I couldn't help but smile at the response: I was the Advisor to the Minster several years ago (I am from the private sector and put in time in the government, for a couple of years to make a difference. I am back in it since long). We did a lot to mitigate the elements of what constitutes the digital divide.
This was not a government response (horrors!). Dr. Atta as a part of the long term strategy, has moved on as the Chairman Higher Education Commission (leaving the posts of Minster of S&T and ICT), since it was felt that unless we build our human capital, we were destined to be always led by the nose by changing circumstances. By nature and experience, I do not trust the 'highly researched' press releases (whether it is the US government - case in point WMD's in Iraq - or that of the Government of Pakistan - case in point not revealing who caused the Taliban's in the first place). So pardon my taking your sarcasm in a light note. These information releases are done by bureaucrats who get 'very credible' information (or wish to plant some information) from people who have nothing better to do then to feed their fantasies! I have worked and lived enough time in different countries (including the US) to be fairly confident of this brash remark. The assumption that Government's know-how to do marvellous things like blocking sites is fiction - other than perhaps in developed countries. Our pious bureaucracy tried to do that for blocking pornographic sites and brought down the complete network. That was in the year 2002 (incidentally the last postings on the forum - unless the proxy servers of the whole country are jinxed). Now after telecom liberalisation, there are multiple international IP gateways so no choke point exists - especially in the control of the government. The world (specially this part of it) is now a very different place from what it is perceived to be abroad. TV, especially Satellite TV rips apart wrong doing faster then any print or Web based media could dream of doing, sustain the pressure or even have a following in the critical numbers necessary. I work in this space (addressing the digital divide) all over the world. I look at all the mails which come in on the DDN mailing list and see so much that we all learn from each other. In my assignments as a consultant on ICT Policy and strategy I have propagated DDN in countries as diverse as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Samoa, Fiji and Australia. However, I do not see much said about the actual issues facing countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc and how these have been tackled. Real issues of the Digital Divide: Language rendering, e-government for service provision to the citizens, transparency in contracts, education (ICT mediated and other distance learning projects), tele-medicine projects which have made a real difference. The tremendous work done in Andhra Pradesh in India by the ex-chief minister is actually replicable all over the world. Sorry for the long response, but we, the participants of the DDN (yes it is becoming a truly internationally credible forum - I was guided to this by some people in the UNDP when I was to do DD and poverty alleviation project in Malaysia). So the expectations are high in terms of tangibles with wide applicability. It is your choice: to make it parochial or with universal appeal. Please pardon me if I have caused anyone any hurt. Sincerely Salman -----Original Message----- From: Claude Almansi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 1:33 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Digital Divide Network discussion group Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] Worrying Trouble at South Asian Tribune's Forums Thank you for your answer and rectification Salman Ansari wrote: > It is interesting how the gullibility of people is exploited by > people, who have personal ax to grind! This is all a bunch of bull. I stand corrected - and by the Advisor to Pakistan's Minister of Information Technology and Telecom himself. Thank you for taking the time to do so: it is great to know that the online version of the South Asian Tribune can freely be seen in Pakistan . The source that fooled me was the Pakistan section of the US State Department's "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004" Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 28, 2005 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41743.htm I wasn't aware the US State Department had an axe to grind with Pakistan. > > All you have to do is to read the on line mainstream newspapers (Dawn, > News, Daily Times, Express, Jang, etc) to see how the press skewers > the Government when it steps out of line. If you could see the TV in > Pakistan (in fact in the US you can see Geo, Indus and ARY) you will > get a flavour of the openness that is available. Thank you, I have started checking the mainstream newspapers of Pakistan after I had the privilege to hear the speech by Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, your Federal minister for science and technology, at RSIS in December 2003. But as I said above, I was mislead by the US State Department site into believing that SAT was censored in Pakistan. Surely, you will agree that there can be no freedom of speech - no matter what "flavour of openness" is available in other authorized media - as long as a single one is censored. Cordially Claude -- Claude Almansi www.adisi.ch _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
