what do you want?

What do you want??

The question of human want is one that will raise a vast number of issues, all the way from what a person wants out of their career, their academics, or even an individualistic outlook on daily basic desires. A want is usually considered as something that an individual would like to have over a necessity in life which translates into a need.

While some are driven by the acquisition of needs in life, if we observe the bigger view of things we will see that as humans we are driven to acquire needs that should lead us to obtaining what we really want in our lives. For some it’s the want part that drives to do the impossible.

So If I was asked what I want I would say, I WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. In my view we are all put on this earth with a unique purpose and many at times you will find what that is by targeting what you want in life.

It is my belief that there is always something that someone can do to make the world better place. Bernard Baruch said it better when he said "No man should think himself a zero, and think he can do nothing about the state of the world."

There are many ways to make a difference, I picture the world an Eco system, it’s the little acts that make a big difference but it’s all about thinking or starting first with where you are in life.

I am currently pursuing a degree in Business information technology in a foreign country so I decided to start off where I was first. I have joined different school clubs to graft me into the path that will lead to getting what I want .For instance I am part of the rotary club, from what I have seen thus far, what I can do for someone today through this club no matter how small has the potential of making a huge difference in the life of that person and maybe eventually touch the lives of people in an entire society.

It’s like heat transfer, if a hot metal comes into contact with a metal of similar features the other metal will conduct that heat, I may start with one person today that one person will be moved in their life to do something to positively impact the life of another, and it will eventually trickle down to a nation.

To keep me motivated in this quest to make a difference i look at the lives of great people who did something great to make a difference in the world like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, kofi Anan…the list is endless, they stood up for something they believed ,the looked in the mirror and took a leap of faith, though they may had failed in something the defining factor is that they never gave up. Today we see the a trail of the footsteps in the world and they have left a mark that made a difference in life.

A Rural Tale

A Rural Tale

The case study shows a typical problem of systems failure,but first of all we need to have a basic understanding of what exactly system failure is?

System failure occurs when a system

·         is not operational at a specified time

·         cannot be used the way it was

       intended

·         Usually accompanied by multiple,

parallel manual procedures

 The failure of the implementation of IS in this case could have resulted from many reasons some of which are as follows

1.       Cultural differences,In rural areas people pride themselves in hard work or labor which is not aided by the use of any machine,they believe that working with their hands signifies a lack of laziness,this could have been the result of their unexpected rejection of the new low tech solution.This means that the solution was incompatible with the people’s culture or lifestyle

2.       Low adaptation;It often takes time for people to accept something before they have had time to adapt to it,as a result of the people’s low ability to adapt to the new tech solution they rejected it instead,this may have been because of their inability to see the benefit of the solution to them.

3.       Inability to use equipment; The villagers may have been unable to use the taps and that’s why they rejected them .

4.       Low awareness; before a system can be implemented people should be well educated about the solution because not everyone would be literate in that particular area,so failure to educate people about the solution could have been the reason why they rejected it in the first place.

5.       Lack of comprehensive  planning,there is a saying that when we don’t plan ,we plan to fail,if the Foreign aid workers had planned out the solution and made sure they tested its implementation with at least a few families before doing it for the entire village they may have been able to identify potential problems that would lead to the failure of  their solution

Solutions to the problems

1.       Conducting a survey;the foreign workers could conduct a survey to find out what people think about the solution,this will help them identify the problem that the solution is causing amongst the people.They could also include a recommendation or suggestion area within the survey to make things easier for them.

2.       Analysis of the environment; according to the fault tree construction strategy there is a need to analyze the environment in which the system is to be implemented,this is where the foreign workers would be able to get a feel of the lifestyle of the people, their beliefs concerning certain issues in order to better combat the problem of cultural differences

3.       Spreading awareness on the use of the system and also the benefits;after they have understood the people’s needs and views about their solution then only do they start to  spread the awareness with the highest priority being given to the benefits of the solution to the people and exactly how they can use the system to best benefit them.