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

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 09:06:45PM -0800, William Kirkland wrote:
> I suspect those who were able to obtain such a laptop would trade it  
> for other things anyway. Until they *have* an education of some  
> sorts, it's just a bunch of funny pictures and lines.

In some places they would, in others they would not. In India there was
a project to place computers in walls in big cities. They had access to
power and the Internet and could not be stolen or sold. It was the first
time the children of the area got to use a computer. $100 laptops would
work nicely there. If you ignore Africa and look at the middle east,
India and China, you probably could place several billion laptops
with people who could use and appreciate them.

Here alone in Israel you could probably place 100,000 laptops with poor
families who have no access to computers. You would have to provide
educational material that did not violate the religious needs of the
people, but that's not as difficult as it sounds and if there were
computers, there would be software.

You probably could also place a million or so in Palestine, which they
are going to need massive education if they can get rid of their terrorist
leaders. 

Although they are trying to kill us by sending 16 year old girls as
suicide bombers and over 1,000 missiles this year, the Palestinian plan
is to eventually declare peace and all get good jobs here. What they
don't want to realize is that we don't and never will trust them, they
need to make their own living on their own. These are people with food,
water, electricity and their lack of security is their own choice.

They have the teachers, they have the schools, but what they have to do
is get a more modern, more liberal education system then the books that
UNICEF paid for that teach arithmetic with "If I have 5 Jews and kill 3,
how many Jews do I have left to kill"?

These laptops could do it.

You probably could place a few million in Eastern Europe, Canada and the
U.S. Another few million if the rest of the Americas.

While we have been concentrating on a specific need, dirt farmers in
Africa with no education, no electricity, no clean water, and soldiers
trying to kill them, there are lots of shades of gray in here.

> A computer could be used as an aid to teaching, but typically people  
> will be required to teach. The $100 would be better spent toward the  
> people to teach than a laptop, or stable power, maybe even clean  
> water treatment facilities ... there are just too many missing steps  
> for those to make a $100 laptop useful.

I don't know. What does it cost to provide a Peace Corps (are they still
around?) or CARE volunteer for a month? or a year? I think you could buy
100 laptops for the cost of one volunteer for a year. 

People to teach are harder to find than money. I think if you asked
the average geek to buy you a $100 laptop a month or take a month off (with
no loss of pay or benefits) to teach in Africa, you would end up with so
many laptops you would not be able to distribute them.


Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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