Disgusting. How can anyone applaud this socialist act? I would bet that the $250 million would be MUCH better utilized in the hands of the people who EARNED the money rather than having their children learn a few Linux commands. Countries such as these are struggling for shelter, food and water, and maybe a free market economy where their government doesn't steal everything they earn. Then they can afford their own computers.
Negroponte knows a lot about making a sub $200 computer, but knows NOTHING on how to make a third-world country into a first-world country. Technology is not a panacea to end despotism and famine. Name one third-world country that is impoverished because of just bad luck rather than from a corrupt government that steals, bullies and kills their citizens and I'll shut up.
I'd say you're cynical, but there is a good chance that these laptops will just be resold by corrupt government officials. Best-case scenario is that the kids' parents get a cut of the money.
On the bright side, maybe I can pick one up cheap on eBay.
Its a heavy investment into a possible future. There are probably better more imediate needs for the money but that only fixes the problem today buy 250m woth of food to feed the country for a few years and what do you gain? Physical labor is comming to its limits to be replaced by machines. Educate a mass and you can intergrate them into service sector of the future economy.
Only one country? How about Ghana, then? The truth of the matter is that while there are a lot of third world countries that have huge problems with government corruption, they are most certainly not ALL corrupt. However, even the countries that have a dedicated government that are trying hard to help their people have a ton of hurdles to overcome, including debt, disease, education, and infrastructure. I agree that these countries are struggling to afford food and water, but education is really one of many things that NEEDS to happen in order to help increase the level of production in the country and hence lower the number of people living in extreme poverty. If you want an example of where teaching computers to your people works, look at India and the IT revolution it's having right now. If you want more examples of non-corrupt third world governments, read "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey D. Sachs. His work is amazing and a must read for anyone interested in this.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Disgusting. How can anyone applaud this socialist act? I would bet that the $250 million would be MUCH better utilized in the hands of the people who EARNED the money rather than having their children learn a few Linux commands. Countries such as these are struggling for shelter, food and water, and maybe a free market economy where their government doesn't steal everything they earn. Then they can afford their own computers.
Negroponte knows a lot about making a sub $200 computer, but knows NOTHING on how to make a third-world country into a first-world country. Technology is not a panacea to end despotism and famine. Name one third-world country that is impoverished because of just bad luck rather than from a corrupt government that steals, bullies and kills their citizens and I'll shut up.
I'd say you're cynical, but there is a good chance that these laptops will just be resold by corrupt government officials. Best-case scenario is that the kids' parents get a cut of the money.
On the bright side, maybe I can pick one up cheap on eBay.
Its a heavy investment into a possible future. There are probably better more imediate needs for the money but that only fixes the problem today buy 250m woth of food to feed the country for a few years and what do you gain? Physical labor is comming to its limits to be replaced by machines. Educate a mass and you can intergrate them into service sector of the future economy.
Only one country? How about Ghana, then? The truth of the matter is that while there are a lot of third world countries that have huge problems with government corruption, they are most certainly not ALL corrupt. However, even the countries that have a dedicated government that are trying hard to help their people have a ton of hurdles to overcome, including debt, disease, education, and infrastructure.
I agree that these countries are struggling to afford food and water, but education is really one of many things that NEEDS to happen in order to help increase the level of production in the country and hence lower the number of people living in extreme poverty.
If you want an example of where teaching computers to your people works, look at India and the IT revolution it's having right now.
If you want more examples of non-corrupt third world governments, read "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey D. Sachs. His work is amazing and a must read for anyone interested in this.