Download Emerging Ethical Issues in Telecommunication in Chile.

Emerging Ethical Issues in
Telecommunication in
Chile.
Professor Abraham Santibáñez
Diego Portales University
Santiago, Chile. 2001
A Latin American Country
• Chile is a small South American country
with 15 million inhabitants.
• It has a long tradition of innovation:
– railroads, steel structures, new technology in
mines during the 19 th century.
– Social reform: health programs, public
education, agrarian reform and housing on the
20 th.
Revolutionary times in Chile
• The 20 th century was a period of social
trouble, specially in its second half.
• Salvador Allende, a socialist, was elected in
1970 with less than 50 per cent of the votes.
His government ended in tragedy.
Mixed feelings...
• For almost 17 years we suffered Gen.
Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
• We lived with no democracy, no liberties no
freedom of the press and under systematic
human rights abuses….
• …but, at the same time, Chile gave a big
step to modernization.
Strong Economy
• A deep reform gave us one of the strongest
economies in Latin America.
– The average growth rate between 1990-1999
was 6.4.
– We doubled the GDP in the last decade.
– 1999 recession was the first one in 15 years.
– Chile grew in year 2000 almost a six percent
rate. And we have a very low inflation rate.
On the cyber-road
• Chile open economy has made it a very
atractive country for foreign investment.
• We have many trade agreements, including
the Pacific area. We are negotiating a free
trade agreement with the U.S.
• Private and public sectors agree in the
positive effects of globalization.
A new impulse
• Very recently, President Ricardo Lagos
came to the U.S. to visit and sign important
technological agreements in Silicon Valley.
He met with Bill Gates and other leaders in
computer development business..
• “Chile, he said, has set itself a goal of
becoming a leading country in the digital
world by the year 2010”.
Five targets for Chile:
• Enhancing connectivity
• Increasing e-commerce
• Enlarging the contents and number of
available links.
• Atracting venture capital
• Speeding up e-learning among children and
teachers.
A businessman opinion
• Juan Carlos Macuada, Regional Director of
Sun Microsystems:
– “Chile is in excellent condition to face the
challenges of the Net Economy… It is the Latin
American country best prepared to incorporate
new technological advances and new ways of
working and communicating”.
And also... e-government
• A government advisor said recently that
Chile can become an experimental field in
e-government.
• Eugenio Tironi believes that the chilean
Internal Revenue Service is an example to
took up very seriously.
But….
Our challenges
• There are many new non solved problems.
• In the very first place, there exist the same
problems derived from new technology,
everywhere…
• But we have our own problems, as a
technological dependent country.
Some troublesome questions
• Fear of losing our national identity.
Globalization forces us to renounce to our
values or fight in order to reinforce them.
• Ethics. Our students are not researching any
more. They just “mark, copy and paste”• Loss of our language. We are suffering both
from the English invasion and the
destruction of our native Spanish.
“On the end of the day”...
•
The main concern for us, both
academics and national authorities, is how
to take profit of the enormous possibilities
of new technology without being exposed
to a loss of some important values: i.e.
mutual respect, the appreciation of our
language and, with it, of our permanent
values and traditions.
An academic responsibility
• I do believe the main responsibility for
finding the answers is ours:
– People working, thinking and doing research at
university level.
• Thank you.