Our priorities
The party robots are chanting Digital Bangladesh, as per the gayebi awaaz from above! Where are the pragmatic steps in planning, project approvals, and the different phases of applications (3-D model) every two years?
Don't forget the heavy budget, and tsunamis. Bangladesh is sandwiched between a big neighbour in the E and W: Himalayas in the North, and the Bay of Bengal in the South; plus: Saarc is not working!
The bases and infrastructures have to be created. Before that comes some pilot projects in different technical areas, for evaluation, and avoiding systems losses in operation and maintenance (our greatest weakness culturally).
First the regular availability of power supply in the rural areas. Where is the spread (broad-spectrum)? Don't beat the drum with some micro-projects. Then the availability of cheap hardware and software processing, assembly). Third comes the training of trainers; followed by the training of the trainees. Can we assemble the so-called US $ 100 laptops-the first one million machines? Optical fibre network is far behind schedule. We are trying to impress whom?
The above topics are taboo for public discussions. Take another example: recharging of 25 million batteries of mobile telephones used in the outlying areas where electricity is not available. It is a huge market for cheap, small, portable, charger units (folding, solar panel, with telescopic 6ft pole. No local product or imported one is available locally (even dry cell chargers using three AAA dry batteries).
We are daydreamers, living in the past, messing up the present, and facing a bleak future. Why politics is popular in 21st century? Dynasty rules are worse. Religious politics too heart-oriented (subjective). What's left? Chaos, terrorism, and civil disobedience movements. Can we think digitally? All outputs are analogue for day-to-day applications for impressing the man in the street.
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