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Flood
Sunday, September 20th, 2009I’ve been less than diligent about posting regularly these last few weeks. What with a new job and some extracurricular activities, compounded by wholesale upgrades of the server on which this blog is hosted, keeping up to date hasn’t been as much of a priority.
That said, I’ve managed to (more or less) keep up the same level of production for print. So today I’m going to post a bunch columns that have been patiently waiting for my attention. Your RSS might not like me for it.
Digicel Mobile Internet - GPRS Modem First Impressions
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009I did a quick and dirty write-up of my first impressions of using Digicel’s Mobile Internet Service via a USB GPRS modem for VITUS. You can read about it here.
The Devil at our Shoulder
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009Anybody who’s opened a newspaper in the last few years will recognise the characters and events portrayed in 40 Dei, Wan Smolbag Theatre’s latest stage production. Smolbag’s greatest gift to us is its ability to show us our own world. The play is populated by the same reprobates, righteous hypocrites, prostitutes, politicians and just plain folks as we find in any neighbourhood in Port Vila.
We all walk with the Devil at our shoulder. Without surrendering to dogmatic, moralistic finger-wagging, 40 Dei confronts us with the knowledge that the most insidious enemy to Vanuatu society lies within it, not without. Until we recognise that there are no easy answers to the complex afflictions of a society in transition, until we accept that prostitutes, prisoners and penitents alike are all our family, until we recognise our own weakness in the face of venality and ambition, we will never completely be whole.
In the words of the immortal Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
A Nation of Laws - Ctd.
Saturday, April 4th, 2009Time and column inches conspired against me with this week’s Opinion. Writing these pieces is a labour of love for me, a needful service that - I hope - contributes to the public dialogue here in Vanuatu.
This week, I feel I didn’t have nearly enough time to do a completely satisfactory job of mapping a morally, legally and ethically complicated landscape. While I feel I covered most of the main themes in the thousand or so words allowed me, much more needs to be said.
What follows is a somewhat lengthy consideration of what I chose to say - and chose not to say - in this column, and why I did so….
No Communications Column this Week
Sunday, February 1st, 2009I’m so darn busy working with technology that I don’t have time to write about it.
I should be back on track in time for next week’s column.
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 [...]
Hodge Podge
Sunday, June 29th, 2008Here’s a quick and dirty list of geeky things that I’ve been stewing over recently:
Greg Ross’ delightfully intelligent Futility Closet features a very interesting map. Memorising it should be a pre-requisite for any technology discussion. Understanding it should be a criterion for sainthood.
Jan Chipchase is exploring that map. He’s a poster boy for the the [...]
Failure to Communicate
Friday, May 23rd, 2008No Communications column this week. I’m a little under the weather. Instead, I submitted The Centipede as a space filler. Read it. Come back when I’m feeling better.
Power and Politics - a Sketch
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008I had the privilege this week of being asked to take some photographs at the Vanuatu unveiling of the Pacific Economic Survey. The event was attended by two Australian Parliamentary Secretaries and by a number of fairly senior individuals in Vanuatu. The photos I took will be collected here.
I was proudest of the photo above. [...]