‘Mobile phone calls death’. The ominous title, in Lankadeepa online, is not too uncommon in Sri Lankan media. The story is about the latest victim, who apparently met his death by lighting when talking to his mobile on the bund of a tank. According to Daily Mirror, deaths by lightning in Sri Lanka has increased with 18 people been killed since March 1, 2010, against ten such deaths for entire 2009. Daily Mirror also advices against, inter alia, the use of mobile phones even indoors.

BBC quotes a British Medical Journal letter to the editor that tells about a 15-year-old girl struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather.

Why mobile phones increase the lighting hit risk? This is the explanation by Swinda Esprit, senior house officer in otorhinolaryngology, an author of the BMJ letter: When a person is hit by lightning, the high resistance of human skin causes the lightning charge to flow over the body – often known as an ‘external flashover’. But some of the current can flow through the body. The more that flows through, the more internal damage it causes. Conductive materials in direct contact with the skin such as liquid or metal objects increase the risk that the current will flow through the body and therefore cause internal injury.

Still it is controversial whether mobile phone is the culprit. Please note both victims were standing on flat lands with no taller objects in the neighborhood. They bodies would have attracted the lightning even without the mobiles in their hands.

So, is it fair to blame mobiles?

Let us wait for the expert opinion.

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) once the political ally to ruling Peoples’ Alliance of Sri Lanka, has come up with an innovative idea to link 300,000 plus Internally Displaced Persons with their relatives. Why not create Face Book accounts? Daily Mirror story does not say so, but perhaps JVP wants it done by the government.

Rohan Samarajiva made a less complex and more effective suggestion: Why not give them mobile phones?

‘The technology that allows freedom to talk even without the freedom to walk is the phone.’ He wrote in his popular column Choices in Lanka Business Online on June 01, 2009, ‘We have plenty of phones. Why not use them, to help the IDPs recover?’

We publish extracts from Rohan’s column below, in case if JVP or Govt is interested in a more practical solution.

In an ideal world, I would simply invite well wishers, friends and family to donate mobiles and talktime to the IDPs and ask the operators to quickly add capacity to their base stations near the camps.

But I do not live in an ideal world. Many lives have been lost; many bad things have happened; and more may happen. Let us start modestly. Slow progress is better than none.

The technology exists for restricting the numbers that can be called. The authorities could start with phones that will allow communication among the camps only; the next step would be to allow logged and rationed calls. Rationing would be necessary in the early stages because the IDPs do not have cash on hand.

The process can start with outgoing calls, with incoming being permitted gradually. Once connections have been established with friends and family and the authorities start allowing visits, the use of donated/purchased mobile phones and the sale of prepaid value within and nearby the camps can commence.

One way or another, let us address the requirements of resilience: the need to talk to friends and family, to tell the stories that bring us back to normalcy and help us push back the horrors that haunt our waking and sleeping hours. Food and medicine are important, but we all know that they are not enough. Psychosocial healing is needed too. And the ability to talk to loved ones is an integral part of that healing.

Let us help these our fellow citizens recover. That would be the beginning of healing the body politic and of restoring it. This is the path to really ending the war: the elimination of the conditions for the re-emergence of terrorism.

The full column is  here.

This line from the popular Sinhala song ‘Saroja’ (sung by the wife of a powerful minister of the current regime) tells it all. First it was for students, but now the government wants to extend the mobile phone ban for teachers too. Not a surprising move by a government that wants to block  ‘Adults Only’ films watched by…er, adults.

Reported Daily Mirror:

“I have heard that the Nuwara Eliya incident had taken place involving a teacher and the other incident was connected to a female student. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has taken measures to prohibit the use of mobile phones at public schools. However, I think the rule must apply to both students and teachers. Hence, it is most appropriate if teachers also refrain from using mobile phones during school hours,” President Rajapaksa said.

The President expressed these views while addressing the ‘Nena Guna Weduma’ ceremony under the National Education Programme at Temple Trees to give away appointment letters to 415 graduate teachers by the Western Provincial Council.

Read the full story here.

Dialog Telekom PLC in collaboration with its partners Dialog University of Moratuwa Mobile Communications Research Laboratory and Microimage Technologies together with the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) of Sri Lanka launched Sri Lanka’s first ever mass alert warning system; the ‘Disaster and Emergency Warning Network’ (DEWN) yesterday under the patronage of Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Speaking on the launch of DEWN Group Chief Executive Officer, Dialog Telekom PLC, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya said that “There are 10 million people in this country who have access to telecommunication and mobile services. Now the mobile has become a powerful tool which could be called as a ‘Digital Empowerment Device’ and our citizens are digitally empowered into the digital network”. Dr. Wijayasuriya went onto say that now one can even provide banking and other information services via a mobile phone unit adding that the Dialog News Alert service has now reached 350,000 subscribers.

DEWN is a system that was being tested by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) to alert Dialog mobile users of potential disasters via a method called ‘Cell Broadcast’. Users only need to configure area information reception settings on their Dialog mobiles to receive the alerts issued. The DMC takes the responsibility to adequately verify any emergency situation and issue alerts. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Dialog Telekom PLC and Disaster Management Centre to start the DEWN. In a potential disaster scenario, the DMC will first use DEWN to alert emergency personnel on their individual phones, and public alerts will be issued only when a threat is adequately verified. In addition to alerts received on the mobile phones, specially designed DEWN remote alarms will also be used to alert nominated emergency personnel. Cell Broadcast is currently available only on the Dialog GSM network and not yet available on #G mode.

Addressing the gathering Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe said that “since December 26th 2004, when we lost 38,000 lives and when the tsunami caused serious damage to the assets of our economy and development of the country, the Government has moved into make Sri Lanka a safe place”. The Minister also highlighted the importance of private sector corporate social responsibility projects that enhance and enrich the lives of people. “Disaster prevention and mitigation in this country is essential for rapid economic strategy and sustainable economic development of Sri Lanka” Minister Samarasinghe said adding that the 24 hour operating Disaster Management Centre will be the focal point when sending the alerts via Dialog network.

Read the full story in Daily Mirror here.

This is an old idea in a new photograph. Taken from the Saturday on-line edition of Daily Mirror.lk. One hand typing is fun. Not to mention modem-free Internet. (Or is he doing a Powerpoint presentation?)

LIRNEasia believes in taking the benefits of ICTs to the masses. What it does not believe is famers in lion clothes in the middle of paddy fields would check Dow Jones index, or for that matter, read this blog post. Neither have we believed they would gather at nearby Telecenter to find information about pesticides. Not that they don’t need such info – but we know the difference between their approaches and typical ICT4D thinking. We are interested doing policy research – not academic – and we thrive in making differences.

This prelude is to say that we need more brains – at least two. In plain English, EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES at LIRNEasia for a RESEARCHER/PROJECT MANAGER and a JUNIOR RESEARCHER. More details here.

Dialog 3G will deliver the unique communication channel of video calling to customers in Jaffna who will now be able to have face to face conversations with their loved ones locally and internationally.

Read the full story in Daily Mirror here.