Technology really can be your best friend sometimes

I have been somewhat distracted of late. The unexpected loss of an uncle in Mumbai, combined with a pre-planned break, meant that I was absent for a fortnight in total, covering the initial stages on a General Election campaign. As a result, I don't really feel attuned to what's happening around me, which in itself feels a bit odd.

Nonetheless, life goes on. So, what have I been up to?

Last week was about travel, but the week before was all about family. I've already covered the key events in sufficient detail, but having reflected a little, I should note how technology has made life in the diaspora slightly less isolated.

My family is just one of untold families who, for economic opportunities, have left their homeland and scattered across the globe, leaving an older generation behind them. In the past, distance made personal contact difficult and expensive, and with international telephone calls expensive and unreliable, it was difficult to keep in touch, both actually and emotionally. If a loved one at home died, or was seriously ill, you needed to be wealthy and extremely well-organised, if not a bit lucky, to be able to return home in time.

Now, with Skype and Facebook and all of the other media that enable easy contact at low, or no, cost, you can share experiences across the globe in a way that we are in danger of taking for granted. So, when I was sitting at my computer seventeen days ago, I got a message from my cousin, Kim, in Auckland, telling me that my uncle, in Mumbai, was in hospital and then, soon afterwards, that he wasn't going to make it.

Thirty years ago, that would have meant finding a travel agent, organising a visa via the High Commission, finding somewhere to stay, getting currency, all of which would have involved journeys to do things in person, assuming that you could find out what you needed to prepare.

Now, I was able to book the flight online, pay for it with a credit card, arrange a hotel, tell everyone what I was doing and how, all in less than an hour. Yes, it wasn't cheap - immediate, last minute arrangements seldom are - but it was easy enough. Meanwhile, in London and Toronto, Auckland and Boston, similar arrangements were being made and within sixty-five hours, everyone had arrived in Mumbai.

It is, on reflection, quite remarkable, and a reminder that whilst we may be far apart, technology offers us, and every diaspora community, the means to maintain those connections of kin and community that are so core to our very being...