Love, Purpose, and Ten Dollars

This will be my submission to this future leadears competition


I was scrolling through facebook and saw this essay contest posted by TATT. At first I was excited. I am a writer. I am a nooby book writer. I have been a blogger and tech blogger for about 20 years. My excitement turned to disappointment when it appeared to me that I might not be the target audience or that I do not have the expertise to write for this topic. However, I decided that I am still going to give it a try. Maybe it encourages the organization and judges to have a category in the future that caters for a wider audience. Surely I will not win but it will get me thinking and it will be an opportunity for learning and of course I will be doing my favorite thing which is writing. The topic is breaking down barriers to sustainability. This is related to our future towards green and digital solutions and the communications industry as I understand it. What policies, regulations and structures are needed? Who pays for these?

Right off the bat I would like to answer the question of who pays. Who benefits, who profits and who can afford should pay, comes to my mind. What is the communications industry? I turned to Google for this question and found a website that listed 40 examples. From ISPs to Web hosting to Mobile device manufacturers. In Trinidad we have the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) supported by the government and our taxes. My most direct and most dependent part from the communications industry is my internet connection and the web services and the mobile phone that I use. I pay for my internet through the ISP and many of the websites I use are ad supported. As a citizen and blogger and internet user and recognising the importance of my internet and our green and digital future, I am willing to pay ten dollars more on my internet bill and ten dollars more on the purchase of my mobile phone and that goes directly to policy and regulation and structure. Things that in my mind would lead to cheaper and better communications so really it might be a net future savings for me.

I think to ensure future sustainability the players in the communications industry must focus on purpose and doing good rather than profits. When I told my friend Gemini this, he agreed with me saying that there is a strong argument for the communications industry to prioritize purpose and social good alongside profit. We are increasingly drawn to brands with a strong social conscience. There is a growing movement towards what is called "conscious capitalism". The world is interconnected and we can only build a better future together. Love for humanity must be a stronger driver of development than greed. We can do the most amount of research and develop the most sophisticated structures but it must be guided by love and kindness and doing good to truly have an impact and bring real prosperity. This is from the school of hard knocks. Love for humanity fosters a sense of shared responsibility and a willingness to work together for the common good.

So can targets be met and are policies enough? I like to think that anything is possible with the right attitude. From my experience one of the hardest things to do is measure targets and one of the easiest ways to stay motivated is by introducing incentives. So in my simple and minimalist thinking we should offer incentives to the players in the communications industry and the best policies are the simple policies. Simple policies are easier to understand and implement. I realized that I have not touched on the topic of breaking barriers. I guess myself as a non-expert writing on this topic even though I cannot compete with the technocrats is breaking barriers. We can break barriers by getting the views of the man on the street. The everyday citizens who are impacted the most by policies and decisions made at the top. We can break barriers by giving a voice to the ordinary.

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