Skip to main content

Rights in a digital world

Image
By
I came across a letter to the editor in Trinidad Guardian Sep 16 titled "Using internet to abuse citizens' rights." It starts off by stating, "It is not possible for the Government- to force anyone to use merely optional tools like online and internet." He does make a good point. This is something that should be debated. Digital inclusion is very important. I am guessing that many persons in Trinidad are comfortable with using the digital processes because they understand the greater good. But there are those who are hesitant for various reasons.

The younger generation are tech savvy and can help the older geneation. Community centers can be places where older persons can go to get help. This is an opportunity for businesses to provide services that help persons. But these businesses would have to be certified as trusted. A digital inclusion and digital literacy strategy will help make sure that no one is left behind. Manual form processing and face to face can remain in place while we transition to digital. The banks do that. In Estonia online voting is an option and more and more persons are turning to this.

Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Then there are competing interests. The aim of going digital is for efficiency, cost savings, accountability and convenience among other things. Things that the same letter writer might complain about. I would ask the letter writer what are you willing to trade off? A disabled person might prefer the convenience of online. An older person might prefer face to face and manual forms.

The reality is that sometimes we have to make sacrifices. What sacrifices are we willing to make. When the pandemic hit us decisions had to be made to saves lives. We all came together and made calculated sacrifices. Sacrifices is related to priorities. What do we prioritise? That is why we have a government and a democracy to make these country decisions. Now that we understand how important that function is. We as citizens (like Mr E Galy) have a responsibility to choose our leaders wisely. See my blog post on how I thought about this.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God opens doors

By
It is 1203am and I have decided to write. Saturday I spent the night coding. I was trying to get a FastAPI app up and running, all from my budget Android phone. The test cases were written to use Puppeteer. I ended up using Replit for that. Coding is more challenging when using a mobile phone. Not impossible but more challenging. I hardly blog about technology and coding anymore but the love is still there. I still have a dream of creating my own coding and youtube studio with a nice desk setup. That is nice but what should I make this blog post about? What do I want to write about? What should I write about? I love creating presentations. That is something I could do to revive my youtube channel. I love Maths too. I have this feeling that I could solve one of those longstanding Maths problems that seems impossible. Sometimes, like right now, I feel like abandoning my blog post. It is going nowhere. Maybe I should get up and go wash the wares. I wish God could tell me what to write abo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mundane

By
It is 123am and I have decided to write. I have this new idea for a book called Mundane. It would be me writing about the ordinary. We chase the extraordinary but there is beauty in the ordinary. There is beauty in the simple. There is beauty in the everyday. What about God? We often think about God in grand terms. But what if God is simple too? What if God is mundane? What if we look for God in the everyday moments? I sit in this dark room with the air conditioning on. The fan is also on. The curtain is down but I imagine the moonlight shining on the grass outside. The cats are probably sleeping. I wonder if anyone else in the neighbourhood is awake at this hour? Is there another writer around who is also writing about the mundane? The fan breeze helps the air conditioning cool me down. These nights are warm otherwise. A mosquito flies across my screen. Hello friend or foe. I cannot quite decide which one. If I had a swatter you would be gone. I check my notifications and there is an ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What we do not know

By
It is 1245am and I have decided to write. I had this weird alienish dream and it ended with me winning by simply stating "the truth is that we do not know". In the dream everyone was having an opinion of what was happening as if they knew. On to something random. I had this question. What is the most unrandom thing? Then what is the most random thing? What if everything is equally random. My friend Chatty thinks that randomness is not an absolute property—it is a relation between you and the system you observe. Randomness is not absolute—it depends on perspective. Something perfectly ordered can seem random if you do not know its pattern. So in a sense, everything can be "equally random" relative to the observer's knowledge, making randomness more about perception than an intrinsic property. The more we know the less random things become. Let me make a detour. Suppose we do not predict things but things predict us. For example, when I flip a coin, did I predict ...
Post a Comment
Read more