As I have mentioned before in this column, I reside in Wales - making me what the expats here call a "Saffie Taffie".
An emerging groundswell of talent and innovation means that Wales, like SA, is in quite a contradictory position.
Basheera Khan, Editor, ITWales.com
Dodgy nomenclature aside, I`ve found a remarkable number of similarities between Wales and SA, most of them arising from the fact that Wales is home to some of the poorest areas within the UK, when seen from the perspective of the government`s low income threshold used when monitoring the numbers of people in income poverty.
For a couple with two children, this threshold is lb225 per week, after deducting income tax and housing costs. A survey into poverty across Wales commissioned by BBC Wales earlier this year states that as of April 2001, there were 700 000 people in Wales living on incomes below the low income threshold.
Of course, from the perspective of a Saffie Taffie, lb225 per week translates to just over R14 000 per month in the South African context, and as such, it`s hard to conceive of an income like that being considered low. But let`s compare apples with apples - poverty in a developed country is greatly alleviated by state-funded benefits like council housing, healthcare, unemployment benefits and the like.
While the infrastructure for support like that exists in SA, the reality of state-funded benefits in that country is somewhat bleaker than the paper-based plans.
The other similarity between Wales and SA arises in the number of companies, largely comprised of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) but sporting the occasional corporate, involved in the hi-tech industry sector.
An emerging groundswell of talent and innovation means that Wales, like SA, is in quite a contradictory position. Its burgeoning ICT sector promises economic resurgence and improved skills development and employment opportunities in the foreseeable future, leading to a better quality of life overall, we hope.
At the same time, it`s only a small core of people which benefits from this growth, as awareness of the ICT industry remains limited. Sure, people have basic knowledge of PCs and the Internet - those that aren`t privileged enough to have a PC at home can develop computer skills or go online at their local library or adult education centre - but when it comes to contributing to a knowledge-based economy, the average person is most certainly not empowered.
It strikes me that this should be so because thus far, regional press in particular pays scant attention to business in general, let alone development of niche industry sectors.
Thus it is hardly surprising that when the Computer Science department at the University of Wales Swansea launched an initiative called Animate Wales, designed to actively involve next year`s school-leavers in programmes providing an outlet for creative energy in all areas of animation, local publications either ignored the story outright or, in the case of a particular paper, gave precedence to an article detailing the story of a man reunited with his budgie, after the bird had been lost.
When one considers that initiatives like this and many others are made possible by European Social Fund Objective 1 funding, it seems a shame to consider that so little is being done to improve media relations between the Welsh Assembly government and the Welsh press, to work together to increase awareness of all these opportunities for the ultimate betterment of society as a whole.
Perhaps I`m an idealist, saddened at the wasted opportunities - or perhaps I`m a Scrooge, maddened at the senseless waste of money. Either way, it`s the people of Wales who stand to lose most in the long run. Would SA manage any better, I wonder?
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