Latest update February 7th, 2025 2:57 PM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

A failure to develop technology

Oct 17, 2013 Editorial

 
The computer came to Guyana in the early 1980s but it is still to be ubiquitous. The first computer was installed at the Guyana Rice Marketing Board when Mike Whaul’s company began introducing the network concept.
The first machines were ridiculously slow.  Those were the days when the computer hard drive was measured in kilobytes and when the floppy disc was the preferred way of copying and storing information.
Since then the computer has graduated to the point where every smart phone is a computer with hard drives many times much larger than those computers of yesteryear.  Back then, the computer helped transform the newspaper industry, from the days of the typewriter and heaps of paper in waste paper baskets.
Guyana was poised to enter the 21st Century. The police recognized the advantages of the computer as did those government departments that needed to store tons of information. Salaries were computerized as were people’s personal records. But while this was happening, the government did not pursue the computerization of the Guyana Police Force.
Today, nearly forty years later this is still to be the case and people with criminal records still slip through the huge crevices. The police are still unable to determine whether a vehicle is stolen or whether a driver is banned or whether some people still have unpaid traffic tickets.
In the real world, traffic police routinely sit in their vehicles and run the number plates of other vehicles. They are also able to process information on anyone because the country has used the computer to good effect.
Guyanese travel to foreign countries and the authorities there could immediately determine whether that person is someone of interest to the law enforcement authorities. Many of them go to airports in the region and find that they are persona non grata because those countries use the computer to good effect.
The Guyana Government has actually started to make the computer a useful tool in crime fighting and in determining who owes the government large sums of money and should be brought to book. However, this programme is running into serious problems.
At a cost of some US$36 million, the government brought a cable from Brazil. The government explained that this expenditure was necessary if Guyana was to join the information super highway. There was talk about e-governance. To make further use of this cable the government introduced what it called a programme to place a laptop in almost every home.
By now this cable should have been operational and to facilitate it the government began to erect towers along the coast to take the internet to the various communities. This was being done at even more cost, using taxpayers’ money.
Nothing is being said about the cable because it has run into serious problems. There is the fear, now, that this may very be another failed programme resulting in scarce money going down the drain. The nation is not aware of the problems but the people responsible for bringing this communication cable to the coast are complaining that at every turn the cable is broken.
The first contractors to bring the cable say that the terrain has proven difficult and the new contractors have not yet been recruited. But huge sums have already been spent and many of the projects that should have been on stream to help the police and just about every government department are stalled.
It would seem that not much thought is going into the various development programmes with the result that they all fail miserably. Other countries in the same position as Guyana would pay skilled agencies to undertake the work. Obviously the cost may be a bit more but in the long run, the result would be cheaper that the local projects are turning out to be.
So after more than three decades Guyana is still unable to make maximum use of the computer, a tool that has made life so much easier for other countries;  a tool that has quickened the pace of development in just about every other country except Guyana.

 

 

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Corbin century, fast-bowlers give CCC lead as champs face stern Day 3 test

Corbin century, fast-bowlers give CCC lead as champs face stern Day 3...

Feb 07, 2025

2025 CWI Regional 4-Day Championships Round 2…GHE vs. CCC Day 2 -Eagles (1st innings 166-6, Imlach 58*) trail CCC by 209 runs  Kaieteur Sports- Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) owned Day 2...
Read More
Powerlifting to kick off year with Novices/Juniors on February 16

Powerlifting to kick off year with...

Feb 07, 2025

North Essequibo cart off ECB Busta-sponsored T20 trophy

North Essequibo cart off ECB Busta-sponsored T20...

Feb 07, 2025

Construction progress of five New Stadiums, Palmyra leading the charge

Construction progress of five New Stadiums,...

Feb 07, 2025

Inclement weather forces BCB to halt cricket competitions in Berbice

Inclement weather forces BCB to halt cricket...

Feb 07, 2025

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket Competition continues

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket...

Feb 06, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]