#4315: On Hitech, Development ... and the Elections (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Although I am a great fan of cyberspace and hitech, I do not
believe that Haiti is in the position of finding a shortcut to
development through the use of such technologies. For that
to happen, a country needs a minimum of literacy among
the population at large as well as a substantial pool of
scientists and technicians.

In addition, a country needs the basic infrastructure
including a fast and reliable telephone system as well as a
working power generation and distribution system. Not to
mention the means to buy the hardware and software to get
started in a country where the per capita income is no more
than $400.00 per year.

There is one country in which such ingredients seem to be
falling in place, namely India which is in the process of
making quite a name for itself as a producer of advanced
software because it has the second or third largest pool of
technicians and scientists in the world. This is a legacy of
British colonialism which left behind a network of great

universities that was reinforced by policies set in place
democratically by the Congress Party under the leadership
of Pundit Nehru et al. All of this was, of course, grafted on
an ancient tradition of great accomplishments in philosophy,
mathematics and astronomy.

We could conceivably find a shortcut to producing that
technical/scientific pool by making the best use of the
talent of Haitian descent that can be found in Canada,
Cuba and the United States. This is not going to happen
by miracle and fall from the heavens like manna.  This
will require hard work and very smart policies.

We in Haiti have not yet started along that road.

Hell, we are still trying to figure out how to compute the
winning percentages in a parliamentary election !!!

Angle ekri, angle konprann ...