| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 01-May-01 12:45 AM
Few Nepalese are capable of setting world records. Babuchiri
was one of them, and he set two world records. Climbing mountain
is a very difficult task, and though we have started to take it
as granted that Sherpas climb Mt Everest anyway, climbing is
not an easy feat.
Babuchiri was also a social worker. He was interested in making
his fellow villagers educated. He spent his earnings to build
a school in his village, where he grew up without having any
opportunity to go to school.(Hey, we need to realise we are so
lucky!)
We need to learn from his life, and promise we will follow his
path. May his heart be in peace now!Great son of Nepal aamaa!
[gai si de meiyou si, bu gai si de si!]
**************** ------- ************ ------- **********
Six of Maoist female convicts broke the jail with convenient
and time-honored formula of digging a tunnel. One of the ladies
later reminisced that she used a small dagger to dig the tunnel
and disposed the rubbles/soils to the nearby farm.Other
confabulated with guards and other inmates(convenient for ladies,
huh!) to divert them from probing the digger! Great courage.
I think the police needs to watch movies like Shawshank Redemption
or at least need to learn about what CP Mainalis did last time.
May be police are still thinking they acted in their best
interest, letting Maoists break jail is better than their comrades
attacking the jail and freeing maoists inmates. However, what
if other felons also started doing the same trick?And what about
our judiciaries? [I assume that the ladies were convicted. If not,
please notify me.]
********* ----------- *********** -------- ************
Now, software industry is becoming normal. Before, everybody
from street was hired in universities to train in some
programming. Now,even Intels and other companies have freezed the
previously offerred jobs.
Nepal is hit hard, because the slowdown came before Nepal could
even be introduced with the new opportunities. We bragged about
our English education, (Indians did the same) and took it granted
that our medium of instruction had finally provided us with a
short cut formula to prosperity.Nope.
China is doing well,because China was not too concentrated in
softwares. Softwares , esp in some fields, are ridiculuously easy
to master, and they don't even need the masters degree. Actually,superfluity of talents was an anticipated thing . Chinese
have used their talent to sell more computers in their domestic
market. Now, not only China is home of big hardware industries,
it exported hardwares worth $10b last year alone.Job in home,
unabated demand from foreigners. Who doesn't need $20 worth of
network card, and who doesn't need cheap cdroms?Their domestic
software market has absorbed the talent churned out from their
regulated state controlled education institutes.
Let's not forget: Development is a tough principle. There is no
shortcut. We need to focus in education, mainly mathematics(damn
mathematics) coupled with other discipline. Until our kids
get confused in small problems of algorithm and never reach the
level of integration calculation, the future will remain grim.
***** ------- ******* -------- ********* ------- *********
UML is protesting to oust Girija. Girija is a steadfast leader,
and he is not giving up. No, no way, never. May be Baluwatar
resembles to his dad's face.Who knows? A living statue of dad!
Surely ,the best place to live, huh.
But the protests will be 'sarpako mukhmaa chhuchundro' to UML.
a cul-de-sac, no dialogue they say, only resignation. What if
no resignation comes? The protests look ugly because they are
getting so personal:Girija, Girija and only Girija. The UML
protests are also some kind of influence peddling to our
constitutional bodies.And hey, will they block the budget
session? That would be unfortunate. Let the nation run where
it can.
I also want those protesting MPs to return the meeting allowance.
Though they were not participating in the meetings, they had
no hesitation in taking the allowance from national treasury. It
is shame.
*********** ------- ******** -------- ******* -----------------
|
| Gokul |
Posted
on 01-May-01 08:55 AM
Biswo,
Thanks for providing so many topics for discussion.
You wrote:
We need to focus in education, mainly mathematics(damn
mathematics) coupled with other discipline. Until our kids
get confused in small problems of algorithm and never reach the
level of integration calculation, the future will remain grim.
---------
I am assuming that you are expressing the need of mathematics in IT development as that was the context. I do NOT see any use of mathematics especially calculus in programming. Logical, organized and structured thinking is more important that the knowledge of Differentiation, Integration etc.
Our future is grim not because our kids get confused in algorithm, but because we have no leaders who can lead, no economist who have vision, no IT entrepreneurs who can exploit IT talent, no technocrats who stress the need for basic infrastructure (universal access, high bandwidth)AND NO REVOLUTIONARIES (?) EXCEPT MAOISTS.
We have Golchha but not Soros.
We may have Newton but not Bill Gates. (I have far more respect to Newton than to Gates. I am comparing their contribution in local economy)
To conclude:
Not Mathematics, (although it is my favourite subject) but IT leadership, vision, transparency, participation and good governance are the inevitable factors to make our future bright if there is any.
|
| Diwas K |
Posted
on 01-May-01 10:28 AM
Gokul and Biswo ji,
If I may, here are my 2 cents worth:
IT is not the magic pill that will cure Nepal ko many ills. It is not even the fast lane to bikas, whatever that bikas may entail. And it is not the infrastructure development alone. For beginners out there, IT is not dot-com (or dot-gone?).
Having clarified a few things, (or muddied some more), the best Nepal can get out of IT revolution, if anything at all, are a few transcription stations, maybe a reverse_dialpad (from US to Nepal free PHONE calls), and dot-com billboards at RatnaPark if they are not already there. All these achievements by simply copying the HARBUS whiz kinds.
To bring about any change in a community, its HUMAN members need to be made aware of the NEED for such change. This awareness things is a gradual process. And EDUCATION, the ability to read, write and THINK independently and analytically, can help in the awareness process. In this perspective, IT will only be a footnote in the bigger picture.
Worrying about IT in Nepal is putting the cart before the horse (for now). Oh, it sounds so techie....
-diwas
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| gokul |
Posted
on 01-May-01 11:22 AM
Diwas
IT is not just dot com but also dot edu and dot org. It is an enabler, a means not an end and what is more appropriate than IT for a mountaneous country like Nepal. If we do not exploit IT, then it will be a missed opportunity.
You wrote:
Worrying about IT in Nepal is putting the cart before the horse (for now).
I write:
Not worrying about IT in Nepal is putting the cart after the horse FOR EVER. Replace horse-cart with virtual shopping cart lest we should be ruled by ET (Extra-Techies).
|
| diwas k |
Posted
on 01-May-01 01:12 PM
>Diwas
>IT is not just dot com but also dot edu and
>dot org. It is an enabler, a means not an
>end and what is more appropriate than IT for
>a mountaneous country like Nepal. If we do
>not exploit IT, then it will be a missed
>opportunity.
>
What exactly will the dot do for a mountainous country like Nepal? And you say something about a missed oppty. Just because Nepal, out of its sheer realities, does not follow the IT bandwagon, is not necessarily a loss nor an oppty lost. If our worry is that this might be a missed oppty, then we do not have a well defined IT_objective or IT_vision, in which case any form of IT implementation is doomed to be counterproductive.
Here are some possible uses of IT:
IT for communication.
IT for record management.
IT for paperless bureaucracy (sp).
IT for data storage.
(there are more ... of course)
Problems I see:
Does Nepal have the socio-economic backbone to support something understood/operated/managed by a handful of techno-savvy Nepalis? For argument's sake, how will IT benefit a small, family-farmer of Sindhuli, and what will that farmer contribute to a smooth IT operation? One could say that INFORMATION, and its AVAILABILITY are the two keys to a successful IT policy implementation, but what will that farmer do with all the information in the absence of other necessary physical infrastructure like roads, irrigation, hard cash, etc..?
Rather than forcing a solution upon the masses, I think it would be more productive to show them the tools to seek their own solutions. EDUCATION.. saak_chhyarataa.. anyone?-dk
|
| Biswo |
Posted
on 01-May-01 05:09 PM
Diwas ji and Gokul ji:
A farmer in a village of Rolpa who is participating in seed
production program of national agriculture project can benefit
by availability of IT: it not only uptodates him about the latest
price of seed in KTM, but will also gradually eliminate what
economist says pyramid structure of selling: the large number
of intermediaries. The result will be increased income which
would otherwise be very difficult to attain because of the
inaccessibility of Rolpa (lack of road, and expensive
communication service). IT is a mean of gaining information
quickly and on the real time, and it helps a lot.
I agree that we need some transcribers, some dot coms but
we should not tempt the fate by overemphasizing in software
field only. The uniform awareness in hardware production should
have been our priority long ago.We have a pool of unemployed
engineers who could by a short-term training be employed in a
hardware production units.Hardwares have more stable markets.
And I am telling this in the perspective of one transciber
of KTM which sent its employees home after training them for a few
months, because the company in US no longer needed its service.
Such unemployed labor force is very detrimental to the stability
of nation, we know.
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