Stacks of VHS tapes pile high in broken cabinets in a TV station, tape decks and cassettes, even record players, make up radio station equipment, these reflect the "ancient" technology used by many of the Malian media outlets. But "extinct" technologies exist beside recently released Mac computers and advanced digital editing hardware. The USAID worker we visited agreed with our observation, Malians have one foot in the 17th century and one in the 21st. Villagers farm by hand, city dwellers carry everything on their heads, but there are affordable cyber cafes and cell phones are as prevalent as in the US. Education is on the rise, but the availability of teachers prevents student-teacher interaction and practical learning. Malians try their best to move forward in the world, ages of oppression slow them down, but an even longer tradition of tolerance and cooperation will lead them to success.
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