Nobel winner uses speech to attack information poverty

Nobel winner uses speech to attack information poverty

Dec 09 2008

2008 Nobel laureate JMG le Clezio gave his acceptance speech on December 8 in which he warned of the dangers of information poverty and called for publishers to increase their efforts to put books in the hands of people around the world.

Speaking in French at the Swedish Academy, he defended globalization and hailed the internet's ability to "forestall conflicts", suggesting the web could possibly have put a stop to Hitler, through "ridicule".

But the novelist poured scorn on the idea that the internet could transform the lives of people around the world on its own and emphazised that the book, despite its old-fashioned appearance, remains the best tool for disseminating information to the furthest corners of the planet.

"To provide nearly everyone on the planet with a liquid crystal display is utopian," he said. "Are we not, therefore, in the process of creating a new elite, of drawing a new line to divide the world between those who have access to communication and knowledge, and those who are left out?"

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