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Making
Communication work through ICTs
Jameson
Gadzirai - jgadzirai@yahoo.fr
June
12, 2003
Have
you ever heard the expression, "got it till it’s gone?"
or better yet, "you do not miss your water till the well runs
dry?" Well, a lot of people take information and communication
technology for granted, and often we do not realize the power that
it generates in terms of human development.
Let
us take a brief moment to marvel at the development of communication
throughout the centuries, and see the need for utilizing it better.
In the olden days you had messenger men; skilled fellows who would
run for hundreds of miles carrying vital information from one village
to the other, and in some towns you had town criers whose job it
was to say out important information to hundreds of town dwellers.
As the villages and towns developed, new and better means of communication
were made available, and at present we have surpassed the drums
and the smokes, the running messengers and the town criers, the
Morse code, the telegraph wires, the regular phone lines and the
cell phones to lodge ourselves in the rich enclaves of cyberspace.
The
Internet today is perhaps the most revolutionary development yet
known to man. It has managed to defy space and time to bring images
and text to every corner of the globe within seconds. It is faster,
it is cheaper, and by far, it is the most convenient way to send
information from one end to the other. Yet, all good things are
prone to abuse, and we have seen how the Internet has bred rogues
in the form of hackers, virus inventers and porn peddlers.
Information
and Communication Technology is a new way of looking at harnessing
cyberspace to usher hope to the hungry, relief to the downtrodden,
solace to the grieved and vital information to the less privileged.
Founded by non-governmental organizations dealing with people at
grassroots level, this programme seeks to make use of the concept
of the global village to teach people about Human Rights, Lobbying
and Advocacy. Non- Governmental Organizations, Civic Society Organizations
and even some Community Based Organizations have realized the need
to have everyone informed of their rights and this is the development
that should be encouraged. As the International Federation for Information
Processing notes;
ICTs,
in addition, provide the unique potential to enable and sustain
communicative participatory processes at global and local levels.
Increasing access to information and communication media has often
enabled small groups and individuals to be heard on global debates
and forums. They have enabled small cultural and ethnic groups
to overcome disadvantages of physical distance. At a more local
level they are enabling creation of a virtual 'public place' wherein
effective democratic processes of public participation can take
place. For instance, in many developing countries, local government
authorities are actively considering using ICTs as a means to
catalyse initiatives towards democratic decentralization and the
empowerment of citizens to participate in the process of design
and delivery of civic services.
What
is pleasing is that the business community has begun to cooperate
on this issue by featuring the work that is being done by these
organizations within their cooperate websites, and have linked up
with particular organizations as part of their community development
initiative and in the process they have managed to get in touch
with the people that really matter. Already there are great sites
and web portals that look at ICTs and explain their importance further.
One only needs to log on to the likes of www.pambuzuka.org,
www.oneworld.net,
www.kubatana.net,
www.apc.org
and so many others to see just what we mean by all this.
The
challenge that remains for us today is to choose whether we enjoy
our water now, or we would rather miss it when it is gone. You can
be part of the community development initiative in your area by
setting up a quorum of internet users, with different e-mail addresses
and get them to discuss on important developments for your area.
You do not need anything fancy to set up the system; all you need
is a caring heart, and a strong determination to make a difference
in your community. The benefits of this are many, especially for
the future of our children and us.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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