| Username |
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| gokul |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 09:25 AM
IT not TNT
A couple of weeks ago, I was drinking tea in a local tea-shop in eastern Nepal. Like most places in Nepal, this village is not famous for anything. Nothing extraordinary and perhaps I would not have been there if I hadnt had some distant memories associated with the place. Anyway, the point is that I was engaged in an ordinary task in an ordinary place in an ordinary day. I wouldnt say that I was in the mood to philosophize but when I saw the smoke-covered poster of Computer maa dhamadham bharna & in that shop, I could not help but feel an irony. Ads of computer courses where Ka-kha-ra is a privilege!
Or was it more like I becoming Aupanyasik Patra in this ordinary place and time? What is ordinary and what is not? Do we need to ask anybody? Drinking the tea to the lees, I asked the owner of the shop what he thought about computers. Immediately, I saw his eyes sparkling with optimism and I felt a strong sense of pride in his voice when he said that his son was going to be a computer-man, not a mere chiya-wallah. It was when I asked about his relatives that his face became gloomy. He told me that his own brother had been missing since last three years and people told him that he became a maoist. God, help me! Here is an illiterate man who wants his son to be a computer-man despite all adversities and tragedies. I found his words more powerful and real than those of Hallmark greetings card . Life longing for life. I asked him about Baburam Bhattarai but he said he didnt have any opinions to give. For the first time I was seeing a Nepali, who didnt have any opinions to give to others! What is that we give more but take almost none? In my opinion, it is opinion. We have opinions even on onions: whether they are satvik or not, whether they have medicinal value or not.
While waiting for the bus to go back to my place, I thought of that moment the confluence of optimism and frustration, of hope and fear, of life and death, of IT and TNT. The bus arrived and there were many seats vacant. Now I must write something.
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With due respect to Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and the noble cause (if there is any) he is fighting for, I like to suggest to him that he should use more effective and sophisticated tool called "IT" (Information Technology) than outdated explosives such as TNT (TriNitroTolunes used in bombs) to bring about the change and revolution that he is holding so dearly, although he may have to replace the picture of Mao Tse Tung with that of Bill Gates in this process. Dr. Baburam - I know you are a genius and it is no brainer to understand that we are in the age of 21st century - which is not the age of peasants and physical workers that your Mao cared so much for but the age of knowledge workers - whose mind and ideas can change the world more quickly and radically than even your Mao could have dreamt in his wildest of dreams. I am very much afraid to state that you are in a lose-lose situation because you obviously lose if your so-called revolution fails but you lose (and we lose) even more bitterly if your revolution succeeds and you turn the whole country as the land of 19th century peasants and country bumpkins utterly poor and backward, and unable to cope with the 21st century, let alone reap the fruits of the new century.
It is a pity that you remained underground in such a critical time that you missed the whole opportunity to witness the spreading of wildfire called "the Internet". Or may be I am wrong and you are browsing Netscape Navigator at this very moment running Java applets to calculate the optimal timing and position to attack some police head quarters in remote parts of the country. Joke aside, my sole point in writing this to you is that your whole vision, philosophy and strategy is flawed incorrigibly because you are trying to give birth to an unsustainable future, guided by the outdated philosophy of the industrial age.
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| gokul |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 09:26 AM
Having spoken in favor of IT with such a fervor, you might be curious to know how the knowledge workers, can bring the total revolution in Nepal - unprecedented in its annals. Nepal, as a nation seriously lacks the basic infrastructure for the development- both in the political and physical sense. The first step towards building a nation is to create an environment of trust, mass participation and enthusiasm and this is possible only when the people have access to the correct and timely information. (Forgive me I am telling this to you who has a PhD in development topic).
In the name of democracy, we have mobocracy, bureaucracy, hypocrisy, all possible crazy cracy except democracy. The elected leaders are taking their victory as "once in a life time experience" - a wonderful opportunity to amass wealth, plunder nation, destroy future, and betray people. The common mass is so frustrated with the current situation that anyone and anything can ignite their anger - resulting not in some positive movement but utter chaos and destruction. The leaders know this and instead of correcting this problem, they would rather exploit it as the exploitation and opportunism runs very deep in their very vein. In order to get out of this vicious circle of misinformation and no-information, the common people must be empowered and what could be more appropriate than harnessing the power of ubiquitous Internet? So the first step towards the empowerment is to prepare the infrastructure for telecommunications and Information Technology. Our leaders have no vision and people have no role models and the whole nation is going through the period of anarchy, utter cynicism and sheer hopelessness. Information Technology is our only hope to redeem ourselves and if we still do not take initiative in this direction, then we will be left with a deep repentance for the missed opportunity. I am sure you will smile when you read this and you will say, Your ideas and emotions are bourgeoisie. You talk of the Internet when the common people have to walk for three days to make a phone call. You talk of writing software when people cannot even write a letter etc. That is ok but what I am saying is that your vision of tomorrow is flawed, your ideology is dysfunctional, your leaders are dead. You must wake up and have the word knowledge economy when you explain the modern economy. Please do not use Sarvahara lest you should sound like Rip Van Winkle. Therefore, I humbly request you, Dr. Baburam, read George Soros and not Karl Marx and write IT Mnaifesto, not the communist manifesto. Now, there is no dialectic materialism but digital capitalism. You say that you believe in the philosophy of eternal changes. Then what makes you think that the political philosophy of one mortal Mao is so truthful and everlasting?
All Knowledge Workers of Nepal, Unite! - You have nothing to lose but a few lines of code.
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| gokul |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 09:27 AM
Dr. Baburam, I have learned many things and known many friends in this Internet forum called Sajha . My vision of future Nepali society is similar to that of Sajha free and actively participating, accepting, learning and creating different ideas. Nobody is a proletariat here. Does you dialectic materialism permit this? If you are not afraid of being a burjuwa , why dont you post something here?
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| noname |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 03:37 PM
Very refreshing read on development and IT. Instead of politicizing your view, you have developmentized it - and that alone deserves thumps up. Further to that your manifesto is 'revolutionary' in the sense that only 30 percent of the people are literate in Nepal.
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| acharya |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 03:57 PM
Very nicely poured thoughts..How we all sajhaites wish that BRB frequented this site..! Keep it coming, Gokul ji.
Noname ji... didn't mean to divert from the topic...but, are/were you in England
[Cambridge?]
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| najar |
Posted
on 01-Jul-03 03:57 PM
Gokulji,
Thoroughly enjoyed your excellent satirical piece! Keep more coming!
I really wish Baburam Bhattarai and other nepali politicians would frequent sajha.com, and learn a wisdom or two/ and at the same time respond to our predicaments. May be they do visit, you never know--perhaps silent readers.
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