[Telecentres] RE: [Telecentre's] Basic Telecentre Items

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Don and all,

Disaster management and preparation is obviously a useful service that can
be provided via telecenters as shown by the excellent example you posted.
As a specialist in the psychological aspects and effects of crisis and
disaster, I have long advocated for the use of media/ICT to help communities
cope in the after math of disasters, as an effective method of reaching
large segments of the population. Telecenters can be especially useful in
providing disaster preparation and crisis intervention/management services
in rural and remote areas.

Elizabeth

Dr. Elizabeth Carll
Focal Point
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies;
Chair Media/ICT Working Group,
NGO Committee on Mental Health, New York
Tel: 1-631-754-2424
Fax: 1-631-754-5032
ecarll at optonline.net
  -----Original Message-----
  From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org
[mailto:telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org]On Behalf Of Don Cameron
  Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 10:10 AM
  To: 'Toby Beresford'
  Cc: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
  Subject: RE: [Telecentres] RE: [Telecentre's] Basic Telecentre Items


  >> What do your communities mean by "Lighthouse Centre" - what rocks is it
warning people away from? Or is it that this is the place where the light of
the internet can be found?



  Toby this is a very interesting question. A Lighthouse can be a beacon or
a warning, or both. Accepted usage in the context of a community gathering
is a beacon designed to attract people to the community of a Telecentre, I
don't think the Internet has a lot to do with it. However having made this
observation, many in our indigenous communities do view the Internet with
natural trepidation and will caution youth in particular from becoming too
involved with a medium offering very little in the way of indigenous values
and learning. Perhaps the Lighthouse serves as both a beacon and a warning.



  I would like to expand this idea further to a current priority of some of
the Telecentre's in my home State of NSW as well as in QLD Australia. NSW is
facing an imminent (within days or a few weeks at the most), plague of
locusts of proportions not previously seen in recorded history. Drought
combined with global warming produced a plague last year and the continued
drought conditions has resulted in hatchings of billions of these insects
over the past few weeks - only yesterday I travelled to a remote area of our
region to establish a macro link suitable for field data and video transfers
for one of our local environmental scientists. To see millions of these tiny
creatures in a single square metre of ground (in an area of thousands of
hectares of similar terrain) was really quite terrifying. They are yet
unformed with wings however it is only a matter of days before they begin to
swarm and reap havoc on our crops, pastures and livelihoods. Amongst the
organizations at the fore of the battle to mitigate the impact of these
creatures are our Telecentre's, all of which locally are providing free
access to Government and other resources combined in a single effort to
reduce the swarms and resultant damage. In this instance our Telecentre's
are very much operating as a Lighthouse, warning residents and providing
vital information to the unwary or unprepared landholder.



  The State of QLD is currently in the grip of an early wildfire season and
Telecentre's are similarly at the fore of providing essential community
warning information. Most Telecentre's in affected areas are compiling fire
danger alerts, providing free access to evacuation information, fire losses
of homes and other property, bureau of meteorology forecasts, traffic delays
etc. etc. in a coordinated effort to inform and as necessary to warn people
of imminent danger. These Telecentre's are also operating as a Lighthouse
for the very rough "waters and rocks" of uncontrolled wildfires.



  These scenarios are continually played-out right across our continental
landmass - from remote Telecentre's in the West and North-West of Western
Australia engaged in Cyclone warning and support, to Telecentre's in the
'Red Centre' providing drought and travel warnings for people silly enough
to try and cross a desert unprepared. Maybe a "Lighthouse" is a very apt
descriptor for the warning value offered by many of these Telecentre's.



  Rgds, Don




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