Edward Hutcheson
The passing of Irene should cause BTC/CWC to revisit their priorities as a national entity, I hope the admission by the marketing manager that they did not have any satellite telephones or were not in the satellite telephone business is not a reflection of those priorities. A company that is in business in an island state, has to know “where” they are doing business and it seems that the reality of hurricanes were left out of the privatisation equation.
I know that we see a lot of full page ads as to the level of contribution BTC/CWC is making to the relief effort and this is a good thing; but the nation had a front row seat to the Irene updating and it seems like NEMA was out of the loop for quite a while, but fortunately the private radio stations kept the nation informed. Was NEMA’s bad showing, because of a lack of communication or the lack of the ability to communicate?
In the past, the satellite phones were a staple for NEMA, the questions are: Were they in use? Were they absent? Will the public ever know? I want to ask if BTC/CWC is really in the communications business on a national level, as they say they are.
September 2, 2011
Let’s agree to disagree on this one Ed.
There is obviously an issue if NEMA did not have satellite phones, but surely it is their responsibility to arrange them, not BTC’s?
If NEMA lived off BTC previously they can’t do it now. Maybe they just overlooked it or made assumptions?
Rick:
The JOKERS who are supposed to represent NEMA and other government agencies dont give a dam about the people. All they want is to be listed in some press release or photo and when the proverbial hits the fan they are usually not on the island or at some bar drunk. If one wants surgery they go to a doctor with a reputation of having done it before. NEMA needs to identify persons who have done a service for their island and work with them instead of a backside kissing government employee.
Rick…
I would agree that this is a NEMA responsibility…it would be interesting to know how many SAT phones they have…
KM
Nothing’s been more clear that our problem, before you get to poorly developed communities and education, has been our response to catastrophe. Within the first 48 – 64 hours we continually find ourselves in the dark. Inter-island communication suffers. The only good things that happened with Irene was her ridding me of yard rubbish and bringing back the Eagles’ Wings Foundation (http://www.theeagleswingsfoundation.org/index.php/home ). Back in Floyd they painted the picture and helped me understand what had happened to my neighborhood, and once again they produced. It’s relying on those sorts of partners that make us better as a whole. Let’s learn from this one while we can.