Hi, my name is Harlan Stanley, and I have a project in mind that I’d like to talk to you about.
My family has ties to Fiji. We visit home regularly, though not as often as we’d like, and we hope to move there permanently. When we do, I want to share my knowledge of technology and my skill set. I don’t have a lot of financial resources, but I do have an idea.
The Challenge: Few Jobs, Fewer Skilled Workers
Fiji has very few jobs and even fewer skilled workers. The economic situation is poor at best, and no one really knows whether it’s getting better.
Life in the Village
Traditionally, most Fijians grow up in a very rural environment. We’ll call it “the Village.”
In the Village you live with your mom and dad, or a relative who cares for you. You attend primary school, and you might go on to secondary school (high school). Depending on your studies, your finances, or whether you can find a job, you go on to college or a technical institute, or you go to work for a resort. Those who can’t find jobs end up depending on government assistance or on the street. Others return to the Village to become farmers or fishermen, or to work at a resort.
For a land celebrated all over the world as “paradise,” the outlook for most of these occupations is pretty dismal. You’ll probably make about one US dollar per hour. Yes, that’s right: $1.00 per hour, if that. The average salary for a government employee is about $7,000 USD.
The Real Problem: Brain Drain
Education itself isn’t the problem. It’s someone’s future. Once people become educated, they see the light: they become doctors, teachers, mechanics, plumbers, even lawyers. But why would any of these professionals stay in the Village? There’s no future for them there. Only primary school teachers, fishermen and farmers can make a living in the Village.
So we have a brain drain. How can we fix it?
The Idea: Bring Technology Careers to the Village
We could introduce a new field: technology. Computer programming, application development, database management and other careers that don’t depend on location would let someone earn a decent wage while staying in the Village.
Start with the Kids
I propose we start with the children. Kids have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. They want to know how things work, why they work, and how to break them, and they pick up a new “language” easily. Let’s introduce Village kids to programming, any programming, and teach them a marketable skill. Instead of depending on a local marketplace, they could work remotely and sell their skills to the world.
Picture a 10-year program. We start teaching kids at around 7 to 10 years old how to type, then work them into basic programming, database management, networking and IT management.
The Computer Lab
We would build a small, solar-powered computer lab with an internet connection and a backup generator, and set up three levels of classes:
- Typing and basic computer skills.
- An introduction to programming languages and writing programs.
- Full-on “we’re writing code, here’s how to do it, now go kick butt.”
A room of 50 computers of any caliber gets hot, and you can’t air-condition the entire building. Instead, we’d use thin clients connected to a VM cluster running virtual desktops, so only the server room needs to be kept moderately cool. Thin clients also make it easy to expand or shrink classes as needed.
We’d bring in a couple of teachers on a work, vacation or sabbatical program to live in the Village for up to a year at a time and share everything they know. A visitor’s visa is easy to get and can be extended to one year; beyond that, you have to leave the country for a night or two.
Funding the Project
How do we pay for it? Do we pay the teachers a salary? Where do the computers come from? Who pays for the generator fuel?
I expect we could find generous angel investors to fund this as a 10-year, and possibly 20-year, project. Along the way we’d learn what happens when you take a group of people with limited access to technology and give them a skill they can use anywhere in the world.
Who Takes Part
I’m not expecting every child to take part. Some will still want to be fishermen, doctors, teachers and farmers. But there are kids whose talent has historically gone untapped, and they can make a difference for their country and their Village.
How I Came Up with This Idea
The first time I went to the Village, I was struck by how remote it was and in awe of its untouched natural environment. I thought, wow, we could set up a backpackers’ resort here so everyone could come see this place. Then, on my most recent trip, I saw other backpacker and “exclusive” resorts starting up around the area. I began to think: with so many resorts, we’re training the locals to be subservient, and that’s not good. I visited one of the more exclusive resorts and spoke with the owner at length, and I decided there was no way I would become like that person. It’s not in my heart or my mind.
Then I thought about all the infrastructure these resorts need: all the materials imported into the most remote parts of the world just so someone can see them in comfort. That model isn’t sustainable without a constant influx of money. For example, Laucala Island Resort uses over 80,000 liters of fuel every month. Fiji isn’t an oil-producing nation, and most of its electricity comes from diesel generators. Garment factories import cloth and machines so workers can make shirts for very low wages in poor conditions, often working long hours for slave-driving bosses.
The software industry, on the other hand, looks for creative minds, can be done anywhere, has a very open structure, and can be very profitable when it succeeds. We’d only be importing the hardware to do the work, not materials to be processed.
Once we have several successful graduates, they can help teach the younger generation. With internet connectivity, the learning process can sustain itself, and the project can become self-sufficient.