Message-ID: <v0213050cad1330e9c813@[196.20.20.2]> Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 20:09:00 GMT+0100 From: Dr Eberhard W Lisse <mailto:el@LISSE.NA> Subject: Re: TRS-80 Computers for Africa To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Good thread eh? :-)-OBob Haslach mentioned prejudice. Au contraire, mon ami!
Experience, experience. I actually live here!
Bruce Geisert mentioned that he is not the villain, he just posted the message. Sure, you'll find that I never mentioned anything personal.
We are talking about development, are we not?
I am seriously involved in having established Internet on a sustainable (non-profit) basis here in Namibia (which still qualifies as developing country).
I just returned from Senegal where I did the RINAF Regional Course for francophone West Africa (with participants from Mali).
They don't *WANT* TRS-80s there! TRS-80s are outdated technology and unsupportable in Africa. If it breaks it is gone and all you have done was in vain. Sure they will take whatever you give them, when I asked the participants why so many useless programs were accepted by the locals, they invariably said: "UNESCO has the money, so we have to do what they tell us." And this is just not true!
Mali has a rudimentary UUCP (horribly expensive for international mail, 3 French Francs per KB but cheap for local mail) and (internal PPP) net which is on the verge of going IP (more a money issue then everything else). You don't *WANT* to put in outdated, incompatible, proprietary, unsupportable, unrepairable systems which also duplicate and thus weaken the existing effort. You want to put in computers that will broaden the existing user base and strengthen the existing net.
80x88 are at least repairable. Lots of them are around in these countries. They can thus be replaced or repaired (from canibalized ones if necessary) And they run standard software. Doesn't need Windows, uuPC and Minuet do extremely well.
Robert da Silva mentioned Pentium, the coastal gateway in this country runs on a 33Mhz 8MB 386 with Linux...
This is again an idea supported by people who have absolutely no incling of what is going on in Africa. Who have never been here. Who don't speak the language. Who do more harm then good in the long run...
greetings, el
PS: I started 1983 on an Osborne, remember that one? WordStar was all the rage around then. (And it still works, so my mother assures me from Germany where it stands in the attic :-)-O)
-- Dr. Eberhard W. Lisse \ / Swakopmund State Hospital mailto:<el@lisse.NA> * | Resident Medical Officer Private Bag 5004 \ / +264 64 461503 (pager) 461005 (home) 461004 (fax) Swakopmund, Namibia ;____/ Zone/Domain Contact for the NA-DOM Vice-Chairman, Board of Trustees, Namibian Internet Development Foundation, an Association not for Gain. NAMIDEF is the Namibian Internet Service Provider.