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KINGSTON, Jamaica Friday July
24 (Reuters) - Jamaica has appointed a 13-year-old computer whizz
kid as a government consultant to help the bureaucrats keep up
to date with the latest developments in computer technology.
Makonnen David Blake Hannah,
whose trailblazing grandfather broke the color barrier in the
1940s, became the youngest ever government adviser when he was
named youth technology consultant by Minister of Commerce &
Technology Phillip Paulwell this week.
Paulwell said the boy would be
"responsible for putting forward the valued perspectives
of the new generation" and will inform the minister on new
trends in computer technology. He will receive an honorarium
for his efforts.
Hannah's groundbreaking post
follows in the tradition of his grandfather, Evon Blake, a journalist
and author who broke the color barrier in Jamaica when he jumped
into the "whites only" swimming pool at Myrtle Bank
Hotel in Kingston. It was an unheard of act of defiance at that
point in Jamaican history and resonated through the years.
Hannah will keep the ministry
abreast of Web sites and software to help the government make
computers and computer-based education available to Jamaican
children, Paulwell said.
Paulwell added the youngster
to his ministry after meeting him during the filming of a movie
and being impressed with his grasp of computer technology, officials
said. |
Paulwell announced the appointment
at a ceremony at a new computer technology institution to be
run by Hannah's mother, Barbara Blake Hannah, a journalist and
former senator. The center, to which U.S. software giant Microsoft
Corp donated equipment and software through its "Connected
Learning Community" program, will train gifted children
ages 6 to 18.
Blake Hannah said her teenage
son had been using computers most of his life.
"The Minister has just been
appointed to the Ministry of Technology while the boy has been
in computers for ten years, so he's in a good position to advise
him," she said.
Makonnen Hannah told Reuters
he planned to help Paulwell optimize the ministry's computer
system and give him daily updates on worldwide developments in
technology.
"I can do almost everything.
I can program a little bit, I'm good at system design, advanced
Windows and DOS usage, stuff mainly like that," Hannah said.
"You could call me an expert."
Makonnen Hannah, largely educated
at home by his mother, has appeared in two versions of a children's
movie, "Kids' Paradise", which his mother wrote and
produced, and shows the kind of confidence that evokes memories
of his grandfather, Blake Hannah said.
Shortly after the Myrtle Bank
incident, Evon Blake named himself Jamaica's "Man of the
Year" in his "Spotlight" magazine.
Article © 1999 Reuters
Limited.
Lesson © 1999 English
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