Internet Grammars (A View from Yaounde / Delhi)

[DAVID GIL]

In one of Bernard Comrie's comments on Internet Grammars, he
alluded to the possible advantages such online grammars might have
for persons in such far-flung and third-world locations as "Delhi or
Yaounde".  Well here is one personal view from one such location:
Kuala Lumpur.

I have no argument with the vision of a single paperless virtual
"cyber-library" spanning the globe;  I am as thrilled by the prospect
as anybody else.  I would just like to emphasize the fact that, as of
now, it's still seems very very far off in the future.

Every now and then you read that yet another third world country is
hooked to the net, and you think how wonderful that is.  Trouble is,
it doesn't mean what you think it means:  specifically, it doesn't
entail that people actually have access to cyberspace.  They don't.

Here are some of my own anecdotal experiences trying to get online.
Like anybody else's, they consist of a lot of idiosyncratic and
unique happenings -- but anyone out in the third world will
recognize the overall picture as quite typical.

I took up my present academic position in Kuala Lumpur in
December 1996.  Right away, I bought a fancy laptop computer
with the best modem on the market -- something your average third-
world academic certainly can't afford.  Well I still haven't had a
chance to use that modem, and I'm beginning to think that I never
will.  My own office, at work, will have a dedicated internet line
installed "in the next few months".  But Malaysia is a rubber-
producing country, and they have an saying, "rubber time", which
applies to expressions like "in the next few months".  In the
meantime, there is one online computer in the department, on the
secretary's desk.  When the secretary isn't using it for word
processing, you can jostle with your colleagues and queue up for an
opportunity to get online.  Or *try* to get online.  Because the
server closes down after office hours, or during prayer time, or
whenever it feels like it.  Besides, the connection is so slow that
sometimes you don't even know whether the server is down or not.
So why not get your own commercial account, people ask.  Sure.  I
moved into my house in March 1997 and immediately applied for a
telephone line.  The application is still pending.  In the meantime, I
applied for an email account from the university: this actually came
through last December -- but a few weeks later, when my contract
was upgraded from visitor to regular, the account was closed, and I
have to apply again.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  The point is:  in theory I'm
online, in practice I'm not, or barely am.  On Malaysian radio and
television, they have this jingle which they play all the time:  "Use
IT, love IT, etc."  IT stands for Information Technology, but who
are they kidding?  If you want to, you can't!

This morning I came in before the secretary did, and, miraculously,
managed to log on, read Peter Kahrel's message, access the ALT
homepage, download Peter's PhD dissertation onto a floppy, and,
triumphantly, stick it into my laptop.  But all I got was screenfuls of
gibberish.  I'll bet there's an easy solution, just a click or two on
some option or other, and I'll have Peter's book on my laptop
screen.  But the trouble is, there's nobody to ask for help: no
helpdesk, no knowledgeable colleague down the corridor.   This is
perhaps one of the most exasperating things about the Delhis and the
Yaoundes of the world: when they get the money, they invest in
massive hardware projects, but not in the manpower and knowhow
to make use of what they have.

The bottom line is:  if I really need a certain book, I'll write to
somebody in the west and ask him or her to mail me a hardcopy.  It
will take less time, and probably less money too, than trying to
access it online.

Sorry for the negative view.  Things may, and probably will,
change for the better.  But that's the way they are now.

David Gil

Jabatan Audiologi dan Sains Pertuturan
Fakulti Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Jln Raja Muda Abdul Aziz
Kuala Lumpur, 50300, Malaysia

Telephone / Facsimile: 60-3-291-4230		
Email: dgil at strauss.udel.edu