Re: [GKD] Technology Wars

[John Afele]

I was reminded elsewhere that "The poor pollute less because they have
no choice - it has nothing to do with their 'wisdom.' [There's] no way
around formal education and it would be best not to console ourselves
for the lack of it." I also recognize the contributions by Tom Abeles,
and Perry Morrison.

Groups that would recognize creativity, embrace it, and nurture it,
would be the ones to increase their intellectual capital and be winners
in a competitive field; mediocrity would be concealed for only so long,
because the 'market' is made up of people with needs. Adverts could make
someone try a product but the choice to stay with one would depend on
the product satisfaction, hence major coroprations are spending large
sums of money to learn about and avoid churning of customers. The
services of the 'e' world are to address needs, and those
products/services that addressed the needs best would be propagated.
Assuming that the needs are real, then product satisfaction cannot be
faked; no amount of product packaging would conceal real performance.

If the uneducated would copy some unsafe features of modernity, it would
be because the educated failed to inform and educate them, not because
they want to pollute.

Education is important. The uneducated are aware of this need, hence
parents, who may be uneducated, endeavour to send their children to
school. It depends on what the educated do with their enhanced
knowledge. In the current context, it is expected that the educated are
technology intelligence personnel, watching and informing those who
depend on their knowledge to make transitions from one technological
state to the next. In real situations, several governments in developing
nations have had PhD's, MBAs as "presidents" and legislators; most
communities now have PhDs and MBAs as "chiefs."

So far, much of the 'knowledge economy' activities in many countries
have been about adding an 'e' to every word, i.e., e-this, e-that,
creating Web pages, bringing tv and radio onto the Web, etc. This is
good except the contents have remained the same (which may not be so
good).

Perry's message about "in your face media" is real and deals with the
clash of cultures, as television programs are beamed from one
techno-cultural environment to a different one. We have to exchange
experiences but if a local community created a vacuum, others would fill
it up - because humans abhor vacuum. We were recently referred to an
article by James L. Morrison and Carol Twigg (1): "For the most part, ..
we are using information technology tools as a marginal enhancement of
the status quo. ... We are resistant to change and rarely look for
creative, innovative approaches to new opportunities. In the same way
that scientists try to 'save the theory' (Thomas Kuhn), we ... stick
fast to ... the ... method and look for old solutions to new problems."

Reference: 1) "The Pew Learning and Technology Program Initiative in
Using Technology to Enhance Education: An Interview with Carol Twigg."
The Technology Source, May/June 2001.
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=article&id=859 

Regards,

John



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[GKD] Freedom Foundation: ICT and HIV in India

[Chetan Sharma]

The inventors of computers & internet would have hardly imagined one day
it would help some of the most unlikely people get over their sense of
isolation, deprivation and help build self-esteem.

Nor did Ashok Rau--founder of Freedom Foundation
, a Bangalore based voluntary group
offering treatment programs for alcoholic, drug-addict and HIV positive
people--think  how computers would become change agents for his beloved
HIV positive kids. Currently the Foundation supports 141 HIV positive
kids apart from several hundred HIV positive adults; and offers them a
home away from their homes. The Foundation also offers anti-retroviral
medication. Ashok can be reached at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Ashok fought against all odds in the wake of a personal tragedy to
establish Freedom Foundation in 1992; as a care center for people
dealing with alcoholism and drug-addiction. However Ashok's work came
into limelight when the first HIV case was isolated in the southern
state of Tamil Nadu in 1986; and UNAIDS/WHO started alerting India and
the world that there are 5-7 million HIV positive people in
India--making it one of the single largest countries in the world having
HIV positive cases.

And what a challenge it has been for him-apart from facing the social
stigma of running a care center for sexually transmitted diseased
people; not getting any form of moral, financial or material support
apart from that of close knit family & friends. However his persistence,
fierce determination and courage; brought hopes to a large number of
deprived people including HIV positive kids Gradually the Center started
gaining reputation as an ideal low-cost community-based home by the
Indian National AIDS Control Organization and the State AIDS Prevention
Society. Ashok Rau has also been nominated by the President of India as
a member of the Technical Resource Group on HIV/AIDS.

The rehabilitation & restoration of HIV positive kids has been a top
priority for Ashok. He has tried to help kids cope with the
psychological social stress resulting from their condition. Freedom
Foundation has maintained complete transparency with the kids about
their being HIV positive and has tried to work towards opening up a
space of acceptability to the reality of AIDS; first amongst the kids
and their families and  at the second stage amongst  the community. The
Foundation tried to persuade several schools to admit their children for
a few years; before they could convince a Missionary Charity School (the
name of the school has been kept confidential in deference to the wishes
of the Freedom Foundation and that of  the School as well )  to admit
their HIV positive kids. He was successful in his endeavors and managed
to get 15 kids admitted in the school. Slowly the kids started learning
English apart from local language Kannada. The school teachers have also
been very helpful in their assimilation process. The teachers counseled
other children to accept the Freedom Foundation kids amongst them;
encouraging them to play in groups. They also took the onerous
responsibility upon themselves of educating the children about the
ultimate fate of the Freedom Foundation's kids. They tried to alert
calmly and carefully that their friends  may not always be with them;
and that every day spent at the school was critical  for the kids. It
has been very tough for the teachers as well as for the school
management-handling objections of parents, dealing with the trauma of
the Freedom Foundation kids and with their insecurities, systematically
working on a process of assimilation for the HIV positive kids.

The Foundation prioritized the assimilation needs of the kids by
allocating their computers used for accounting for their education. The
machines were upgraded and made net enabled, The kids were given basic
training to use computers and the net. They were provided details of
bulletin boards and URLs of other HIV positive organizations; so that
they could chat with their compatriots else-where.

Due to this bold step, communication flood-gates opened at the Freedom
Foundation.  The kids started using the machines for long hours--simply
chatting with other HIV positive kids from other countries. The chats
present a very fascinating perspective into the minds of HIV positive
kids and this may be novel experiment first of its type in India whereby
technology has been deployed for restoring self-esteem and confidence
in a group of kids who had nothing but despair and fear in their hearts
until couple of years.

Ten year old, Mahesh asked his HIV positive friend, a much older & wiser
boy from South Africa "How long are you going to live? I want to meet
you, but may not get the chance at all. I am too weak to travel to South
Africa. No one will take me there. My friends here tell me I may not
live to see this Diwali (India's festival of lights). Can you come down
to Bangalore and meet me and my other friends?". With utmost wisdom and
care for his long-distance friend in his he

[GKD] NOW: NGOs On The Web

[Zubair Faisal Abbasi]

Dear GKD Members,

Appended is an introductory document about "NOW -- NGOs on the Web"
project of ePoor.org. I hope, it gives you an overview of the much
needed initiative along with its rationale, and deliverables. ePoor.org
eagerly looks forward to your participation, insight, and guidance for
this programme.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
- Zubair Faisal Abbasi.
-

NGOs On The Web (NOW)

The Project NOW aims at:

Creating an accessible information repository (supported by online
database) on NGOs in Pakistan. It would include their filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Registrar Cooperative
Societies, Annual Reports, Audited Accounts, Balance Sheets and other
relevant information.

Why Now?

This project is based on the argument and emphasis of modern
institutional economics that disclosure is an important element in the
creation of trust and legitimacy of organizations.

NGOs have long been engaged in discussions on how to improve their
legitimacy and transparency. These discussions have been motivated by
three concerns.

*   First, many NGOs are concerned that their reputation is affected
adversely because of association of the name NGO with a few
non-transparent and even unethical organizations. As a result, NGOs have
been discussing how to come up with criteria and practices that would
exclude such organizations. The principle criterion that they have come
up with is disclosure (and its related criterion, transparency).

-   NOW can help NGOs in establishing a system by which online presence
of disclosed information would be ensured with multiple search options.

*   Second, NGOs are concerned by the repeated attempts by the
government to impose draconian new legislation to curb the activities of
civil society organization on the pretext that the goal is simply to
control illegal activities. The with-hunting attitude of the Minister of
Social Welfare in the previous Punjab administration was an extreme
example of this attitude.

-   NOW database can help thwart such efforts by providing a simple
alternative that ensures online availability of vital information sets.

*   Third, many NGOs have also been interested in systems of management
and procedure that would on the one hand enhance their effectiveness in
meeting their goals, and on the other hand mobilize financial,
political, and technical resources to support their work.

- NOW project would also help the interested with its automated, faster
and organized flow of critical information and data. Along with better
storage and irretrievability options NOW offers immense potentials to
improve effectiveness of NGOsí work.

In addition, NOW has the potential to generate a trust-based cooperation
and partnership building for development, since it would both publicize
the activities of organizations and give outsiders a greater amount of
knowledge and confidence about the work being done in the country.

NOW -- Using ICTs for Development Organizations

Information communication technologies has changed our perception about
geographic and time constraints. This offers opportunities to
re-channelize the information set of greater 'use value' reaching the
target audience of critical importance.

The project NOW, envisages timely, accessible, and retrievable
availability of information on NGOs activity, accounts, reports, and
related information. Ensuring (have answer right) ëNOWí to queries, it
involves innovatively harness the tremendous potentials of Information
Communication Technologies. The IT applications such as carefully
designed and web-enabled databases would improve faster flow of ëpublic
domainí information set to reach the level of ë interactive wider public
domainí and hence increasing the possibility of critical reach of
information sets where these are required.

Potentials of NOW:

*   NOW is designed to facilitate comparative analysis (diachronic and
synchronic, both) of organizational records so that institutional and
programme development of organizations can be reliably mapped and
assessed. This would also help expanding the canvass of analysis
incorporating innovative breakdowns of the available data for
interpretation. For example, NOW can facilitate knowing the relative
emphasis of organizations on development issues in a certain point of
time. This means, it would be easy to explore that how many
organizations are working in the year 2001 in the area of 'gender and
development' as their core programmes, and what kind of strategies are
being employed. The database would also facilitate assessing the growth
and direction of development sector and its constituting units.

*   The French philosopher, Abbe Pierre, argued that modem (read
Western) society is confronted with three realities. The first pertains
to the growing power of media and traveling which deny civilized society
an excuse of not knowing; th

Re: [GKD] Technology Wars

[Ndesai]

This is a diversion from the GKD subjects, but I would like to comment
on Perry Morrison's note below. He is worried about CFCs as refrigerants
in India and China. He may rest assured that under the Montreal
Protocol, production of virgin ODS (ozone depleting substances) was
capped in these (and other developing countries), and would soon cease
altogether. CFC emissions from the stock already in the end-use products
- foams, refrigerators and air-conditioners (stationary and mobile) -
and in the warehouses of producer companies and users (including car
companies, the military, and so on) - will continue. Both these stocks
are far higher in the OECD countries - in particular the US - than in
countries such as India and China. In fact, as far as I know, most of
the refrigerator and airconditioner manufacturers even in India and
China have already shifted to CFC substitutes. This is not to deny that
some particularly vexatious problems in ODS phaseout in these countries
still remain - e.g. halons for fire-fighting.

In short, don't worry much about food preservation in India and China.

Nikhil

Nikhil Desai
Consultant, AFTEG, J9-900
The World Bank




Perry Morrison wrote:
> The CFC/environmental consequences of the bulk of India and China
> wanting fridge/freezers is pretty scary. But who am I to deny such
> lifestyle shifts - especially when the better preservation of food is
> associated with much better health outcomes.
 




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