I really did fall out of the habit of writing these things! I realised that I messed up the dates of the last post I made, suggesting that it was the previous week rather than the week it really was. Oops. I’ve corrected it now.

I guess it is a bit of a symptom of what I was discussing in that writing. How I felt a little tired and overwhelmed by events around the world. Sadly, things haven’t slowed down and, if anything, have become even more urgent and critical.

One week turned into two. Taking a short break is a good thing.

But, if I’m honest, I’m rather drained about the state of tech at the moment. It’s one bad story followed by another. From the obsequiousness, the knee-bending, and the sycophantic brown-nosing on display, the tech oligarchs have shown us in no uncertain terms that they are more about themselves than they are about their customers. It won’t last. It never does. That’s the story of the world. But the question is about what damage is being caused, and how long will it take to repair it?

My apologies, there’ll be no writing this week.

A personal situation has kiboshed any plans I had to write anything about the past week.

I’m looking forward to getting back to normal next week.

Have a great week.

That’s it, done. The first month of the year is already over.

If it didn’t pass by at breakneck pace for you, I’d like a little bit of what you’re drinking please!

For this instalment, I’m not sur how much I am going to write as I start typing this out. It has been a strange couple of weeks for me on both a personal and professional footing. Various issues took up far too much time than I had anticipated and left me a little on the back foot to prepare a focused article here.

In what I can only describe as a fantastically depressing week, with events worldwide kicking off as expected, but simultaneously going further than anyone imagined.

I wanted to keep this blog apolitical, concentrating mostly on tech, with a little bit of cultural commentary thrown in and a dose of analysis to try to understand how technology has, is and will affect us in the region. That can no longer be the case because I cannot stand by and let powerful (and incredibly vicious) white me in Silicon Valley take everything away to make them and their cronies even richer than obscenely rich. I get the idea that you’d like to make a lot of money, I would too. But there is a point where your wealth is too much. It’s disgusting. It’s a cancer. And just like cancerous cells, it grows and grows at the expense of healthy cells, eventually killing the host. If you need me to spell out who is who in that analogy, I invite you to consider where you place yourself today.

A picture tells a thousand words.

I didn’t set out to write this. I had planned on writing about the recent paper (Analog Privilege) that I read on a recent trip and came back with many notes in the margin of the printout. But events sometimes take over what you had thought about doing. What is it they say?

Best-laid plans are laid to waste.

Yeah.

Good day everyone, and may I wish you a happy 2025.

I’m back with the first proper article of 2025 after a well-deserved break from several activities. I kept working over the holiday period, but I took a few days off to be with family who had returned to the island for a short stay. I was very happy to take that time off.

You’ll have noticed that I snuck in a quick note during that period. I had the idea to lay down some thoughts I’ve been having about the state of (tech) community in the West Indies. It was kindly re-published on the platform that I was talking about (CIVIC - I’ve since discussed it with the forum admin, who revealed the name in his post, so I’m fine with stating it here now. I thank Yacine Khelladi for that). It didn’t generate as much discussion as I was hoping, which proves my point sadly! One company did reach out, and I’ll be responding this week.

Good morning all, from a sunny Martinique this morning.

I’ve been going over some old writing as a sort of therapeutic exercise or as an exercise in self-harm. I haven’t worked out which it is yet!

Anyway, I came across something I wrote two years ago, almost exactly to the day. It is a half-baked manifesto for building community in the Caribbean around tech and society.

My participation in a fairly moribund forum on tech in the Caribbean motivated it. I will not name it, as it serves no purpose other than to highlight what actually happens when a forum like this exists. The admin does a stellar job and tries to keep it going, regularly posting links and articles about tech in the Caribbean. I and several other stakeholders met to discuss how it could continue, flourish, and develop. The meeting was sparsely attended, and unfortunately, no follow-up ensued.

If you know me well, you know that this is one of my least favourite times of the year. It’s complicated, so I’ll spare you the details. But It does seem to be tradition for blogs and newsletters to do a retrospective of the, soon to be over, year. It’s possibly something inherited from the traditional media industry. And whilst I’m not really a fan of this tradition —you can call me a miserable git for detesting the Spotify-like “wrapped” emails that have been invading and polluting my inbox and general use of apps. Please stop!— I thought it might be useful for me to have a look over some of the stuff I’ve been doing here this year. You don’t have to read this; please just click Mark as Read if it’s not your thing. I won’t judge.

It’s a reasonably short one today. I’m progressing on what I promised to write up but haven’t been able to finish as yet. Soon come.

As I write this (Monday afternoon), the first official day of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has wrapped up. I say this as I am neither attending in-person nor following live virtually. This might seem a little odd for someone who is building more connections and work related to the field of Internet Governance. It is very easy to explain why. The place where the forum is being held this year is a significant factor in my conscientious objection to attendance. The forum is currently running in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.