I remember being up in the Anti-Atlas mountains of Morocco and the family we had dinner with had satellite TV but no running water. They had news on (Al Jazeera if I remember - but maybe Al Arabiya or something else - Saddam Hussein had been killed that night so it was BIG).

Anyway, they had a meat dinner for us as special guests but otherwise mostly had a vegetarian diet because meat was very expensive. Nonetheless, the TV was critical for both information and entertainment. They also had cell phones.