[geeks] $100 One Laptop Per Child - grist for the mill

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 @ 16:44 -0800, William Kirkland said:

> Education *is* important, though there are basic needs which have  
> priority, just so that the potential students will learn. Until those  
> needs have been addressed, one may find a tree would make a better  
> student.

I hate to say it after criticizming Dvorak, but he called this one
right, at least partly.

>From what I understand in talking to people who've worked in africa,
almost no one would afford a $100 laptop, and few villages could come
close to affording a $300 network link.

The vast majoirty of people there have annual incomes measured in single
digit US dollars, assuming they have any at all.

To me, if the people solved their fundamental problems--slavery,
genocide, civil war, unchecked disease and causes thereof, near total
lack of national will, and so on--and created a stable civilization,
they probably would not need anyone's help getting laptops.

There *are* areas where good education is available, and yet it doesn't
seem to help much in the absense of the will to use it.

I think it would be nice if good technology could be provided to them,
but lacking solutions to their other general problems of survival and
stability, it won't really help much.



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- [There is a limit to how stupid people really
are -- just as there's a limit to the amount of hydrogen in the Universe. 
There's a lot, but there's a limit.  -- Dave C. Barber on a.f.c.  ]