A Christmas unmatched with the extended family, without the binges in the backyards, without the Mass with the boy kiss. A New Year's Eve without the New Year's Eve, the riga wedding that starts at 19 pm, interrupts for the usual kandandu and continues into the morning "until the sun rises" as the artist said ... who would have thought possible? If someone painted this scenario in December 2018, he would be considered a crazy person, candidate for a vacation in the kubiku of Papa Kitoko.
But that is exactly what happened. From December to December came the coronavirus and its “kaxíku” Covid 19 and the festive season was unthinkable: staying at home and each one each.
It was there that digital literacy acquired by force in the previous months appeared as the lifeline of everyone. Among the messages via sms that were already of old practice, there was a massive use of social networks to circumvent the isolation: video calls instead of visits, kisses and hugs, memes happy holidays replacing gifts, films through the mobile phone of some kaxêxe plots sent to distant relatives and friends to show that the hinges are still up to date for the semba's hump in a future that hope insists on keeping present.
The new information and communication technologies provided the dribble and made the party. Sociologically speaking, they instituted a new normal in the way of living this festive season in the same way that they have done in the various other spheres of life since this pandemic began. And everything focuses on what it will be like in the future with no forecast of completion.
This brings us to two lessons: the first one that will be advised to everyone to embrace the digital and conform life to it. There is no point in resisting the uncomfortable substitution that the virtual has been doing in person. It's inevitable! And everything indicates that those people, institutions and countries that more quickly take possession of this reality, more benefits will reap “from the new World that is coming” as sung by the late Waldemar Bastos.
The second lesson, as important as the first because it complements it, is that there is a need for a deliberate, planned and massive investment in the country's digital infrastructure. No data to gauge the degree of increased use of ICTs during the festive season - it is notorious that it rose exponentially for the reasons mentioned above - it is already possible to notice difficulties even in the service of mobile phone network companies that did not happen before. The Net is slow, the calls are dropped, the sms do not pass, the audio quality of the calls is low, in short, all the saturation signals of the networks due to congestion. And this, today, is already connected with indicators of technological and life backwardness.
Technological delay because as we have said on other occasions, everything is done in the virtual via ICTs: from teleworking to summits of Heads of State. And a delay in life because, being unable to stay at home to do their job, they will have to leave, break the physical and social isolation necessary to control the pandemic and the rest is already being guessed: an increase in cases that, for greater exposure to the pandemic, a vicious circle that Angola, better than most countries in the world is managing to cut (nothing to do with our usual megalomania; this time the numbers speak in our favor, which does not mean lowering the guard or take your foot off the accelerator).
It is for this reason that priority should be given to listening and giving priority attention to international partnerships that are carriers of technological solutions to bridge the digital literacy gap and that can invest in the country's ICT infrastructure. Until then, some concrete steps in the execution phase by the executive should be accelerated, as the Brazilians say. I refer to the link, albeit in a rooming system, between the antennas of the two private cell phone operators that we have. It does not make sense and it is urgent that a UNITEL antenna can also emit the signal from Movicel and vice versa. So that we don't have the spectacle of wasting two antennas in the same area, each with a generator and guard, and spending fuel and lubricants when it could be one and the two even earn more. This would greatly increase the signal coverage for the country that still has large chunks without network coverage.
It is also necessary to invest in updating the ICT technology in use in the country. We are in the era of 4ª Industrial Revolution, computerization and robotization of almost everything in life. We are not going anywhere with technology reminiscent of analog. Not only is it a delay in life, it isolates us from the global village that this world is increasingly transforming.
Article written by Celso Malavoloneke, published on MenosFios with the authorization of his press office.
