[Marxism] IT and planning

["andypollack@xxxxxxxx" <andypollack@xxxxxxxx>]

Below are two pieces posted earlier on NYTransferNews, one by Walter. The first 
is on the opening of new computer centers in Venezuela which will  "promote the 
project of social management. One of the first infopoints located in several 
localities is set up to run programs and services in health, economy and labor 
for the population."

It's unclear from the short article exactly what's meant by this, but should 
the workers with access to these centers be able to use them as part of a 
process of deepening their control of the country, the potential is enormous. 
(Of course the really important data is in the corporations' databases, but 
training in these neighborhood centers could be the launching pad for 
discussions of how to take those over too.)

Below that is a piece by the UNDP on the need for planning before "natural" 
disasters which praises Cuba's record. This week IBM set another record in the 
supercomputer race, and as always the computer involved is used to model 
climate change and track weather (you may have seen an article earlier in the 
week where several supercomputers independently predicted more, and worse, 
hurricanes this century due to global warming).

Now Cuba has just proven you don't need supercomputers or even PCs to plan 
effective disaster prevention and recovery.  But they can help, especially in 
allocating resources, and discussion of how that would be done can expose again 
the contradiction between the rationality of our machines and the irrationality 
of the class running our economy.

Which brings us back to Venezuela. Richard Gott's book on Chavez discusses the 
reaction of the government to the horrendous losses in the mudslides that 
washed away thousands of houses.  With help from Cuban technicians (health and 
IT), it would be so easy to run computer simulations to show what resources 
would be needed to build safe housing for all -- and where the money is for it.

(And when they're done maybe they can invite some workers from Florida down 
there to run some simulations on how to avoid the unnatural disasters just 
suffered there!)


Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Venezuela's Public Computer Centers Defy Neoliberal Information Myth

By Wilfredo Alayon

Caracas, Oct 2 (Prensa Latina) The inauguration in Venezuela of 66
centers of modern computer centers for the free use of the population
has broken the neo-liberal policy myth that denies the use of these
techniques to the poorer classes.

The neo-liberal measures that condition access to these technologies to
the cultural and economic level of citizen, a theory that have now
fallen into oblivion by a decision of the Venezuelan president.

These installations were sponsored by the Ministry of Science and
Technology throughout the country at a cost of more than five million
208 thousand US dollars. The largest, a megainfocenter, was built in the
capital neighborhood of El Silencio with 40 computers in this first
stage with possibility of increasing the number to a hundred in the
future.

The remaining 65 infocenters are conceived to increase knowledge of the
masses in the use of Internet, e mails and to train the communities to
strengthen the structures at the base. By the end of the year Venezuela
hopes to increase this number to 343 centers for the study of
information technology and also set up two new modalities to promote the
project of social management. One of the first infopoints located in
several localities is set up to run programs and services in health,
economy and labor for the population.

The other system are infomobiles designed to extend the radius of action
of eight modules these techniques that will serve work centers and
classrooms.

In addition the president announced a decree to officially and
compulsory the promotion and adoptions of free software for all
administrative institutions. The purpose of this measure, previously
announced by Brazil, is to achieve independence from the owners of
software programs.

All these measures respond to the interests and efforts of the
Bolivarian revolution to improve the quality of life of the population
based on a principle of equality, democracy and peace.
wap/cm/avp

The New York Times - October 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com

Op-Ed:

Storm-Tossed Lessons

by Julia Taft

>From Trinidad to Tallahassee, Fla., tropical storms have ravaged the
Caribbean basin, exacting a multibillion-dollar toll on housing, schools, 
hospitals, roads and sewage systems.

Most of the casualties were in Haiti. But almost no community escaped
unscathed. In Grenada, half of the population is now homeless, the famed
nutmeg groves flattened, the power plants wrecked. The tourism industry that 
was the island's lifeblood could take years to recover. Many other islands - 
including Tobago, Jamaica and Grand Cayman - also suffered.

The biggest killer in natural disasters is poverty. The same hurricane tides 
that flood houses in Florida sweep away entire neighborhoods in places like 
Gonaïves, Haiti. And while survivors need places to live, simply rebuilding 
their tin-roofed shacks in flood plains guarantees they will suffer again.
Better planning, and more focused foreign aid, can help even poor nations 
reduce the loss of life and property from natural disasters.

Compare the consequences of the storms in the two countries that share the 
island of Hispaniola. In the Dominican Republic, which has invested in 
hurricane shelters and emergency evacuation networks, the death toll was fewer 
than 10, as compared to an estimated 2,000 in Haiti. And Cuba's proven ability 
to survive hurricanes with few casualties - Ivan claimed no lives there because 
two million people were swiftly moved out of harm's way - is a testament both 
to the value of disaster response planning and the need for it throughout the 
Caribbean.

According to climatologists, vulnerable coastal communities should be
prepared for greater erosion and more severe floods in the future. Poor
countries need help to rebuild and to better protect themselves against
future such calamities. The United Nations is now beginning appeals for
emergency humanitarian aid for Grenada and Haiti to provide food, temporary 
shelter and basic health care.

But long-term development assistance in the Caribbean from agencies like
mine, as well as from donors like the United States, must focus on reducing the 
destructive impact of these storms. Virtually every school, road, hospital or 
housing settlement destroyed in Grenada by Hurricane Ivan or in Haiti by 
Hurricane Jeanne was financed with foreign assistance.

Reconstruction often occurs with such haste that countries end up with even 
greater exposure to future hurricanes. But housing developments can be sited 
and designed to avoid the worst damage.

In an effort to promote better long-term planning, the United Nations
Development Program early this year evaluated disaster preparedness in
scores of nations. It showed Haitians were 100 times more likely to die in an 
equivalent storm than Dominicans. In the storms that hit last week in Gonaïves, 
flash floods occurred in just a few hours because upstream terrain has long 
since been stripped of forests and topsoil.

The magnitude of the destruction in Haiti and Grenada underscores the need for 
vulnerable island states to develop policies that will enable them to withstand 
these storms. And from the international development community, they deserve 
not just more aid, but smarter aid.

[Julia Taft is assistant administrator of the United Nations Development
Program.]

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company


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