,

Anjali