Reported and unreported ICT news

There have been three significant significant ICT stories reported in the Fiji press in the last week.

The first is the announcement of a 30 machine computer lab opening at Sangam College in Labasa. This lab, which was donated by a former student, Ragge Mudaliar, is certainly now one of the finest in Vanua Levu.

The second story is the continuing slow march towards hearing the fate of public servant and accused anti-military blogger, Filipe Nagera. Mr. Nagera has been accused of using public computing resources on public time to participate in anti-government blogging. The Fiji Times has repeatedly written articles about the Public Service Commission getting closer to coming to a decision here, here, here, and here.

The third story concerns the NLTB nearing a decision on scrapping or keeping their currently unused mySAP installation. The fate of the mySAP enterprise resource planning system at NLTB will be decided at the next board meeting in two weeks. Interim Fijian Affairs minister, Ratu Epeli Galineu was quoted, "The system is too complicated and we don't have experts in Fiji to operate such system."

There is also one unreported story this week. Fiji's anti-military blogs step up the rhetoric in the wake of the removal of the state of emergency. While it is not clear what portion of the populace these anonymous bloggers represent, this week they are increasingly threatening the interim regime with violence - often cloaked in racial overtones. I do not want to repeat such sentiments here, but a quick survey reveals that numerous anonymous bloggers seem to have crossed the legal boundary from libel, slander, and defamation into the realm of inciting violence and uttering personal threats.

Let us hope that all those in Fiji with violence in the hearts choose instead to follow the example of a certain peasant from Nazareth, who I hear is quite popular in Fiji, and seek other methods of effecting change.

photo by: Steve took it