Archive for January, 2009
Words for Words
Monday, January 26th, 2009Words have consequences; there can be no doubt of that. And when they are published in the Vanuatu’s newspaper of record (such as it is), they take on additional weight. But when all is said and done, they are still words.
They deserve a response in kind. Whatever its purported shortcomings, the Daily Post does not failed to publish corrections, opposing opinions and even letters angrily denouncing stories published within its covers. No matter what we think about this particular pulpit, we cannot deny that it belongs to us all.
Regulating Telecommunications
Saturday, January 24th, 2009The proposed new Telecommunications Bill is not a perfect document. But Vanuatu is not a perfect place. Considering the limited resources it can bring to bear, the great gains it’s made in improving communications nationwide are truly commendable.
The Rules
Saturday, January 17th, 2009As long as clear rules exist around ownership, trade and the economic environment in general, a well-run company will be able to find its way – and possibly to thrive – under just about any regime.
But a company that can’t predict what will happen tomorrow can’t plan effectively. And a company that can’t plan finds itself scrambling from one day to the next. It finds that it can’t commit – neither to its customers nor to its staff. When this uncertainty becomes generalised, with nobody willing or able to say what tomorrow holds, the business climate worsens all round.
Safeguarding the Internet Commons
Friday, January 16th, 2009With the creation of a functioning and effective Telecommunications Regulator, we now have proper oversight on how Vanuatu’s communications resources are used. The government of Vanuatu has made great strides in ensuring that all telephone operators manage their systems responsibly and efficiently.
Now we need to do the same for our Internet resources.
Shifting Ground
Saturday, January 10th, 2009People have already leveraged their ties to the land in order to make their move into the material world possible. They supplemented their income with food and family support in order to use that monthly 20,000 vatu for essentials.
A market economy is a mobile economy. Where life in Vanuatu seldom required more than one’s legs or a paddle for transport, now we find ourselves bound by the need to cover large distances every day. And you can’t grow a bus.
Leviathan
Friday, January 9th, 2009[This week's Communications column for the Vanuatu Independent.]
“Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small. See the ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.” – Psalm 104
In 1651, an Englishman named Thomas Hobbes used the metaphor of the powerful, even [...]
A Fresh Start
Sunday, January 4th, 2009Considering its contents, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a curious document. If the rights enumerated in it are indeed central to our nature, why do we need to list them at all, much less give them the force of law?
The answer is potentially embarrassing to many of us. Human rights are not convenient. They get in the way of many desires that, for better or worse, are also deep-rooted in the human soul.
On Privacy
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009The ramifications of our ability to transmit, access and synthesise vast amounts of data using technology are consistently underestimated by people because of the simple fact that, as far as they’re concerned, they are sitting in the relative privacy of their own room with nothing but the computer screen as an intermediary.