T3 Select Opinion for February 2008
I SWEAR, the day will come, as sure as the sun shines in the morning (except where it never does, but then you and I never see that corner, either), when these glorious 7,101 islands will be blanketed by wi-fi. Wherever I go, it’ll be at least three bars strong on my Airport meter; I can catch a signal in the bathroom or on the beach; and best of all, it’ll be absolutely free, with no silly usernames and passwords to remember, and no brain-deadening bill to pay at the end of the month.
Uhhh… hello, am I awake, am I alive? Is this the Philippines? Well, I can dream, can’t I?
I know, there’s the depressing truth: while places like Macedonia (really, why Macedonia?) are racing to become the first thoroughly wireless countries in the world, we, on the other hand, are still struggling to electrify more than a few of our islands. And even presuming that we do distill enough juice from the sun to power up those boonies, the people who live there are too poor to even buy a light bulb.
But let’s think positive, and dream on, to a time when even our lowliest farmers and tricycle drivers will own wi-fi-capable laptops or at least cellphones, maybe as a result of a US$10-billion National Unity Through Wireless Connectivity project that the next administration will manage to get past everyone, on a long holiday weekend when no one’s looking. That’s it, that’s all we really need, a great big wireless national group hug to banish the rebellion, sedition, and destabilization blues. If not love, then technology will keep us together.
As dreamy visions go, there’s something about a free-wi-fi-enabled nation that excites the imagination. It means that, theoretically, all Filipinos will have to do will be to turn on their Nokias, SEs, or iPhones (sorry, Treo fans) to dialogue with one another, exchange likes and dislikes, pass on stupid jokes, harass old girlfriends and boyfriends, pester Papa for a bigger allowance to buy that new iPod touch and listen to it in Boracay, conduct steamy SOIP (Sex Over Internet Protocol) affairs, tell some poor sods they’ve won a free Mercedes if they hand over the price of a Toyota, post last year’s motel marathon on next week’s blog, and, while we’re at it, catch the latest version of the Santolan Scandal…..
Hmmm, on second thought, why fi?