Why Isn't Modern Technology More Prevalent in Trinidad and Tobago?

I had a phone conversation earlier today/yesterday (it all fades together at this time of dark), and had to sit back and really think about the question another programmer asked me today on the phone.

'Why is it that nobody adopts technology quickly in Trinidad and Tobago?'

It's a problem that I suppose that I have grown used to accepting instead of trying to change. The context of the conversation was about testing out Shotcode and Semacode, and how useful they could be for any number of things. Oddly enough, I got the original pointer from the Guyana Linux User Group, where a friend from Guyana asked a similar question when he posted the information.

My answer is that I don't know. There are any number of factors.

Jobs

This weekend, while at the grocery store, I ran into one of my former Advanced Computer Repair students (back when I taught at the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies... say that 3 times fast...). He's working in the oil industry now. Good pay. Not related to what he got a B+ in - Computer Repair. He's no dullard, he was a good student and had good ability. But the oil industry pays better. I don't know that his job is more or less skilled than computer repair; what I do know is that we all walk different paths. Before I worked at Honeywell, I spent a year leeching people as a glorified phlebotomist at the Central Florida Blood Bank (and teaching other people how to do it as well). We do what we have to do.

I know other people who migrated. In fact, a lot of people seem to think I'm not good at what I do simply because I came back. And, aside from a handful of local companies and specifically individuals... not many people are taking technology beyond what Microsoft Frontpage and other plug and pray software allow for because... well, I don't know why.

I remember in 2001 interviewing in Pointe-a-Pierre here in Trinidad for a Visual Basic 6.0 job which was simple database interfacing to a Microsoft Access database, something a college CompSci freshman should be able to do. In the interview, sitting there with (at the time) 13 years of professional programming experience, the human resources twit wanted me to have some certifying document stating that I could write Crayola Visual Basic code. I laughed at him during the interview. Really. When I asked specific questions about the database, I could see that he didn't know the first thing about relational databases, scalability, or other such things. 3 months later, they called me up and asked me to come in for the job. By then, I already had drummed up some contracts and given up on all the local 'technology' companies I knew of because they were so far behind the power curve that working for them would mean going back in time in a global market. Time travelling to the past, when men were men and object oriented programming was being called the worst thing since COBOL.

Maybe that's part of the problem. Companies are reading old magazines and hiring based on the news from 10 years ago. Sad. I think it's changing - not the companies I have formed that opinion of, but the new ones unveiling themselves. Young graduates and even skilled non-graduates don't find jobs that take them to the next level locally, so they leave. I wish they wouldn't. They do. But right now, I know a few companies that might hire a few. And in a few months, I'll need help.

Truth be told, I need help now, but can't afford what good help should be paid just yet.

At the FLOS Caribbean conference back in 2003, I recall Trinidad and Tobago has that.

And the programmer I was talking to? She's worked at 4 different companies here as a programmer, and has been working consistently below her level. So maybe it is happening. Maybe I'm out of the loop because of the decision I made in 2001. Maybe I just don't much in the way of challenging projects that pay down here.

Culture

I told my friend that stuff related to mobile phones would take off, because everyone is overusing the things. A high priced cell phone is apparently required for modern teenage mating rituals; when I was a teenager I'd have to wait til everyone was out so I could make my calls. And the more features your phone has these days, the more impressed the teenagers are. When I whipped out my Nokia 6620 recently, I had an attractive young woman obviously impressed with it when I was just answering the thing, but the whole thing was ruined when she said, 'That's a cool phone, Uncle¹'.

The only people really doing things with mobile phones in the region are the younger generations, and they're doing it for the best reason I can think of: Sex. That's what it boils down to. And that's OK with me - sure, they aren't having sex with the phones, but the peacock mobile phones are what torn jeans were for me in the 1980s. But none of the businesses that I know of are taking mobile phones seriously other than the people selling them and the companies providing service for them. Everyone has them. In fact, I have a theory that more people have mobile phones than electricity, but it's just a theory.

My father, until the day he died, thought the time I spent in front of a monitor was 'playing'. He didn't view it as work, even when he found himself doing a lot of work on the computer toward the end. Why? Because people down here don't seem to think you're busy unless you're fighting traffic, jabbering on a mobile phone, and spending excessive amounts of time on facial hair grooming. I'd rather get some work done, really.

I wonder if the culture has something to do with the brain drain not coming back. It seems in some ways like an intellectual abortion by the country. 'Smart people leave', people think, 'therefore if you are here you must be stupid.' I disagree, though at times I wonder at the lengths people will go to such that they may prove me wrong.

But I don't know. I'm a part of MobileActive, but I don't even have what I would consider a mobile phone infrastructure that I would consider on par with the richest nation in the Caribbean. Of course, that would lead to...

Government

Nope, I'm not going to blame the government. In fact, the only reason I even mentioned the political soap opera is because I wanted to be thorough. Private industry is not the government's responsibility, and I certainly don't want the government getting involved in private industry because it seems screwed up enough already. Besides, the governments present and past have demonstrated that they are incapable of doing the tasks that they are responsible for now. If a little child cannot handle tieing his shoes himself, it might be a good idea to not leave him alone with enough rope to hang everyone in the household.

If government was handling the responsibilities that they do have, would that change things?

I don't know. I do know government gets blamed for a lot, but I also know that scapegoats are cheap in developing countries.

Everywhere Is the Same.

My brother and I spoke on the phone some months ago, and we were talking about how every country has the same problems... it was simply a matter of levels. Levels. So what a developing nation should be aspiring to are the problems that a developed nation will meet in the future, but that requires so much forethought that some get lost in the future and never come back. Perhaps I am one of those. I don't know.

What I do know is that my friend is right. And I don't want her to be, I want to think it's changing, I see it changing in my own sphere... but my own sphere does not represent the whole.

And I get back to that conversation with Richard Jobity back in 2003. I forget the question, but the answer was, 'Lack of Hope'. Is that the key?

I don't know. But I think more people need to think about the solutions. The problem will only ever be defined by the solutions.

There I go, reverse engineering reality again...

¹ 'Uncle' is a term of respect, sort of like 'Sir'. It also smarts the first few times you hear it. ;-)