Archive for July, 2008
Rebuilding the Nasara
Thursday, July 31st, 2008Mobile telephone services significantly enhance one – and only one – important aspect of Vanuatu culture. They enable family members and friends to stay in touch with one another much more easily than they could before. This has the effect of strengthening some of the bonds that keep small groups together. As such, it should be viewed as a positive reinforcement of many of the things that we hold dear.
But in Vanuatu society, there’s more to communication than conversations between family members. We’ve so far succeeded in re-creating the kitchen conversation by electronic means. But we have no nakamal, no nasara. We have no meeting place we can truly call our own.
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Sunday, July 27th, 2008Few laws spend their entire existence un-amended. If changes are required, they can be made after the Family Protection Act is promulgated. To suggest any further consideration by parliament at this time ensures that it will be years before it sees the light of day again, if it survives at all.
Rural Internet Comes to Vanuatu
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Pacific RICS, which stands for Rural Internet Connectivity System, is the result of the Pacific Islands Forum’s Digital Strategy, itself part of the Pacific Plan. The AusAID-funded project offers Pacific Island nations access to dedicated satellite communication services using simple, easy to install and inexpensive equipment. This project is designed to dovetail with the Oceania One Laptop Per Child initiative, which aims to ensure that all children in the region get their own low-cost, durable laptop.
No Circus
Sunday, July 20th, 2008I am tempted to channel the spirit of Juvenal and state that, what with all the slack we gave them, the least our leaders could have done was put on a circus or two. Instead, we get a shadow play about bogeymen being chased by armed men with more enthusiasm than training.
Aversion
Friday, July 18th, 2008Let me be frank: Vanuatu is, in most ways, a backwater when it comes to technology. There’s no point sugar-coating it. We’re limited by numerous factors, some of them environmental and institutional, but the biggest problem we face is one of perception and imagination.
Power Play
Friday, July 11th, 2008Smart phones and even plain old vanilla mobiles also have a critical role to play in rural access to communications. There are any number of very simple information services that can be deployed via text messaging.
But in order to do this, we need to power these devices. A mobile phone uses very little electricity, to be sure, but in a village with none at all, even a little is a lot.
A Strong Foundation
Saturday, July 5th, 2008The cost to the national economy of abysmally poor housing conditions in Port Vila and Santo is quite literally immeasurable. We simply have no means to determine how many school days are missed by students due to health issues, how many work days lost by their parents, how many futures wasted. Employers suffer too, of course, as yet another source of inefficiency compounds itself with all the other factors to create friction in Vanuatu’s economic machinery.
Signal to Noise
Friday, July 4th, 2008There’s no Communications column this week. Or rather, there’s no new Communications column.
Two weeks ago, my column was pre-empted by more pressing news. We agreed to publish the same piece later, as it wasn’t particularly time-sensitive. The week following, however, Digicel launched their service, and it would have been remiss of me to let that [...]