Technology--Moving from the Old to the New, Ghana-Style

It is an article of e-faith that as soon as anything hip, trendy and new becomes de rigeur, the old is phased out slowly and surely. No surprises, then, that you will find many outlets dedicated to printing digital cameras, but very few are ready to print film from the old cameras.

This was one particular trial that I was happy to endure today. Happy, because it served to underscore, in so many ways, that technology in a developing country like Ghana is a potentially spurious concept.

Spurious, because Ghanaians, say, are quite happy to see that a lot has changed in the mobile telephony world on account of being able to access GPRS services and live (voicemail) SMS, but if these technologies are leaving behind old technologies, such as the basic ability to make a clear call on your phone, then one begins to question whether something is not rather a-miss!

In this specific context of looking for an outlet to print my "normal" and conventional films, whilst I was amused, I was also irritated, because all the places I knew were either no longer printing such films, or had moved on to other places.

Life is evidently about living and learning, but it takes some experiences like these to make you stop and think whether the technology should not start to complement existing ones, rather than making them obsolete?

Sporadic Posting for a while

We may have passed the middle of the year already, and every one might have forgotten how close to Christmas we are all getting. I raise this issue, because it strikes me every day, off-late, that time is running out for the numerous things we want to do.

 

Blogging offers a grand escape from the realities of life, and I am not about to stop it soon.

 

Suffice-to-say, whether it's about Venezuela getting goose-bumps from the friction of leaving MERCOSUR for a better alternative; me getting late with the writing of my novel; appreciating beautiful parts of Accra by way of pictures I have taken--but not yet posted--or pontificating about some of the challenges of living and working in my ever-so-beautiful country of Ghana, I shall blog about it.

 

Just that: next week, as this week has proved to be, I shall be a bit busy.

 

Internet provision that has remained this side of sporadic, coupled with a battle against viruses--both computer-related and otherwise--has been the bane of my blogging, but I shall definitely recover the week of the 23rd of July.

 

You can for sure expect more soapboxing from then!

 

have a good weekend!