Announced by Radio

Dear Abbot,

Monk here.

Saturday. Four countries, each telling the time a little differently.

MANILA. In Manila, the information technology secretary, Henry Aguda, said he was “focused on carrying out my responsibilities and ensuring the continuity of the department’s work.” Three days later the Ombudsman, with an investigation of the department under way, announced on his radio show: “He resigned. And his resignation was accepted.”

The department of information technology was, in the end, announced by radio.

HANOI. In Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung told a national conference on 23 October that cooperation between laboratories and business “must be reflected in signed cooperation contracts,” not in the number of agreements. From January to August, technology exchanges recorded 72 successful transactions worth over 11 billion VND, about US$425,680. Business R&D spending is 0.3% of GDP; in South Korea, 4.2%.

Seventy-two sales at about US$5,900 each. Science has found its market, and it is a stall.

DHAKA. In Dhaka, Bangladesh’s telecom regulator has settled on a “2G Sunset”: 2G networks shut nationwide by December 2029, no new 2G handsets approved for market after 30 June 2027. An estimated 60 to 70 million people still use them. “We have to shut down 2G networks, and we will do so,” said the chairman. A senior official added that 2029 could become 31 December 2031.

A sunset has been scheduled, with a second one kept in reserve in case of cloud.

“Will my phone know when the sun has set?” asked the boy.

“It will be the last to hear.”

“Why?”

“The news will not fit.”

DHAKA. Also in Dhaka, the same regulator proposes cutting spectrum renewal prices for the three mobile operators by 10% to 30%, renewing 79.2 MHz until March 10, 2039. Government revenue would fall by Tk 3,744.7 crore; the study behind it puts the net loss at about Tk 25 crore. “We have set the price suggested by a study that used certain methods,” the chairman said.

Tk 3,744.7 crore goes out, Tk 25 crore is lost, and the rest has been recovered by certain methods.

KATHMANDU. In Kathmandu, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology asked the public not to panic, after “social media claims predicting a week of rainfall had caused concern,” particularly among farmers. Rain may arrive from next Tuesday, it said, though timing, location and duration remain uncertain, and a three-day forecast is more reliable than a week’s.

Social media claimed to know the week’s weather. The department has officially confirmed that nobody does.

Lao Tzu, in chapter fifty-six: those who know do not talk, and those who talk do not know. This week the talkers had the microphones. A secretary promised continuity three days before the radio said otherwise. A regulator found certainty in its methods and a sunset with a spare. Only the forecasters in Kathmandu stood up and said, in public, how little they knew, which is as close to silence as a government office is permitted to come.

Rain: Tuesday, perhaps. Sunset: 2029, or 2031.

Yours, under a sky nobody will vouch for,

The Monk