pModern technology requires more from us than we’re willing or able to give. Marshall McLuhan, the one some call the father of media studies, warned that “our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.” Thinking that’s truly transformational goes beyond the mere accumulation of data, information and knowledge. New thinking is transcendent. It’s insightful. It’s wise. It quickly recognises patterns and makes decisions that result in alignment. Yet, in the Caribbean, many in positions of public authority take the new wine of disruptive digital technologies and pour it into the old wine skins of restrictive bureaucracies, stultifying regulatory systems, and inefficient institutional traditions. They choose to operate in silos to preserve the status quo. They allow decision-making processes to remain opaque, hidden from the “prying” eyes of a public to whom they really don’t want to be held accountable. They arbitrarily restrict access to information and attempt to command activities while controlling people and outcomes. Without wisdom in how we gather, process and leverage new digital technologies, data, information, and knowledge to make people’s lives better, we’re likely to see the emergence of authoritarian leadership that uses the technologies of the digital age to monitor, control, and suppress rather than to promote freedom and the empowerment of people. We now face the reality of a world trending towards growing inequalities and imbalances of power within the digital economy, as well as a growing concentration of power resting with governments and privately controlled near-monopoly digital platforms not originating in Caribbean spaces. But there’s wisdom in the idea of belonging, in harnessing the collective capability of our people to respond to the challenges and opportunities of this highly disruptive historical moment. Join me for Episode 13, “Reflections: The Wisdom of Belonging”, the penultimate episode of the My Belonging podcast series. In it, I stress the need for new models, new modalities and new thinking to accelerate the Caribbean’s digital transformation. I also warn about the dangers of allowing business to continue as usual. Thanks for listening!