His Excellency President Mugabe Says Zimbabwe Should Use Information and Communication Technology To Defend The Country Against Western Domination

His Excellency President Mugabe says Zimbabwe should use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to defend her sovereignty, interests, culture, and the rights of the people against Western domination.

In a statement he delivered at the official launch of the Information and Communication (ICT) Policy Framework in Harare recently, His Excellency President Mugabe pointed out that:

•  Britain had sought, through Information and Communication Technology, to mobilize extraneous issues and images against Zimbabwe in order to divert the attention of the world from the real issue that is at the core of the current stand off between Harare and London - Zimbabwe's Land Reform Programme. Britain was using its global news networks to leverage international opinion against Zimbabwe;

•  Zimbabwe's ICT policy must not ignore the disparities created by Western imperialism on the African continent and in Zimbabwe in particular but should appropriate the power of information and communication technology to all areas in the country and use it to defend the nation's interests;

•  Zimbabweans should be cautious of the fact that the so-called information revolution had reproduced dominance of other states, including Zimbabwe, by Western countries which produced the information or communication that this technology conveys. The Information and Communication Technology had the effect of dumping on us foreign knowledge systems and values that are capable of re-shaping us to the liking of our erstwhile colonial masters;

•  The ICT revolution was neither the computer nor the satellite but the information and communication these technologies made available for unguarded surfing and subsequent consumption. In this regard, Zimbabweans should guard against the erosion of cultural values through the internet and satellite programmes where Western values and pornographic television programmes are aired;

•  Zimbabweans should not be swayed by the lies peddled by a hostile stranger who is thousands of kilometers away about what is happening in the country or in the region but should understand what they are embracing and its effects on the country's interests; and

•  No society evolves forms and technologies that are divorced from its broader pursuits and the resolution of the challenges it faces and hence Zimbabweans must reject a too technical interpretation of Information and Communication Technology and realise that ICT is about its place in the overall quest to reach people on their terms and in their habitats.