Interrogate the Global Village - President

People must not speak of the global village as if all countries had equal presence and influence in it, the president of Malawi, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika has warned.

Speaking upon his return from the Connect Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda from 29 to 30 October, Mutharika said the presence of Africa has not been entirely felt in the global village but people go on to speak about the village as if all was well.

"We need to quiz our presence in this village. There are questions that have not been answered because there are unequal representations where countries in Africa are dominated by developed ones," Mutharika said.

He noted, in particular, that simple communication such as sending a fax to a regional country is costly because, among other factors, the fax takes time to go through. But, if the very same fax was being sent to the United States of America, it would go through without hassles.

"They [information superpowers] have made our communication with them easier but communication amongst ourselves very difficult," Mutharika said in apparent reference that most of the calls between African countries are first routed to Europe and then re-routed back to Africa.

The president also recognized the fact that most Malawians still do not have access to the internet and that, where the case allowed them to do so, the high cost of the services prevented them from doing so.

But Mutharika was very optimistic, citing the Eastern Africa Submarine System (Eassy) project as one way by which the costs of communication could be pushed down.

The president also promised to develop policies that favoured greater use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the country's agricultural sector.

"It's high time we bring our farmers to the world and the world to our farmers. We need to have platforms where they can share information, know where to get inputs and also sell their products," Mutharika said.

Malawi has so far taken a lackadaisical approach to the ICT revolution that is sweeping across the African continent. The country's cabinet is currently sitting on a draft ICT policy that was initially drafted in 2003 and updated in 2006.

Many stakeholders see the absence of such a blueprint as contributing to the slow integration of Malawi into the global village.