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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
High tech gadgets1 such as cell phones are bringing profound change to developing nations, and not just economic progress. Text messaging, the Internet and other innovations are having wide ranging social repercussions2, from exposing human rights abuses by repressive governments to breaking traditional taboos3 governing courtship and other human relationships. VOA's Bill Rodgers has more in this final report from our series on how technology is changing society and politics in the developing world, with additional reporting by Rosyla Kalden & Steve Herman in India.
A rickshaw puller speaks on his mobile phone in Hyderabad, India, 16 May 2008
Young people in India, like everywhere else in the world, have embraced the cell phone, using it for everything from calling home to contacting members of the opposite sex.
Indian sociologist4 Radhika Chopra says the cell phone and other technological5 innovations are having an impact on how some young people are courting each other these days, mainly because parents have less control.
"The behavior of teenagers, and young adults in the public space was much more visible and regulated, you might say," Chopra said. "You couldn't express unwanted [unsanctioned] love, let us say, in a public space - and you still can't, actually."
"But the Internet and the mobile phone have created a kind of subset of society of youngsters in same age group, of the same kinds of backgrounds or even across class and caste backgrounds and so on. And I think this has actually enabled them to be much more independent in their thinking about, let's say, what kinds of marriage would they look for," she continued.
Isha
Not all young Indians welcome these new freedoms. Isha, a fashionable young woman in New Delhi, rejects overtures7 via text messages. "Once or twice it happened, some unknown people texted me and I just told them to mind their own business and not to disturb me," Isha said.
Advances in communications via the Internet and cell phone are having similar impacts on other traditional societies such as Iran. They are helping8 to break down religious and other restrictions9, according to Arthur Molella, director of the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation in Washington.
"If you have a society that is very restrictive about public relationships between men and women, men and women still have to get together in some way, and these technologies provide a means of making appointments with one another that weren't available before. So I think inevitably10 they have this kind of subversive11 effect on authority," Molella said.
Chinese soldiers patrol the streets in the Tibetan capital Lhasa after violent protests broke out following days of demonstrations12 against Chinese rule, 19 Mar6 2008
Such an effect on authority can include exposing repression13 in closed societies. Images of the protests in Tibet earlier this year were caught by digital cameras and transmitted to the outside world. The resulting international outcry over the Chinese crackdown is still resonating, and threatens to spill over into the Olympic Games, which China is hosting.
In China itself, the Internet has served as a way to organize opposition14 to the construction of chemical plants and other projects viewed as harmful to health and the environment.
The New York Times recently reported that residents of the provincial15 capital of Chengdu took to the streets early this month in a peaceful protest against the construction of a multi-billion dollar petro-chemical plant. The article says the protest was organized through Web sites, blogs and cellphone text messages.
Anti-government protests in Venezuela also have been staged through text messages sent out by organizers. Molella says governments are finding it increasingly difficult to stop these political mobilizations.
"Just as the resistance in the Soviet16 Union took advantage of the fax machine at one time, these are infinitely17 more powerful technologies for getting information out very quickly," Molella said. "Governments usually have to catch up if they want to stop something proliferating18 on the Internet. I think it's this instant communication and talking back to authority, as it were, that is changing the political scene."
Molella and others say the full magnitude of these technological innovations and their impact on societies have yet to play out.
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1
gadgets
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| n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ） | |
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repercussions
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| n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波 | |
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taboos
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| 禁忌( taboo的名词复数 )； 忌讳； 戒律； 禁忌的事物（或行为） | |
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sociologist
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| n.研究社会学的人，社会学家 | |
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technological
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| adj.技术的；工艺的 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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subversive
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| adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子 | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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Soviet
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| adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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proliferating
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| 激增( proliferate的现在分词 )； （迅速）繁殖； 增生； 扩散 | |
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