CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Kenya |
SOCIAL CONDIT.
We live in the dot com age where computer technology takes the upper hand in most of the things with which we have to deal with from day to day. But there are exceptions...The author describes his own sad experiences in Kenya
In this day and age, a writer does not expect to forge ahead while relying on a typewriter — a manual one at that. As a result. I too have become involved in attempts to catch up with the rest of the world.
So far, I have been relying on the use of electronic mail services offered commercially. This reliance, unfortunately, has resulted in a downturn due to the inefficiency of the service providers. Quite a number of articles I believed to have sent (and paid for), do not seem to have reached their destinations. It appears that at times they are not even sent! And when they are sent, they have an unacceptable high number of mistakes (the service providers even do the typing — and charge dearly for it).
This was confirmed when once I decided to wait until an article was typed in my presence. The typing seemed to take forever. When it was finally completed, I went over it, correcting the numerous typographical errors. Then, it was sent. Since I don’t live close to any e-mail provider, I had to leave home very early in the morning. Yet the article wasn’t sent until six in the evening —so late that I nearly missed the only means of getting back home, arriving well past eight at night.
I received a prompt reply and the article was soon published. I took the opportunity to check on the list of articles I had sent to the publisher. It seemed that a number of those I had sent earlier hadn’t arrived, which means they hadn’t even been sent!
So I thought it best to acquire a computer. In that way I could at least do the typing and editing myself before taking articles to be e-mailed. But all in all, any remuneration I might have received for my work was greatly affected by e-mail provider charges, thus putting paid to my efforts to purchase a personal computer — even a «third hand» one.
I then resorted to a computer donated to a nearby secondary school by the area’s Member of Parliament. Since we still do not have an electricity supply in the area, I had to use an electric generator. Also, some computer parts were missing and I had to find my own. But alas, the computer had a virus! I had no booting discs to restart it.
A journey in vain
I then had to travel to the nearest town where the service providers are. I found a friend who accepted to accompany me with his discs, so that we could get the computer working and install a printer I had acquired. All I had to do was to provide fuel for his motor bike — and that wasn’t cheap, I assure you. So, off we set...but did not arrive. When we were five kilometres from our destination, we were involved in an accident.
It was approximately 12.30 P.M. Some women were crossing the road chasing a «matatu» (public service van). The last woman in the group started to rush across the road, but then stopped as if to turn back. Her friends encouraged her to come along and she started to cross again.
My friend slammed on his brakes. The resultant force pushed me against his back and... the three of us, myself, my friend and the woman crashed onto the tarmac. The woman was too injured to get up and the groundnuts she was carrying, were strewn all over the place. Obviously she had to be taken to hospital where police officers took our particulars.
I went with my friend and the police to the scene of the accident, and then onto the police station to formerly report the accident and make statements. All this took until nearly six o’clock the same evening, and then my friend and myself went our separate ways. The following day I had to return to the police station and while waiting for the officer in charge, was able to take a practical interest in what was going on around me. A peep inside the remand prison, however made me tremble. Prisoners were held in an iron chain as they sat on the bare floor. Was I going to end up there?
Well, not for the moment, thank goodness, but my pursuit for the elusive dot com has not yet borne fruit and my early trips to the service provider continue.
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