The hundred dollar laptop and the Third World
One of the more interesting stories buzzing around the Internet is the imminent release of the $100 laptop, a project of Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab. The laptop isn't meant to be commercially sold, rather it is part of a humanitarian endeavor to put laptops in the hands of poor children in third world countries.
It's a wonderful idea, and orchids to Nick for thinking it up. Perhaps my cynical side gets the best of me, but when the folks in the Ivory Tower and government agencies try to do something for the poor folks, they usually don't quite get it quite right. Like providing hundreds of mobile homes to Katrina victims, and then not letting anybody live in them because they don't meet code, for example. I've visited, and lived in some of those third world countries that are on the list to get the laptops, and I know they will do some good. But of course, probably not as much good as one might think. Walking through the busy border market in Poipet, Cambodia, I saw evidence of plenty of benevolence from the West, in terms of huge bags and crates of goods donated by various non-profits. Unfortunately, two things struck me about those donations.
First, a great many of the goods wound up for sale in the border market stalls. Second, a lot of the goods were completely useless to poor Cambodians.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- 4640 reads
- PDF version
More in Tux Machines
- Highlights
- Front Page
- Latest Headlines
- Archive
- Recent comments
- All-Time Popular Stories
- Hot Topics
- New Members
digiKam 7.7.0 is releasedAfter three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. |
Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand
|
Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future TechThe metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. |
today's howtos
|
RE: OLPC is the beginning of communism ?
Nope. It is not communism, because those countries will PAY for those laptops. And hardware vendors will get even richer, on the expenses of the poor countries.
This is monopoly, imperialism and corporate welfare all-in-one.