We got brains whats our problem?
I keep on asking myself why nobody doesn't seem to find a solution for so many things wrong in our ICT sector. Is it greed(for Service Providers)? Is it fear for the people to speak out.
I wrote once on my first personal website that I wanna be able to browse the internet from my home village in Mzimba. Thanks to Celtel I am able to do that now on my phone though I am still limited to checking a few pages and emails only. Still I wanna browse everything and be able to download software on my laptop when I am there so that my software development isn't limited to location.
High Cost of ICT Services. I wonder why something that somewhere else is very cheap could cost so much here? I don't get it. A domain name. I bought mine about $9 which here is $35 and in Malawi it doesn't matter if it is .org .net or .com. OK at least we gotta promote ourselves but still .mw you get it $50? Are we Malawians so poor to cover the cost of promoting ourselves? Think about the benefits we will get after promoting oursevels. Is that so impossible? Think about about .tk a small Island Tokelau somewhere in the pacific is known world over and I knew about it because they offer their domain free. Of course its a URL redirection but it would allow Victor Kaonga (and me and many others) blog with an identity of a Malawian if we had a free .MW URL redirection to our blog for instance ndagha.blogspot.com(too long) would now be ndagha.mw or at least ndagha.co.mw (as is co.nr and co.cc) and Victor Would be very proud to carry a malawian identity.
My understanding of SDNP as the registrar of . mw would have been the first one to lower the prices and so set a standard on provision of ICT services in Malawi. But despite being a non profit organization they are also trying to compete with other services providers in charging the prohibitive prices. I don't get it? Are they managing to develop ICT in Malawi? How are they justifying their pricing?
Poor service provision. Even though these companies charge so much for their services their services are still so poor that most companies prefer to have their software or other services developed by foreign companies. Money going outside of Malawi. When are we going to stand up and aim high for our nation?
Poor e-commerce facilities. I would like to be able to sell my services outside Malawi through the internet. But how do I get paid for my services? I was hoping pay265.net would materialize into something but I wonder where the good dream has gone(or is it working? I can't use my account).
National Bank allows one to cash credit cards why not allow me to receive money paid through credit cards as well? I think its just a matter of partenering with foreign institutions which offer these services, is it not?
Malawian Policies maybe would not allow money to go outside Malawi any how but it should be able to allow Money to come in. With a Paypal account in some nations one is allowed to recieve money but not to buy that's good enough for me If I am being paid for Technical Support I offer to people from other nations through the internet. But we could do better. I should be able to buy tools that will help my software devlepment so that the quality of software that I develop is at par with those developed outside Malawi and So be exportable. This will now let Bingu ask me to develop the Government Website and keep Malawian Money in at the same time I am bringing in More Money.
Whoever implements ICT Policies please think about these things. Time is not waiting for us. We need to catch up.
Monday, November 5, 2007
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8 comments:
You have raised very important issues. Thanks for blogging. Allow me to comment on some of them.
Getting Malawian identity online through domains would certainly help a lot. Just early morning I was asking myself why I don't blog in either Tumbuka or Lambya! Now I am motivated to begin doing just that. The more I have learnt about imbalances in information flows, the more I realise how much we (Malawian) are loosing our identity.
The issue of costs of the domain names is honestly unnecessarily pegged high. As you have observed, life online would be much cheaper and easier if we had our own like mw, etc. Buying one is not really expensive as I have come to know. I have just bought one and I know an average Malawian enterpreneur (adventurous) and company/organisation could manage. But these ISPs want us to be kept away and they charge very exorbitantly. Sad.
That aside, I understand there are credits cards being used makola ghene but only by a few guys at the Reserve Bank! May be they are testing or it is a demo.
Oh, you talked about the Malawi government website. It is a pathetic site, wondering if it is really run by those guys trained at NACIT. I wish it was improved. I personally don't feel proud of that official website of my government. I wish they learnt something from Museveni's government website. Please write again. I am happy to hear the development in e-Mzuzu.
hey victor, thanks for the comment. I am glad to hear credit cards are being used I think it won't be long till I get mine.
I hope they will do about domain registration charging
A Model of Sustainable Development in IT in Malawi SDNP is a UNDP supported Malawi Government Programme executed by the National Research Council of Malawi to assist with development of Internet and Information Services with emphasis on sustainable development. It is high level international politics the westerners are doing thru what they call UNDP helping AFrica.
As an African I beleive that, the campaign for "sustainable development"
by SDNP is not motivated by a legitimate desire for development believe you me.
Instead, it is an attempt to put a respectable face on their anti-development, anti-industry, anti-technology philosophy.
They want to pretend they are helping Africa to develop. I say no. They are liers. When did SDNP started? If they are serious that they want to develop ICT in Africa or Malawi to be specific then where is the development. Imagine UNDP a donor as it is
it has never constructed for this project an office in Malawi or even a toilet. Where is
the Infrastructure for ICT they have built to make it sustainable?
then where is the development? The SDNP are renting premises, they don't have their own, they are temporary but not sustainable.
What these Western guys are doing thru SDNP is just an attempt to give the Third World some of the results of development without actual ICT development "Angoti paka mafuta milomo". As per Kondwani's saying their rates are prohibitive. "How are they justifying their pricing?"When are we going to stand up and aim high for our nation? We can not rely on others to help us develop ICT, thus why they are fooling us.If the government and ourselves were involved in the development
process, promoting ICT I believe we would have been somewhere.
They say SDNP is a Malawi Govt. Programme. I don't think so. I believe they are strings attached to these donor funds that are failing the govt. to boost ICT in Malawi. If the government was erious with ICT development it wouldn't have waited for these
western funded projects. They government can initiate its own ICT sustainable projects
which can really develop ICT in our beloved nation, Malawi.
"It is common these days to blame the West for all of the world's ills. Yet there is one sense in which the West is to blame:
we live in the midst of the greatest prosperity in history,
yet our intellectual leaders refuse to acknowledge the source or even the value of that prosperity, and they refuse to let the world know what is really required for sustaineddevelopment" These words were said by Mr. Tracinski of The Intellectual Activist and TIADaily.
Kondwani wrote "Whoever implements ICT Policies please think about these things.
Time is not waiting for us. We need to catch up."
If ICT guys and the Govt. worked together we would have been somewhere. But letting the Donor community guide us, then it is difficult to compete in the world's race of ICT. But even the promise of aid is a lie, because Western money can do no good
to africa. Africa should remove the spirit of dependancy.
History tells us technology started from Africa.
Kho writing from Forest House BQ
It is indeed a sad situation that it seems some institutions in Malawi seem not to want ICT services to move forward.
I remember accessing internet in my home village last May using the TNM network and it was really wonderful but I guess not many people can afford it. I also feel that we have one of the most expensive rates for cellphone services in the Southern African region. Imagine I had to switch from Celtel to TNM because in my opinion I found TNM more affordable than Celtel. Maybe we need another mobile phone company to increase competition.
By the way, have you heard anything about MTL introducing broadband services soon? I thought this was one of their great promises when Press (PCL) and others were taking over. I think as consumers we need to pressurize them to fulfill their promise.
Forget about SDNP. I dont think the problem is about western international politics here but rather the beaurocratic way in which the whole programme is executed. What about the recruitment of its staff? Up to now, it does not have permanent offices, should we blame the UNDP for this? I dont think so. Sadly, they are also the most expensive ISP in town. Am sad to say this, but unfortunately its the truth.
On the other hand, there are innovative ISPs like Globe. I remember during my vacation in May this year I was always able to access wireless internet from my laptop outside Chichiri Shopping Mall after buying their internet airtime scratch card similar to the ones used for mobile phone airtime. They were charging K400 for an hour's access. I know this is very expensive but with more ISPs doing the same thing, prices can go down. I dont know what MalawiNet is doing about this. It seems nowadays they are no longer in the "game".
On credit cards, Malawi cannot afford to ignore this technology. Indeed we know that there is need for forex controls but they can still do this while people have credit cards. I for one have benefitted a lot from credit card technology. For example, I can subscribe to online journals very easily. It is really very handy.
By the way, am also a computer scientist and its nice meeting you.
Lets continue blogging for the betterment of mother Malawi!
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