government mulling smart card ?

[kazi]

I just read that the government is mulling over introduction of smart cards. I am just curious what aawartaners think of this. I think it invites many many problems that its solves. If I could I would ask these guys why they are mulling over such stuffs when more than half the country is still illiterate.

[Ganesha]

1. There will never be equality. The outright outcome of a free society is the variety it produces. So no point in idolizing the fact that there will be a day when poverty is eliminated.

2. Just because there are poor people does not mean you cannot go forward. Can you ask all those Nepalis leaving Nepal to go abroad for better lives to stay back and help the wretched just because you are well off than the rest?

3. There is no point in saying technology should not be embraced. If not today, tomorrow it will be, it has to be. So why not today? Look at the funny decision of Nepal issuing Machine Readable Passports. We don't need it. Even that paper one is too costly (do you know where it is printed?) and more than enough for its purpose. However, there are requirements that passports have to be machine readable after certain date and hence this upgrade.

4. As technology advances and we become more and more intertwined with the internet, privacy in this digital age and usefulness of information will be separated by a razor thin line. People will not stop debating but then there is no choice.

5. Look at the brighter side. Instead of carrying so many cards (passport, citizenship, birth certificate, business pan numbers etc. ) we will have one cosolidated piece of id. This will ease much stress in handling paper and reducing red tape.

6. Look at the developed world. They are using it despite its issues. Look at the amount of money they save every year, the comfort it gives their citizens with the usage (saving of their time). Do we not deserve to save so little money we have and put it to some good use? And if they can take that pill which they know has so many side effects and take the risks, why not us, who have so less to lose than them?

7. Whatever resources the country has, most of it is going to "people's" pockets. If this is done, although money will again flow to those special pockets, we will actually have done something.

8. In a country where citizen's safety and security is not guaranteed, I would not really care if a few people's information gets known or manipulated by someone. We already are living in such hell that the threat posed by this might just be considered a non-issue.

9. Go ahead. Set an example with the introduction of the cards. In the country where many people believe nothing can be done, the project will definitely send positive signals. And a much needed awareness of technology.

[kazi]

I agree with every one of your points. Well spoken, my friend. And truly I have nothing against technology and everything for technology. And what is more, I think we are looking in the same direction. And yet I am surprised that this misunderstanding appeared. I was also thinking about the not-haves. But what I was saying is they need education and awareness more than technology. Who will benefit from technology? The top ten percent of the population? That is not good enough for me. Do smart card and whatever else.. but distribute a 100,000 OLPC netbooks also. Is that too much to ask?

[Ganesha]

Hmm... I have always dreamt of running old linux boxes as servers in schools and teaching kids nothing but programming in order to revolutionize the country, our views of it and the foreign impression of this place. Distributing that many number of OLPCs will definitely make a mark even if there will not be many teachers to teach the kid. I am positive that the kids will learn their way, given the machine and among them a few will definitely excel, whose achievements will affect positively on the majority of the population. And thus I wholly agree to this idea. Perhaps I am too much of a believer in technology that I cannot bear dissent in such thoughts and thus my response earlier.

A 100,000 OLPCs is 2 crore American dollars and that becomes 140 crore Nepali Rupees, roughly. That amount though large by any means is the combined cost of fewer than twenty houses in Kathmandu. Not unachievable, really! I wish we could do something similar to "Mahayagyas" like those done by Pandit Narayan Pokhrel when he was alive, seriously.

[kazi]

Well, there you go.. lets forget 20 houses equivalent.. just make it 10.. or, better, for this year make it 2 houses.. that is equivalent to 10,000 OLPCs per year... really its very much possible.