“Baker shut up. Able isn’t who you think he is,” was the “punchline” of one of the few stories my father would tell about being a soldier in World War II. (Or at least that’s how I remember the story).
When he was 19, my father was the radioman in a mobile reconnaissance unit from the fall of 1944 until the fall of Germany in the spring. His unit was part of the counterattack that pushed the Germans back after the Battle of the Bulge; was one of the first to cross the Rhine; and had met up with the Russians in Magdeburg when the war ended in Europe.
As I remember the story, the Germans had gotten hold of a radio and were calling the base unit, continually repeating something like “Able to Baker, Able to Baker, come in Baker, I can’t hear you.” If they could get the base radio to reply several times, they had the technology that could figure out where the base was located and then they could attack it.
But my father was supposed to be “Able.” So he got on the radio and, breaking all protocol, told Baker to shut up. Baker did shut up but the story didn’t end there. Apparently my father was punished (or at least reprimanded) for not using the proper protocol, a denouement that I recall he would tell with a hint of a smile because it showed how illogical things could get in the Army.
In wartime, getting your hands of your enemy’s communications can be very useful. And, as the Soviet hack of the US government’s computer systems last year showed, it can be appealing and potentially powerful in peacetime as well. Moreover, as the recent coup in Myanmar and as the Indian show of force in Kashmir a few years ago both showed, there also are times when regimes want to shut down all communications with the outside world.
But most of the time, it’s better to be able to communicate freely across national borders. And that’s where the two stamps that make up today’s #stampoftheday offering come in. A 3- and an 8-cent stamp, they were issued in honor of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) by the United Nations Postal Administration on February 17, 1956. The stamps, which feature an image of a rotary telephone dial and ticker tape from a telegraph, were designed by Hubert Woyty-Wimmer, an Austrian-born graphic artist who designed many stamps for both Austria and for the UN, as well as numerous sheet music covers, and, after he moved to London after World War II to work for DLR, many banknotes and security documents, as well.
ITU, the subject of Woyty-Wimmer’s stamp, is one of the oldest international organizations still in operation. Founded in 1865 it initially was called the International Telegraph Union, which reflected its initial aim of connecting different countries’ telegraph networks. At the time, when telegraph lines crossed national borders, messages had to be stopped and translated into whatever system was being used in that country. So representatives of 20 countries came together to create one international entity to set universal standard. Over the next few years, the new ITU established the ground rules for international telegraphy, such as using Morse code as the international telegraph alphabet.
As new communications technologies, such as telephones, emerged, the ITU replicated this basic approach, an evolution reflected in the fact that it changed its name to the International Telecommunications Union in 1934. In 1947, the ITU agreed to become a specialized agency within the recently created United Nations. Today, as the ITU website notes, “every time you make a phone call via the mobile, access the Internet or send an email, you are benefitting from the work of ITU.”
While much of this work is technical, it has a political and personal dimension as well. For example, just this month, the Wall Street Journal ran a long article noting that ITU is in the middle of a quietly brewing conflict over China’s growing efforts to set international standards “for all manner of cutting-edge technologies that span telecommunications, electricity transmission and artificial intelligence,” rather than following its historic practice of adopting standards set by “international panels long dominated by Western technical experts.”
Earlier this month, ITU also announced that it was launching a new initiative seeking to make better use of Artificial Intelligence in preparing for and responding to natural disasters. “With new data and new insight come new powers of prediction able to save countless numbers of lives,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, who added the new initiative aims “to ensure that AI fulfills its extraordinary potential to accelerate the innovation required to address the greatest challenges facing humanity.”
And in 2019, ITU and UNICEF launched a global initiative to connect every school and its surrounding community to the Internet. This effort that has taken on much greater importance during the global pandemic because, as ITU and UNICEF noted in a November 2020 report, two thirds of the world’s school-age children – or 1.3 billion children aged 3 to 17 years old – do not have internet connection in their home. This, “is more than a digital gap -it is a digital canyon,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director when the report was released. “Lack of connectivity doesn’t just limit children and young people’s ability to connect online. It prevents them from competing in the modern economy. It isolates them from the world. And in the event of school closures, such as those currently experienced by millions due to COVID-19, it causes them to lose out on education. Put bluntly: Lack of internet access is costing the next generation their futures.”
The problem, apparently, isn’t that “Able” isn’t who “Baker” thinks he is. It’s that “Able” can’t reach “Baker” at a time when he need massive reinforcements. Hopefully someone like my father will sound the alarm, even if it means breaking established protocols.
Be well, stay safe, make sure you know who you’re talking with, fight for justice, and work for peace.