Sri Lanka
I’ve been considering a trip to Sri Lanka. I have an idea for using technology to assist in the recovery efforts in Sri Lanka or at least to bring additional aide into the country. Part of my reason is to prove to my friend that technology could help in such situations.
My friend who is in the country now believes that government corruption has been rampant and much of the money being sent to government agencies usually ends up in the pockets of corrupt politicians.
My idea involved setting up a radio broadcast to perform investigative journalism using Podcasting. I want to help perform the initial broadcast and after two weeks or so enable locals to perform the broadcast themselves.
I wanted to do this before I went to Madrid but I need to take 4 weeks of immunizations before I can go to the country. So going before Madrid is not possible. But it�s an idea. Maybe someone else can run with it or give me feedback.
February 28th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
I had a feeling that some greedy bastards were pocketing some of the tsunami relief funds. I think it’s a good idea to expose this (if it indeed exists) to people who send money for this relief but, I’m not sure if it will get much exposure in America.
About Spain: the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security. Do you know if this is going to be broadcasted on C-SPAN?
March 2nd, 2005 at 8:31 pm
I think that is an excellent idea. It would greatly empower the people to govern themselves and create their own self-aid groups.
I remember reading on a news site that there is still trouble in Sri Lanka with the rebel forces, and some other party that do not wish to receive foreign aid.
March 17th, 2005 at 1:13 am
I worked on the website for http://www.sarvodaya.org, a Sri Lankan grass-roots development movement (though this comment has no affiliation with them). As to your friend’s question, technology definitely does help. It makes fundraising much easier, and Sarvodaya and others are using it to provide accountability and transparency. The government of course, is not using technology and acted insulted when Transparency International asked them for accountability. The papers are on them, and http://servesrilanka.blogspot.com/ is the best watchdog we have online right now.
Podcasting could be useful in that I, at least, am having huge language problems. Local people all speak Sinhala or Tamil and it’s very hard getting that info 1) into text form and 2) translated. It’s one way of getting content in the language people use here.
Do you seriously need 4 weeks of immunizations? I came here from Canada without any.
March 31st, 2005 at 4:29 pm
Funny thing is my friend started blogging in Sri Lanka. I guess she saw the light.
Thats a really good point about podcasting and language. Podcasting might be really great for environments where computers can’t be used for power consumptions, space or literacy reasons. All you really need is a small MP3 recorder and a mic.
I’m going to try and put the Sri Lanka blog on Global Voices.
The tell you that you have to get immunizations. I guess I could go without it and risk death.