Because it’s more selfish and god knows people in Africa need a laptop over a cow. I wonder are African charties and other groups going to suffer because of geeks getting into charity? I’d be supporting Bóthar, had I a social conscience.
Damien Mulley
Invisible people have invisible rights
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Thought this is only available in the US, is it worldwide?
It’s only available in the US. If it was available here, I’d totally be getting two.
Err… And a cow, of course. And possibly a goat.
But the cow will need a tree, and the tree will, need a well….
At least the laptop uses batteries.
It’s only a mater of time before someone claims these bad boys are being used to control balistic missles and the like. *sigh*
Saying they need food more than they need a laptop is like saying they need food more than a school. Obviously if people don’t have food the school doesn’t matter, but there’s no reason not to do both.
It’s a bit like the give a man a fish/teach a man to fish thing.
If this reads like a /rant it’s not.
They are not focusing on the countries where starvation is the main issue.OLPC is targeting developing nations where there is some momentum to improve things but where access to technological resources and information appears to be slowing things down in these places. Perhaps you are laboring under the faulty impression that the OLPC is meant to teach children how to use computers, it’s not. Its a mesh networked learning device that aims to teach reading writing maths etc it allows them the opportunity to help themselves and earn a living in the future. The software is free and open. The hardware is also free and open and it’s expected that both will start a local cottage industry.
Does Bóthar operate in any of the following countries… Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt,Greece,Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda[?],Tunisia.
No, I thought not. But the media including your good self gives people the impression that starving kids will be sitting in the middle of the feckin desert with a lappy but nothing to eat.
“It’s an education project, not a laptop project.”- Nicholas Negroponte
Please take some time to read up on the OLPC project.
As Rahood says, these things are generally being sent to places where there’s a potential to help with education, and which are already developing. They could actually do a fair bit of good.
Obviously aid to very poor countries is also a good thing, but it’s an entirely different type of aid.
If anything, you should be more worried about governmental ‘tied aid’ and the like.
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