As part of my work, I have been transferring the Our Telekom Music Show to Gizo, one of our outlaying offices. The show is hosted by radio personality John Adifaka Jnr and favorite Nati Hatsoa under the Big Maos Productions label. I have been listening to the shows after successfully transferring them and I am pleasantly surprised by Nati’s grasp on a lot of issues and how he integrates this with his presentation of the program. No doubt John Adifaka does coach him in the presentation but when he does a simple ad lib, he does it really well.
I wonder how many people listen to the music show but there are a lot of issues about Our Telekom that can be clarified simply by listening to the program while at the same time, you can appreciate some of Nati Hatsoa’s humorous insights while listening to some of Solomon Island’s best musical talents. However, I was especially taken by his views on the much talked about Rural Development and the Bottom Up Approach.
While talking about Our Telekom’s push to take its Breeze Mobile phone service out to the rural areas Nati correctly wonders “what sort of rural development does the government want? Our Telekom is actually helping rural development by taking this technology out to the rural areas….” The Unity Blo Community project, an initiative by Our Telekom to take telecommunications to rural areas is starting to bear fruit.
He even makes the assertion that “Our Telekom is taking this technology to areas where there is no business activities….just villages…this is the rural development we are talking about, the bottom up approach…starting from the rural areas back to town.”
Indeed there is so much theatrics in parliament but very little has been seen in tangible development. We hear talk of grand projects like the Auluta Basin, the Bina Harbour Project, the canneries and the mass rice productions but the government has literally “not put its money where its mouth is….” Maybe we are thinking and envisioning ideas that are way beyond our means.
Nati consolidates his position by closing “…even villagers going to the garden are talking and using mobile phones”. Our Telekom is doing its part to participate in rural development and Solomon Islanders should be more appreciative of these efforts.
Keeping it simple and supporting current initiatives like Our Telekom’s UBC project may be one way of aiding and enhancing rural development.