Two of my grand children.

About education in Antigua and Barbuda.

I do not like to say “I told you so.“ I also do not like to lie. However if I find myself in a position where I have to choose between the two, I will always say “I told you so.” For years I have being telling the citizens of Antigua and Barbuda that our approach to education is wrong. We do not value knowledge: we love money. Therefore most Antiguans and Barbudans only want to know enough to function at their job. An accountant will have no interest in knowing anything else but accounting. And not only that if they feel secure in their job they will have absolutely no interest in further learning about accounting. Almost all of us have the same attitude. For years I have being telling this nation we need a new attitude towards knowledge. I told them that we should  value knowledge the way we value “food or money.” 

   We do not value education: we endure it. Most of the children in Antigua and Barbuda do not see attending school as an opportunity. They do not see it as a gift. To them it is more like a prison sentence, and many of them just quit. Those who “endure to the end” heave a sigh of relief when the “end” comes. Some might think that dropping out of school is a foolish act, but when they consider what I said about only wanting to know enough to get money, these early leavers might know what they can do to get money. We need to teach our children to value education from an early age. We also need to teach them to respect their teachers and others.

   This brings us to the adults. Many of the adults are rude, disrespectful, semiliterate or illiterate. The semiliterate would include anyone who is not computer literate and the illiterate would include anyone who could not assemble a washing machine or perhaps a computer by following written instructions. Because many of the parents cannot read they cannot help their children, as a result these children are likely to lag behind those who have help. We need to help these parents also.

    “I told you so!” When the ALP administration wanted to justify the introduction of the education levy, they said it was important that everyone should have a good education. Although I did not expect them to use the money for educational purposes, I gave them my support but I suggested that they use radio and television as part of the educational system. I made that suggestion because even then I was aware of the need to educate adults as well as children. They never did. After the administration changed, I outlined to a minister of government how we could use the radio, television and internet to make education available to every one. I was informed by the honourable gentleman that he was old-fashioned.

   We cannot afford to be old fashioned. We need to create a new modern interactive education system where the instructor could be in Angola and the classes could be in Antigua. At the same time the parents should be able stay at home and interact with the process.                     

                                                                                                                          Rupert E. Henry

We live in a wonderfully complex universe, and we are curious about it by nature. Time and again we have wondered--- why are we here? Where did we and the world come from? What is the world made of? It is our privilege to live in a time when enormous progress has been made towards finding some of the answers. String theory is our most recent attempt to answer the last (and part of the second) question.

So, what is the world made of? Ordinary matter is made of atoms, which are in turn made of just three basic components: electrons whirling around a nucleus composed of neutrons and protons. The electron is a truly fundamental particle (it is one of a family of particles known as leptons), but neutrons and protons are made of smaller particles, known as quarks. Quarks are, as far as we know, truly elementary.

Our current knowledge about the subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of particle physics. It describes both the fundamental building blocks out of which the world is made, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are twelve basic building blocks. Six of these are quarks--- they go by the interesting names of up, down, charm, strange, bottom and top. (A proton, for instance, is made of two up quarks and one down quark.) The other six are leptons--- these include the electron and its two heavier siblings, the muon and the tauon, as well as three neutrinos.

There are four fundamental forces in the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Each of these is produced by fundamental particles that act as carriers of the force. The most familiar of these is the photon, a particle of light, which is the mediator of electromagnetic forces. (This means that, for instance, a magnet attracts a nail because both objects exchange photons.) The graviton is the particle associated with gravity. The strong force is carried by eight particles known as gluons. Finally, the weak force is transmitted by three particles, the W+, the W- , and the Z.

The behavior of all of these particles and forces is described with impeccable precision by the Standard Model, with one notable exception: gravity. For technical reasons, the gravitational force, the most familiar in our every day lives, has proven very difficult to describe microscopically. This has been for many years one of the most important problems in theoretical physics-- to formulate a quantum theory of gravity.

In the last few decades, string theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a microscopic theory of gravity. And it is infinitely more ambitious than that: it attempts to provide a complete, unified, and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe. (For this reason it is sometimes, quite arrogantly, called a 'Theory of Everything').

The essential idea behind string theory is this: all of the different 'fundamental ' particles of the Standard Model are really just different manifestations of one basic object: a string. How can that be? Well, we would ordinarily picture an electron, for instance, as a point with no internal structure. A point cannot do anything but move. But, if string theory is correct, then under an extremely powerful 'microscope' we would realize that the electron is not really a point, but a tiny loop of string. A string can do something aside from moving--- it can oscillate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, then from a distance, unable to tell it is really a string, we see an electron. But if it oscillates some other way, well, then we call it a photon, or a quark, or a ... you get the idea. So, if string theory is correct, the entire world is made of strings!

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about string theory is that such a simple idea works--- it is possible to derive (an extension of) the Standard Model (which has been verified experimentally with incredible precision) from a theory of strings. But it should also be said that, to date, there is no direct experimental evidence that string theory itself is the correct description of Nature. This is mostly due to the fact that string theory is still under development. We know bits and pieces of it, but we do not yet see the whole picture, and we are therefore unable to make definite predictions. In recent years many exciting developments have taken place, radically improving our understanding of what the theory is.

  If you want to learn more, visit the sites listed below. I also highly recommend the popular science book "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for The Ultimate Theory" (W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), written by Prof. Brian Greene, a well-established string theorist.

• The Official String Theory Website: An excellent introductory site for the nonspecialist, including RealAudio interviews with leading string theorists, and a tour of the Big Bang.
• The Elegant Universe: The companion site for the 3 hour PBS series based on Brian Greene's book. You can even watch the series online. (Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as good as the book! It is visually stunning, but the physics content is extremely low and the approach is excessively propagandistic. You can read a critical NY Times review of the series here.)
• Particle Adventure: A very nice tour through the main ideas of the Standard Model of particle physics.(Also available in Spanish and other languages).
• The Science of Matter, Space and Time: Another nice presentation of the concepts of particle physics.
• Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: An article on string theory that appeared recently in TIME magazine, on occasion of TIME's designation of Einstein as the person of the 20th century.
• Strings '00 Pictures: Photos of some of the world's leading string theorists, at the most important yearly conference on the subject (see also the ITP M Theory Program and Strings 96 pictures).
• Black Holes, Strings and Quantum Gravity: A public lecture by Prof. Juan Maldacena, undoubtedly the most influential string theorist in the last few years (also available in Spanish).
• Superstrings! Home Page: A nice site where many aspects of string theory are explained.
• Duality, Spacetime and Quantum Mechanics: A public lecture by Prof. Edward Witten (IAS Princeton), arguably the world's most influential theoretical physicist, and a leading contributor to string theory
• The Theory of Strings--- A Detailed Introduction: An extensive description of the basic ideas of the theory, by Prof. Sunil Mukhi, a leading string theorist.
• String Reviews: List of downloadable review articles on various topics in string theory. Most of them are highly technical, but some of the articles in the "Colloquia/Semipopular" category are intended for a wider audience.
• String Theory and the Unification of Forces: An explanation of the ambitious goal of string theory, by Prof. S. Mukhi.
• The Second Superstring Revolution: A (somewhat technical) report on the latest developments in string theory, due to Prof. John Schwarz, one of the fathers of the theory.
• Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics and String Theory: A series of 10 lectures on string theory, intended for the general public, by Prof. Finn Larsen.
• ITP Teachers' Educational Forum on String Theory: Is it the Theory of Everything?: A set of lectures on string theory, intended for highschool teachers.
• M-theory, the theory formerly known as Strings: A brief introduction to some ideas of the theory, presented by the Relativity & Gravitation group at Cambridge University.
• String Theory in a Nutshell: A brief account of string theory, including some words on the latest developments, by Prof. J. M. Figueroa-O'Farrill.
• What is String Theory?: A longer introductory description of the basic ideas of the theory, due to K. LLoyd.
• Superstring Theory: An explanation of some of the ingredients of the theory, written some time ago by Prof. Brian Greene, for the graduate program at Cornell University.
• String Theory: A short introduction to string theory by Prof. Robert Dijkgraaf, written for physicists.
• M-Theory: strings, duality and branes: a non-technical article by Prof. J.P. Gauntlett, which appeared in Contemporary Physics (available in Postscript only).
• Other String Links
• Other Science Links.

Community Computer Access Sunday, May 27, 2007
 

The Government recently spoke of “community access centers” a program in  which a new method of computer access is provided to the Community. The plan is to have a mobile community center that will be utilized by the schools. The idea of providing Computer access to the community is a good one but the method which is to be implemented is less than ideal. Computer access should be available to every one. Absolutely no one should be excluded.

What I would suggest is that the Government allocates one million dollars to each Constituency. Considering that a single desktop computer can be purchased at less than a thousand dollars per unit, One Million dollars can purchase and import a Thousand computers which the Community can in turn sell at a low and reasonable price of Fifteen Hundred Dollars to the residents of the respective communities. There would be a Five Hundred Dollars profit per computer unit, a total of Half a Million Dollars which could be used to the benefit of the community

 A system of hire purchase with low or no  interest rate could also be implemented to assist those persons that have problems paying the full cost right away and would prefer paying a little at a time.

It might be said the 17 Million dollars is too much to allocate towards this suggestion but I think that if over $200,000,000.00 could be invested in Cricket would cup then investing money into this proposal is one that unlike Cricket World Cup cannot fail. The advantages of providing means by which the people of the country can educate themselves is limitless.

Fifteen Hundred Dollars is less than the average cost of computers in stores and I know a lot of persons would appreciate having a personal computer at home but are deferred by the price and especially the high interest rate that can be associated with hire purchase.

                                                                                     Rupert E. Henry

                                                                                                                                                                              Rupert E. Henry

For a long tine I have observed a link between foolishness and wickedness. What puzzles me is whether a person is wicked because they are foolish or foolish because they are wicked.  What ever the answer one thing is certain both the past and present governments have done some foolish, wicked things to the people of Antigua and Barbuda. However the purpose for which I am writing is not to chronicle the foolishness of the past I am trying to prevent more foolishness from taking place in the future.

I am very much afraid that our government will let another opportunity for the people of Antigua and Barbuda to elevate them selves pass. We missed a golden opportunity at the turn of the last century. If the past government had heeded my advise we would have been prepared. They did not heed my advise, as a result unlike India that was prepared and made millions, we got nothing.

India had an abundance of computer programmers and when the need arose they filled that need. Also, because India was able to demonstrate that it could deliver high quality work at comparatively low cost they have been able to attract many investors. They did not have to give concessions to attract investors, they only had to supply what was in demand.

Once again I am appealing to the government to use the opportunity that will come with the liberalisation of the telecommunications market to benefit the people of Antigua and Barbuda. When LIAT gets into financial trouble many persons will say sell shares to the public, APUA gets into financial trouble; sell shares to the public, Royal Antiguan, financial trouble, public. Only entities that are in financial difficulties are ever considered suitable for the “ordinary man in the street.”

A person does not need to have a PhD to know that there is and will be a demand for computers. I have already outlined how we in All Saints West could handle the supply side, the details can be found at www.allsaintcommunity.com. —— Independence message

I still don’t know whether a person is wicked because they are foolish or foolish because they are wicked but I am asking those in authority not to be so foolish or wicked that they let this opportunity pass. 

Audio Clip