Focus: A new found love of the laptop

Lenny,18, is in his first year of university at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. He is one person you can not separate from his laptop computer, a computer he purchased from the proceeds of his work during the long vacation after high school. During this vacation, he decided to get work and earn a living unlike many of his peers, who opted to chill out before starting university. He hoped to use his money to buy something that would be of great importance. “I never wanted to be a burden to my parents at university” explains Lenny. But how does one choose a laptop above all other things a young man who loves having fun would want to posses? Keeping up with the trends Lenny says that owning a computer has in a way been a blessing. Ever since he brought it to school, he claims many of his class mates and other young people consider him fashionable and modern. “I also lend it to some of my friends who love to impress others, especially the opposite sex,” claims Lenny. This, he says is not the only advantage he drives from keeping up with the trends. He also uses his computer to store a lot of music, music that he can burn onto CD’s that he can sell to ‘customers’ who love pirated music. This has turned his campus room into a music studio of sorts. Many young people are in love with laptops because of their portability and the music and videos they are able to watch be it at home or at their work places. Though they are more expensive than desktops, they still are highly sought after. Wireless internet connectivity At Bourbon Café in down town Kigali or at the MTN center in Nyarutarama, many people including expatriates and tourists take advantage of wireless connectivity. This is not limited to expats and tourists. Many local people have taken advantage and are able to get access to the internet without the necessity of going to a café or buying a modem. Kabahizi, 27, a self employed young man in Kimironko, says that owning a laptop has been a very interesting and empowering experience. Asked what he means by empowering experience, he responds that it is the equivalent of a mobile office. “This machine helps me to do research online and also write project proposals for several people who want to start projects or businesses.” Though Kabahizi lived for many years without a laptop computer, he now claims that he can not live without it. I ask him what he would do if it got stolen. To this, he responds that he has ever lost one but he had no option but to replace it within a short period of time.Indeed, laptop computers are a top target for thieves. Due to its small size and portability, it becomes easy for thieves to carry it away with little chance of being detected. This is one of the downsides of owning the device. Sometimes one can recover his stolen device. But most of the time it is very difficult to replace a stolen item like a laptop computer. This is what Frank, a banker in town learnt, when he lost his computer. He says that he left it in a restaurant and went outside to make a phone call and with a few minutes, it was gone. “I hadn’t imagined that within such a small period of time as five minutes, I would find my laptop already nicked.” But the worst was yet to come as he had bought the machine on a hire purchase loan kind of arrangement. Frank laments his predicament, “I continued servicing the loan for a machine that had already been stolen and probably sold on the black market for chicken feeds.” When asked whether his experience would inform his future choices in regard to purchasing computers, he responds that he is not about to buy another computer soon. Holding a daytime job may be an advantage for him since his organisation provides them with desktop computers for their computing needs at work. He adds that it may have been a mistake or some kind if extravagance to buy a laptop when he already had a job that catered for his computing needs. Frank believes that a desktop at home would have helped him for all he wanted to do away from work. But apparently he wanted to keep up with the Jones as Robert Kiyosaki put it in his book “Rich dad, Poor dad”. But whatever your view, laptops seem to have taken on a new kind of interest that very few people are willing to be left out. Contact: frank2kagabo@yahoo.com