Technology is shrinking the world

Oct 29, 2017 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Technology has really changed the Guyana landscape, but most of us have barely touched the surface. Indeed we have the smart phones that allow us to contact people just about anywhere. We can research any topic and we can find just about any place.
A long time ago I remember dreaming about sitting in one place and actually seeing someone in another part of the world in real time. I dreamed about what is now a conference call. Someone in an office communicating with his staff by a video link is a reality.
The courts are now using this technology with increasing frequency. A few months ago we took a case to the Caribbean Court of Justice. We made our arguments then returned home for the decision. That decision came via Skype. There I was in the Guyana Court of Appeal watching the judges in Trinidad taking their seats then reading the judgement.
That was nothing short of amazing, when we consider that a few years ago it would have been impossible. People do not necessarily have to come to Guyana to testify in a matter. They can do so from the confines of their home. They can be cross-examined and questioned.
When we travel overseas we find people by simply inputting their address in a phone or a device fitted in cars that are being produced these days. A voice directs you from the moment you drive off all the way to your destination. If there is a traffic jam along the way the voice talks you around it.
A policeman stops you on the road. Before he approaches your vehicle, he inputs the number of your vehicle and he is provided with a load of information. He knows the name of the driver and in that way he can determine if the vehicle is stolen or if the driver has an outstanding warrant.
That technology is coming to Guyana with the development of Information and Communication Technology.
Doctors in one country can actually help those in another part of the world perform delicate operations. The foreign doctor is actually in the operating theatre seeing everything by way of a camera.
With such a development in technology, I am amazed that our children still ask people the meaning of words, because these days the dictionary is obsolescent. In fact, there is an application (app) that actually pronounces the word. The speaker can pronounce the word and the app will tell that person how to spell the word and the meaning of that word.
I work with a newspaper. People no longer have to rush out to get the newspaper man. They simply go online and can read anything they want. In fact, these days there are online newspapers. The publishers no longer have to invest in printing presses and all the accoutrements that go with it.
That is why I simply could not understand the hullaballoo about whether Justice James Patterson was ever a Chief Justice in Grenada. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, at a recent press conference, said that people told him the opposite. The technology is there for him to verify what he was told. Instead we have this confusion nearly a fortnight after Justice Patterson took the oath of office.
Employers use the internet more frequently than we would want to believe. A man came to me to request that we take down some information about a conviction he picked up in the United States. He told me that he was trying to gain employment ,but the potential employer would simply inform him that his conviction is a major stumbling block.
Confidence tricksters also use the internet to post fictitious resumes. However, they are unearthed by a simple cross check. If the individual talks about attending a certain university, then that can be checked out. It is the same if the person fudges his/her experience.
This is how Kaieteur News was able to uncover the fact that Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall never constructed a road, although he presented himself as someone who had built roads in the United States. The newspaper should not have been put in the position to uncover the falsehood. The government, by way of due diligence, could and should have accessed the information.
That is why we should now not have the problems with hinterland schools being so disadvantaged. We did attempt to package programmes that we would have disseminated to those schools. A teacher would have been standing in a classroom somewhere and teaching children miles away.
Of course, there would have been need for supervision at the hinterland school, provided the teacher is au fait with the subject. This is being done elsewhere, and with our limited resources we should be making use of this technology.
Minister Cathy Hughes is busy setting up internet hubs along coastal Guyana, but I am certain most of the users are more interested in using the hubs for Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and the like. It would be interesting if we could use these hubs for education purposes.
They are excellent communication tools, to the extent that in the developed world every citizen is now a reporter. Only yesterday I saw a story about a woman recording an attack on a man and making her recording available to the police.
In Guyana, I have seen misinformation peddled as truth. One classic case involved reporter Nazima Raghubir interviewing President David Granger. There was President Granger talking about plantain chips and the like. The reality is that he never answered in the manner the video purported him to do. And that is one fear of social media.
Misinformation can be promoted as fact, and being the people we are, we would tend to believe what is presented. There is need for the presenters among us to be responsible.
Yet one should not limit the use of technology. We catch criminals through its use; we catch errant road users and we can monitor people. In the United States, policemen are forced to wear body cameras. That may be some distance away for Guyana, but it must be coming.

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