Internet For Students

 The problem with Lebanese today, is that they do not realize we are in the 21st century, 2011! Being in the 21st century, the whole world is connected together by a state-of-the-art network of fiber-optic cables & satellites & radio waves. An information could spread worldwide in a matter of hours! This is truly the dawn of the technological age, no more boundaries, the world becoming one small village where ideas & innovations converge into one entity. Thus reaching new heights for Humanity!

Unfortunately, life isn't full of joy in Lebanon, being the last country when it comes to telecommunications.

Yes fellow readers, we are the last. Ranked 186th between 186th countries based on the internet connection and, guess what? We have the most expensive service too! Pretty $()@%ed up, no?
Now, before all of you guys start telling me that what good would it be if we could download porn faster, or play games over the internet faster? (My mom told me that at least).
Let me tell you how important the Internet is for the country. Did you know that statistics are the best way to convince people? 70% of people admit that.Did you know that the U.K. had 10% of its GDP focused on the Internet? Did you know that upgrading the Internet infrastructure in Lebanon can lead up to 7.5% growth of the GDP?

That's all good, but I'm talking too number-ish. Let me switch to the Student's place from all of this conflict. WE, students, the future and glory of Lebanon (I can see you guys laughing), NEED a fast connection in Lebanon, and that is why we need it:

 1- In the recent technological advancements in the recent years, more & more Powerpoint presentations, researches are required. In order to fetch information, your average student won't go over to the school library and search in encyclopedias, this is so 2000! The first thing they're going to do is to open Google. DUH! Now how would a student fulfill his research if he cannot even access Google? If it takes him an hour to download a .pdf document? If it takes him hours to watch an instructional video? Let alone download it! How on earth would a student finish his research? This is for teachers: Do you want your students telling you " The internet cut off " as an excuse? You can't blame them!

We live in Lebanon. Just smile :-)

2- A student is naturally social, come on guys, which one of you doesn't use at least one of those : Facebook, MSN, Twitter? I use all of them! How frustrating is it when you have to wait for your Facebook NOTIFICATIONS to load?  Or having a " Your message wasn't delivered ". Like seriously! Slow internet is stalling our socialization (let me start a sociology course), if we do not interact between each other, how on earth are we going to progress? Another con of slow internet.

3- We've all been in brevet, no? I had my brevet exams last year. For the old generation, didn't the results get broadcast on the radio? Well today they go on the internet. I really do not know how to describe the 6 hours I spent waiting for that page to load. I'm just going to leave you with this picture, blood, nails, torn up hair.

4- Let's talk about the future, shall we? Since we ARE the future. Did you know that there are 4 times as much Lebanese ABROAD than there is in Lebanon? Why is that? Obviously because each year, the best young & life-loving Lebanese leave Lebanon looking for a job and a decent living. Why does Lebanon have no jobs? Obviously because we have no Multinational Corporations stationed here.
Why is that?
Because we do not have fast internet!

Imagine you're a company and you have a branch in Lebanon, you ask for a daily or weekly report. Instead, you get a report on Wednesday instead of Monday and it's low quality because the internet is too slow. Why go through all the trouble? These big boys are stationed in nearby regions such as the UAE & other countries in the Gulf. Don't you think if we could get faster internet, the companies wouldn't want to come here? Of course they would, Lebanon is fantastic! (I'm talking seriously now) A free open market, lots of consumers. It's a nice beautiful flower waiting the bee to come. When these companies come, well guess what they would need. Working hand! This would limit at some extent the growing immigration of Lebanese. So, fellow students and readers, wouldn't you want Lebanon to move forward? To progress? To grow?