Restrictive channels of cultural interchange

The intercultural exchange of life-styles, gifts, and ideas is essential to human development, yet access to this interchange is severely restricted, in particular for many Third World rural communities. Residents may realize the significant effects of national and global events, and glean what they can by listening to radios in the streets and by conversing with neighbours in the regional towns, but these channels are minimal compared with what is both needed and desired. Travel to the market centre is the major contact point with the world, and travel beyond that is almost inconceivable. Women in particular do not expect to go far from their own village, and resources which might enrich and develop family life are felt to be so far off as to be virtually inaccessible. Access to the varying experiences and educational options that might enable village people to create a more effective life-style are strictly limited, nor are there means for the village culture to express itself to the nation or to the world.