There is an imminent need to revisit the institutional arrangements for disaster mitigation, response and warning systems because serious gaps still exist between practices and the policies in effect, as indicated by the recent folds and tsunami alerts, said Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, delivering LIRNEasia’s Disaster Risk Reduction Public Lecture on July 7, 2010 at the Foundation Institute auditorium. This was the inaugural public lecture of LIRNEasia’s series of disaster risk reduction events. Illustrating Sarvodaya’s contribution to the disaster recovery process in response to a series of natural disasters including the cyclone in 1978, the Kantalai tank bund breach in 1986 and the tsunami in 2004, Dr. Ariyaratne explained the lessons learnt and how that changed the institutional attitude.
CHAKULA is a newsletter produced by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Named after the Swahili word for ‘food’, it aims to mobilise African civil society around ICT policy for sustainable development and social justice issues. The latest issue features an e-interview with LIRNEasia’s CEO Rohan Samarajiva, but it is not the only reason why we thought of highlighting the issue. The content is interesting and very readable. We publish two e-interviews from July 2010 issue here fully, as they are not available on public domain.
We live in an age of hazards. The climate change will make it worse. Be prepared or perish seems to be the nature’s message. At the inaugural public lecture of LIRNEasia’s annual Disaster Risk Reduction events, we will discuss how best to face the future threats and what the communities, government and private sector can do. PRESENTATION Vinya Ariyaratne is General Secretary of the Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya.
The colloquium was conducted by Dr. Sujata Gamage. She began by giving an overview of the project, Knowledge to innovation in solid waste services through Linkages. Now, focus on peer2peer linkages and public-private partnerships. The research looks at linkages that work.
Lankadeepa online today reported this strange incident of Sri Lanka’s Police arresting an individual in Medavachchiya for playing an SMS prank on his wife. He allegedly texted his wife, who was on a pilgrimage to Anuradhapura about a ‘terrorist attack’ at the sacred city. The report further says Police has already questioned six and looks for another four.
Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen. From 1 July every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015. In the UK the government has promised a minimum connection of at least 2Mbps to all homes by 2012 but has stopped short of enshrining this as a right in law. The Finnish deal means that from 1 July all telecommunicatons companies will be obliged to provide all residents with broadband lines that can run at a minimum 1Mbps speed.
When we talk about taking research to policy, we say that it is better to change the way policy makers think than change policy. One of our big wins was the inclusion of sustainable dam safety measures in a USD 71 million World Bank credit to the Government of Sri Lanka. Now we read this in the 2010 first budget speech: Hon. Speaker while expanding irrigation infrastructure, we must also devote adequate resources for the maintenance of both minor and major irrigation systems to ensure their safety and improve water management in downstream development. The government has already implemented a programme to improve dam safety in all major irrigation projects and increase water reservoir capacity.
Hasanul Haq Inu chairs the parliamentary standing committee on telecoms ministry. This treasury bench lawmaker has been critical about the proposed amendments of the telecoms law. Inu’s committee has been scrutinizing the amendments before the parliament approves it. Yesterday he said in a public event, “Such an unfriendly bill must be changed,” according to press reports. Inu has also urged the prime minister “to be careful about the conspiracy against her digital Bangladesh dream.
We’ve been saying that the screen in the hand will win over the screen on the desk for sometime. So it is with pleasure that we note the big boys are coming to the same position. Chattertrap has already caught the eye of Li Ka-shing, a Chinese billionaire who has invested in Facebook and the music-streaming service Spotify. Mr. Li recently led a $1.
We do not normally use the US telecom policy as an example. But this is definitely something to be emulated. The future of Internet access in Asia is wireless. It’s high time governments started on the hard work of refarming frequencies to meet the demand. The Obama administration is seeking to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years, an effort that could greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smartphones and other hand-held devices.
Thirteen young scholars were selected to attend a tutorial and workshop on mobile 2.0 on 21 and 22 June 2010 in Singapore. The event was co-organised by LIRNEasia and the Department of Communication and New Media (CNM) of the National University of Singapore (NUS). The tutorials included topics such as “Communicating for policy influence” and “supply and demand side research”. The workshop included presentations of LIRNEasia’s mobile 2.
The telecoms minister gave audience to all the mobile CEOs and assured them of an “industry-friendly law” yesterday, according to the Daily Star. This meeting was held after the industry had expressed the possibility of legally challenging the proposed amendments of the telecoms law as their last resort, according to Daily Star’s previous report. “We are hopeful that as a guardian of the industry, the telecom minister will look into these issues,” said Zakiul Islam, president of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh. It’s a positive development and that’s how the government and the industry address major issues in a democratic society. The amendments were initiated by an undemocratic regime.
The mobile operators will take the government to the court if proposed amendments of the telecoms law are not rationalized. All the six operators’ CEOs have unanimously announced their “last resort” in a historic press conference on Tuesday (June 22, 2010). Even the state-owned TeleTalk’s CEO, who is a civil servant, has joined the camp of his private sector rivals. This is the first time the usually docile mobile phone industry has threatened legal action against Bangladesh government. Because, the proposed amendments will reshape the regulatory landscape with the quicksand of penalties and landmines of arrest without warrant.
Given the interest rate spread that is generally high, it did not take much effort to make money from banks in Sri Lanka. But state banks are state banks. You’d expect them and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to be highest revenue earners for the government. But nothing can keep up with what the TRC gives the Treasury: It would take 2.3 billion rupees coming from Bank of Ceylon, 1.
The UNP in Parliament on June 11, called for the expansion of mobile phone facilities in the rural areas where by the rural people can make use of their mobile phones for their banking requirements. UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva who was speaking during the private member’s motion moved by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake to extend banking hours from 9 am to 4pm said expanded banking services should be made available to the rural people. “These people have banking too in their pockets in the form of the mobile phones and this should be made use of,” he said. Read the full article here.
I was recently invited by the United Nations System Influenza Coordination (UNSIC), regional office in Bangkok, to present our findings from the Real-Time Biosurveillance (RTBP) Pilot. UNSIC has appointed Dr. David Nabarro, the founder of Flu-Tracker to develop and implement a comprehensive unified strategy for UN system on pandemic influenza prevention, preparedness and response and increase the effort to control avian influenza. Given the nature of LIRNEasia researchers to speak the evidence as it is and not be superficial as in marketing products, the public and private stakeholders in Bangkok were intrigued to learn of the real intricacies of implementing a systems such the RTBP in India and Sri Lanka. We will continue to collaborate with UNSIC in feeding our extremely rich experiences and implications with possible contributions to their regional good practices documentation due in June 2011.