Attended a 'dialogue' about Telecom in Islamabad today. True to tradition, the organizers had no clue about the need for AN agenda.
It was as bland as the title suggested: A Dialogue on Telecom Scenario. So much information, so much hype, so much money and so many talking heads yet there is no concept of orchestrating a public speaking forum. The panel consisted of our IT Minister, mighty IT secretary, a cell company CEO, MD PTV and the sponsor newspaper's editors. Each guest spoke for 10-20 minutes starting with "history of telecom"--the editors majorly mixed up their IT with their telecom [always a BIG blunder!] and moving on to issues cellular companies are facing today.
Telecom in Pakistan? I see lots: PTCL, poor customer service, lack of superb HR, regulatory issues, landlines, wirless, cellular [and not only cellular], VoIP, the Internet....so why was the discussion so narrow and cliched?
Questions from the audience? Miserable. Gentleman to Minister, "I have a specific question for the Minister....[breaks into 10 minute monologue about how soon we will push a button to transport from Pakistan to America since this is the 'e' age]....and the specific question is this, there is so much emphasis on 'e', so why isn't the goverment recognizing e newspapers?" The question met with stunned [numb, dumb] silence all around until the poor Minister said he would put this before the Minister of Information. Yee ha, I say!
Secretary IT quotes: Internet is universally accessible in OVER 2000 cities in the country.
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4 comments:
are there even 2000 cities that qualify as cities in pakistan? i would think most would be classified as towns, goth's, basti's and gaaon's.
Why doesn't Spider itself organise an IT seminar? I mean, you guys have the contacts, getting sponsors is never a problem (if you need a hand let me know and heck, I'm sure you can do a better job at advertising (your own magazine) and managing the event than most people...
No offense, but maybe it's time that Spider ACTUALLY does something more than just analyse the status quo...
Scene: May 17, 2005. Telecom Day event by PTA at Karachi Sheraton.
100% coherence free talk. Two of the speakers first telling the audience that they do not have a telecom background and have 'jumped in because [this] Telecom [is sooo *in* -Ed]' and booming these days. And in the next breath they are shamelessly telling us 'where we are', 'where we are headed' and 'what the future is going to be like'. Two of the gentlemen representing the government sector (ministry and PTA) demonstrated their high level of reading skills when the read out their powerpoint para-graph after para-graph (point size 8) presentation with their noses fixed to the presentation papers they held in their hands but at least that provided a chance for the audience to go to the back and enjoy the coffee and chai.
Couple all this lack of technological understanding, non-existent presentation skills with the typical inability of ours to manage and conduct meetings and speaker sessions and there you've the typical IT & Telecom Dramas of Pakistan. I think its 'the rise of mediocracy' (see a recent article in Dawn by Dr Tasnim Siddiqui http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/10/op.htm#2) that explain why all this is like this. Mediocres everywhere - from Technology to Politics. :)
2000, Really? That's really messed up.
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