Dis modern age!

Today there are all sorts of terms and words to describe the era in which we live. We are becoming increasingly familiar with these, since we are affected every day by their products and their intrusion into our lives. Almost everything we do brings to our consciousness the fact that other forces are impacting on our way of life. So we live in an era of globalisation, and we certainly exist in the Information or Digital Age. Some of the symbols surround us.{{more}} The Computer has transformed and is transforming our lives. We are constantly in touch with anything that happens in any part of the world. Our friends and relatives abroad are now listening to our radio stations, and sometimes appear to be even more informed about what is happening within our society than some of us who reside here. The computer is perhaps still being used here largely as a word processor, for emails and for playing games. Yet we are becoming increasingly computer literate. Modern technology, of which the computer is a central part, is supposed to enhance our lives, by stimulating, among other things, productivity. But the technology has its down side. And I make this point because I am writing this article after two frustrating days. Those persons who call some of our banks and utility companies would certainly have experienced what I am about to describe.

You pick up the phone and call one of these companies/businesses and you go through this kind of ordeal that frustrates you to the limit. You dial – You get a lovely voice welcoming you, and you feel good, but they are really setting you up for what is to come. “If you know your party’s extension, dial it now”. I might be wrong, but I strongly believe that most persons who phone one of these establishments do not know the extension numbers of the persons they are trying to call. Sometimes you do not know in what section/area of the operation the person is working. So you continue to listen. “To reach our Corporate section, please press 2”. You first have to try to figure out what exactly is in the Corporate section. By the time you figure or don’t figure it out, you have missed the rest of the menu. So you dial again and follow the instructions. You have now convinced yourself that you should be pressing 4, so you are somewhat relieved and you press 4. But your joy is short lived, for what you have is a return to the original Menu where they are once more telling you to press 4. If you are lucky, after 5 minutes someone answers and you get connected, hopefully, to whom you want to speak. But you could go on for longer with the Menu repeating itself again and again like some stuck record. Well, you are thoroughly disgusted, so you decide to press zero, as you are also told to do. You wait for ages and no one answers. So what do you do? If you become too frustrated, as I sometimes do, you can become totally irrational and shout some choice words to a system that is wasting your time and turning you into a fool.

At this point, you yearn for the good old days when you are able to interact with some understanding voice, some thing human rather than a machine that would not acknowledge the words that your anger helped to coin. Does this go with the technology or have we not mastered it as yet? Technology is part of life. It is the means by which we interact and transform our environment. Who would really want to go back to the so-called good old days? We must, however, not allow the symbols of this modern technological era to take full control of our lives. I always remember an experience in Toronto. After buying a few items, I was in front of a cashier when there was an electrical problem that affected the machines. The Cashier was almost transformed into another being, not knowing how to handle the situation. I had only bought a few items that could have been counted in one’s head but she had become so dependent on her machine that to think of doing that was not in her calculations. A calculator eventually saved the day. This is a real situation. If you have some machine, a bit of technology that can do the work for you, why would you want to do other wise? I often go to meetings where computers seem to be speaking to each other, though not in the computer way. Persons are all sitting behind their computers, not looking at one another but instead looking at the computer. If you happen to be short, it might be difficult to know that there is actually someone behind. Because you are now so accustomed to the speed of a computer, the least delay gets you quite mad and frustrated and carries up your blood pressure. It is really part of the age where we are into new ways of relating to each other. After all, people have even become married after a short period of romance on the computer!

Jamaica Elections

Although as I write, the final count is not in, but the Jamaican electorate appears to have given the green light to the Opposition Jamaican Labour Party, although by a narrow margin. The post mortems and criticisms have begun. One newspaper even ventured to say that Simpson Miller was out of her depth, and tore into her, particularly for not conceding defeat on Monday night. They have even begun to identify persons to replace her. It is always easy after the fact to say what should have happened, and there will of course be a lot of that. The elections appeared to have been lost for the PNP in the last few weeks, especially following the passage of Hurricane Dean, which provided opportunities for critics to attack her style of leadership. It might also have raised questions about her decision to have the elections at that time.

I am of the view that Portia Simpson-Miller was unable to call the elections earlier because she was still attempting to unify her party after the bruises suffered in the leadership contest. This was followed by the Trafigura affair, from which they had to try to distance themselves, and which might have influenced negatively their approach to raising funds. It now appears to me that the party made a wrong decision with the emphasis it placed on Portia as the trump card. She was indeed their best hope of winning the elections because of her popularity on the ground, but there had always been questions about her leadership ability. This could have been best countered by playing the team card which they appeared not to have done. It is, however, easy to say what could or should have happened, but the reality is that Jamaica is into a new era after 18 years of PNP rule. The incumbents are really having a difficult time!