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Internet Village Motoman
RAM RAMGOPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the air, it's easy to see why Ratanakiri has a reputation for being one of the world's last remote frontiers.
This distant province in northeastern Cambodia is two-day's drive from the capital Phnom Penh on dumpy dirt tracks.
This day we're taking a commercial flight with Bernie Krisher, an American who knows this region well, having covered the Vietnam War for "Newsweek" magazine in the 1960's. That conflict spilled over into this very part of Cambodia.
Krisher now runs a number of charities to assist the country he has come to love and he used technology to help bring Cambodia into the 21st century.
On the ground in Ratanakiri, life proceeds at a gentle pace. First the cows are chased off the landing strip, then the plane comes in to land.
It's a region filled with natural beauty, waterfalls and lakes. Destinations that have not been discovered by many tourists. And even the name of the province is wrapped in romance. Ratanakiri means mountain of jewels in many Asian languages, a reference to the area's gem mining industry.
But for all the beauty, the comfort's of modern life are hard to find. There are no paved roads in this province. Electricity isn't available outside the main town, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and running water is a luxury.
Like the rest of Cambodia, Ratanakiri faces a variety of other problems. There are few schools or hospitals and its people are still desperately poor. But change is coming, slowly, thanks in no small part to Bernie Krisher.
Krisher is a popular figure here. Among other things, he's helped set up hundreds of schools, giving Cambodian kids basic education, even access to computers.
Krisher has found a number of sponsors around the world to help support the schools and he's also looking toward technology. In the absence of electricity, human muscle helps generate power for the computers, as do solar panels. What they don't have is a direct link to the Internet. No phone lines. No satellite dishes.
Enter the Motomen. These men and their metallic machines are the modern day equivalent of the postmen in Ratanakiri. On roads that can test even the toughest four-wheel drive vehicles, the Motoman has to weave a careful path. On his bike, precious cargo of stored e-mail that has been downloaded wirelessly to a chip inside a box on the bike.
The wireless system was developed by a Boston-based company, First Mile Solutions, building on the Wi-Fi technology that's become commonplace in offices and homes in the developed world. Continue
Last updated 632 days ago by រិទ្ធីនៃកម្ពុជរដ្ឋ (Ben)
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