A Nevispages weekly feature by Curtis Morton Sr
The way I see it, computers and technology on a whole, are useful, important and necessary.
Now did I just say that? Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever see myself using one of those things.
I recently chaired a very important Self-employed symposium, hosted by Social Security and SEDU and I listened intently to computer whiz, Quincy Prentice, as he expounded on the benefits of learning to use the computer and all of its millions of resources. I am similarly fascinated when I see my younger brother Lawson in operation. These guys can make these computers do anything.
Well I newa!
So, let us rewind to many moons ago. Probably we can start at 1996. I had just made the successful transition from being a Public Health Inspector, employed by the Nevis Island Administration, to being an Inspector, employed by the Social Security Board.
Now, I am from THE OLD SCHOOL. So I was accustomed then, to writing long reports in books and even though my handwriting has been described as UNIQUE and even though I cannot understand some of what I have written, I saw myself forever, writing in books and living happily ever after….
But wait!
I was in for a rude awakening. I was even more settled in my ideology, because, the senior inspector who was responsible for my initial training, Mr. Phinehas Griffin, of blessed memory, he too had a dread of the computer and stuck to his making notes in books. He too was from the OLD SCHOOL.
Whenever I needed something typed, I begged one of my coworkers to help me. Life was good.
Then eventually Griffin retired sometime after, Vernel Powell, my then boss, told me that he had received a message from Griffin, to say that he was on the web. Powell said he asked him: “You mean a cobweb?’ Griffin had used his extra spare time to learn to operate the computer.
Well I newa! I knew that I was in real hot water now.
One day at a staff meeting, Powell made mention of a new computer and made the wise crack ‘that one of us don’t even know how to turn it on.’ Everybody laughed. I did not have to wonder who the ‘one of us’, was. It was the last straw.
I spoke to one of my coworkers, Stevyn Bartlette by name and I begged him to teach me the computer, even if I had to pay him. For weeks after, when everyone else had gone home, Stevyn took time with me, to go through the paces.
One day, the other staff members got the shock of their lives. I had sent my first interoffice email! You hear wuk!
Since then, I am so much on the computer that I wonder if I can exist without it!
Rawlinson Isaac gave a similar story. He too, being from the old school, never paid any attention to the computer. Then one day, at an overseas conference, he listened to an 80-year-old man, expound on the workings of the computer. He left the conference and bought himself a computer, along with a book, LEARNING THE COMPUTER FOR DUMMIES. The rest is history. He is now one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the federation and the computer is one of his key tools.
Since the COVID -19 scourge started and with all the days of lockdowns, I have even learnt to edit. Thank God. So, thank God, I have a more than basic concept as to the use of the computer and I am now making the most of it. It’s a far cry from when I started to read sports in the late 80’s and everything was written. Sometimes I gave the editors so much trouble because inevitably I would arrive at a word that I could not understand…and I had written it mind!
God wants us to improve our knowledge base, whenever possible. He would only want us to ensure that we use that knowledge to his name’s honour and glory. He says: ‘Proverbs 18:15 – The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.’
So, get as much knowledge as you can and learn to use the computer.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?