[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

[Dan Sikorski]

der Mouse wrote:
>>> Cue Poul Anderson's _The Helping Hand_.
>>>       
>> I'm failing to find a synopsis online, although I can probably guess
>> where this is going...
>>     
>
> Quick sketch: Skontar and Cundaloa are two planets which have exhausted
> themselves warring with one another.  Terra steps in to help them get
> back on their feet again.  Cundaloa gets aid; Skontar, in the person of
> their ambassador, antagonizes Terra enough (albeit subtly) that Skontar
> gets no aid.
>
> Half a lifetime later, Cundaloa's culture has become a quaint tourist
> attraction, replaced with a clone of Terran culture; Skontar is still
> only just getting back on their feet, but is doing things their own
> way, and some of them are things Terrans are visiting Skontar to learn
> about (the example I remember was a type of spaceship Terran science
> said was impossible).
>
> Of course, like all fiction, it works out that way because the author
> wanted it to work out that way.  But I'm sure you can see the relevance
> to the discussion.
>   
Well, I think that there's a big difference between providing aid, and 
using the weakness of another culture to force your culture onto their 
people under the guise of providing aid.  If the laptops come preloaded 
with political or religious propaganda (as far as i can tell, they do 
not) instead of educational information, this would be an entirely 
different issue than what it is. 

    -Dan Sikorski