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SALIGAO IN THE COMPUTER AGE 2035 AD---III( CONTINUATION). By Simonne St. Anne. *Education--- Our system of education is excellent by any standard. University courses using television and remote computers have become highly effective. This automated education leaves teachers free to concentrate on the more human and creative aspects of teaching. Information retrieval facilities give access to encyclopedias and vast stores of reports and documents. Far from acting as a substitute for books, our screens allow our children to explore the contents of every library anywhere in the world. *Medical facilities---Our communication channels also provide excellent medical facilities. " Tele-medicine" is an international facility also available in our little village. We have access to almost any clinic anywhere in the world via Compulink. Today we don’t dial a nurse anymore, we punch in a request for medical services. Within seconds we are connected to a remote diagnostic station which employs powerful television lenses and extra sensory per-ceptors together with some of the very latest medical instruments. Yes, it is no longer necessary to step outside one’s bedroom for medical examination. With the help of the medical technician, a distant doctor or specialist can examine you very thoroughly. The patient can see and talk to the doctor and the doctor’s large colour monitor can be filled with a closeup of the patient’s eye, or tongue or skin rash. The doctor can listen to a distant stethoscope and see multiple instrument readings and computer analyses of them. The doctor can then prescribe any drug made anywhere in the world. And he can keep a constant check on the patient’s reaction to the medication. *Coming Home—My parents would have preferred to live in Saligao if only it had the facilities that Bombay then offered---good education, medical facilities, entertainment, and most important highly paid jobs. Now telecommunications provide all these amenities and I have achieved their dream of settling down in our village. I have my own garden and farm and I can walk in the fields and woods; I can eat fresh vegetables every day and I literally have the world on my fingertips My office in the village street is part of an international advertising agency. And companies need no longer be located in big cities. And every branch of my company is connected to the art studio I run from Saligao. I earn as much as I could have earned in Bombay, New York or Paris. And I live in the village which is more self-sufficient than in any earlier age… This year we celebrate the centenary of the Saligao Union in Bombay. We’re celebrating the event in Saligao , too. And in London and in Toronto and in Nairobi and in a hundred other places where Saligaokars now reside. We will all be together for the big event---via telecom! ( end) Compiled by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas. |
