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US Geeks Recycle GNU/Linux Boxes for Ecuador
An anonymous submitter writes: "According to this article on Salon, geeks involved with Indymedia are recycling 300 GNU/Linux boxes to send to independent media activists in Ecuador. The machines will be used to create free public computer labs across South America, networked with donated wireless 802.11b cards. Anyone wanna chip in to help cover the shipping costs?"
It could be good news if it helps these "Media Activists" to rise above the pitiful stereotype you've labeled them with, wouldn't it? I'm sorry, but isn't your logic kind of like saying "The Catholic Church shouldn't have let Mother Theresa hang out with all those poor, sick people...it gives Catholics a bad image"?? Maybe we should give poor people in third-world countries the chance to rise above their current conditions, eh?
-- This Sig is currently under construction
How about we sell our boxes on ebay, and then send the money to make sure some kids down there eat tonight? I'm aware that these boxes aren't meant to be some poor child charity but this is easily the stupidest shit I've ever heard regarding acts of kindness.
And another thing, semi off-topic, regarding charity. Why is it that people ooh and aww and feel their heart sink when Sally Struthers shows them pictures of starving orphans in some god-forsaken place, but then the next day can be found in a Dillards parking lot mortified that a homeless kid almost touched their Lexus?
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
I hardly think the US Military is going to want to get involved in shipping computers to people who fancy themselves revolutionaries and who want to get the computers over there so that they can better coordinate their riots and protests. Medical missionaries these people are not.
There are already a couple of posts here with people griping about how "all this effort" is mis-directed and should be spent on "domestic" kids.
Its never ceases to amaze me how quick so many people are to critique an act of charity.
Somehow kids are more deserving because they happen to be closer geographically/politically/culturally?
Some guys at some location which happens to be in our country have for some reason chosen to help some kids at some other location which is not within out political boundaries. Should they be slighted because they haven't first helped everyone in their neighborhood/city/state/country?
If you think there's someone out there who needs help who isn't getting any try this... help them. That's what these folks here did.
As someone who has traveled throughout almost all of Ecuador, I can most emphatically say that in 85% of the country, these pcs are mostly useless without uninterruptible power supplies. Power regularly goes out for minutes and even hours at a time. Besides that, the voltage is anything but regular. Power spikes and dips are constant. Every PC at the mission in Macas had a ups on it. While it is great that this program exists, I hope that they send all the necessary components to make these machines useful.
News for you, sir: a majority of people outside the US
blame the world's problems on the US. And sometimes they are right.
Attacking Israel is not the same as being anti-semetic.
Indeed, the behaviour of most parties in the Middle East should be stoutly attacked. Rogues the lot of them.
IndyMedia represent a moderately left-wing viewpoint, one that the world would be poorer without.
And I speak as someone who disagrees with their views.
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
and glorifies terrorism, like Yassir Arrifat ...It is extremely anti-semetic...
Funny, I thought that Arrafat was
a semite.
Being anti-semitic means you can't live with Jews. This is a difference with hating 'Israel', or more correct, the Isrealian government.
I strongly disagree with the Israelian government, but I have no problem with Jews - you see? I can hate Bush, but have no problems with Americans.
Teenagers these days don't have as much sex as they want each other to think they do.
Gee, i guess I would lay the blaim at the feet of the trrorists who actually flew the plains into the WTC, but I guess I don't have the bennefits of your keen insight now do I! Incidentally if you want to blame presidents, the Clinton administration is the only one you can make the case for, they had a chance to take out binLaden and BLEW IT. Which is not suprising, because leftists have never been right, ever. (no pun intended)
Ugh, more reason why I hate to read the comments anymore.
Why is it people relate IndyMedia to terrorism? Perhaps some of the journalists related to it have slanted views and it reflects that in their stories but how is this different than mainstream media?
Isn't the basis of IndyMedia freedom of speech? Would you rather only have mainstream media owned by 3 gigantic companies?
Now I understand this article is primarily about the charity aspect which *surprise* everybody seems to have a problem with. But the same people critisizing the charity, are the same people that probably have never donated to anything in their lives.
Moral of the story: quit the "Do as I say, Not as I Do" routine.. it's tired.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
From the article,
Anti-globalization activists in Oakland, Calif., are recycling old machines, loading them with free software and shipping them off to Ecuador.
Doesnt something seem wrong with that sentence? How do they "ship them off" without support companies like UPS, FEDEX, DHL or whatever. Dont they all hate those companies?
Also, why are they against free trade? Its hard to get a feel for what these people stand for, and why. They say they are defending poor people, but how? Wont the isolation they seem to want, keep the poor people poor?
That being said, I think that more computers in south america is great. I dont know how this particular group came upon this idea however. Also, the article is a bit short on details, as to where the computers will be housed, and maintained etc.. It also goes on to explain that some will form a wireless network in Quito, but the rest will go to small towns.. How are those computers going to be useful?
It all sounds like a great idea, but I really dont understand these people.. I think they do more harm than good to the very people that they say they want to help..
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
As for the *DEFINITION*, as you put it, you might want to look it up, some other time before you troll.
As for the rest of your nonsense, you should consider the possibility that some people might disagree with the Israeli oppression of the palestineans as well as the palestinean terror.
Indymedia is only moderately left wing. They're about trying to show world views of current global/local problems. The only reason many people view them as extremely left wing is because they talk about issues such as animal rights, womens' rights, environmental issues, violence/war, and governmental issues. Frankly, if you see these issues as left wing, that's pretty sad. These are issues everyone should be concerned with...and most of the world outside of the US speaks about openly. Indymedia about the closest thing we have to unbiased news in the US. Think about that next time you turn on Fox News and watch your daily dose of sensationalism
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I'm glad that I am an American.
From the article:
..300 computers that are being shipped to Ecuador will stay there; some will be used in Quito, the capital city, where activists will also set up a citywide wireless network, but many will be sent to various towns and villages all over the region. "It's interesting because on some level you might say these people don't need computers -- they need clean water, housing and some sort of economic base that's not exploited," Henshaw-Plath says. "But we're saying that giving computers to the right people, that's the tool to get that social change."
I can tell you for a fact (I come from Ecuador) that the people there DO need clean water and housing, along with EDUCATION in order to actually USE these computers and the wireless network.
Without this knowledge, the people who they'd like to help won't know and eventually won't CARE about the computers.
I'm sorry but I really believe that these people are out of touch with the common person in Ecuador..
hey, indymedia dipshit--
don't you think it's a bit hypocritical to use a big bad evil mommy-save-me multinational shipping company to get those computers down to south america? maybe you should swim them there yourselves.
But what are these policies that have enraged the Muslims?
And why are they the fault of the Bush's? Bush had been in office a little over a year, and the specific attack on the WTC was in planning for more than a year. It is easy to say, and based on nothing more than common wisdom (very rarely correct), but Bush, and his policies wouldn't have even affected anyone when the planning started.
The Muslims have already stated that all western society must fall. Bush, either one of them, haven't created the Protestant, or more generically, the Christian, ethic. These are the things that the fundamentalist Muslims were attacking. Unfortunately for all the atheists, Muslims don't see a big difference between the two groups, as they are all infidels, and deserve to die.
The nerve gas isn't going to reach here, so where is it going to go?
Always gets at least +2 Informative.
Yet an actual historically aware post gets labeled Troll.
I love this moderation system. Something based on nothing but supposition and strong sentiment gets an informative, something based on history gets a troll.
The attack wasn't aimed at Bush. It was aimed at western civilization as a whole. The same things that make us a target for attacks about being arrogant (uneducated spite at our icon status) make us a target for people attacking the icon.
While I normally try to convince anti-globlization activists of the merits of globalization whenever I can, this time I will hold my tongue. How can plugging a third world country into the internet be seen as anything else but furthering globalization?
I think you're confused.
'Anti-globalization' activists aren't against greater communication and information exchange. Indeed, many are anarchists that would like to see all borders fall and all imposed limits between various peoples disappear.
They are, however, generally against the consolidation of global economic power among a power elite who socialize costs while privatizing benefits. At the moment, globalization seems to be more about extending Western economic power and authority than really improving the lives and freedom of all people.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Let me tell you what we were fighting for in WWII. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and it became perfectly clear that the border's of these United States were no longer safe, and the problems of the world could eventually affect us. The men and women of the US were afraid that one day, the war would be fought on our soil, and that life as we know it would change forever. That we might just have to sacrafice millions as the russians did. That our cities might be bombed as London was. If the American people gave a rats ass about the wellbeing of the rest of the world, we would have helped sooner. We don't.
Since our creation, we have been week, and we have been afraid to interact with the rest of the world in fear that this interaction might make our homeland appear on someone's radar screen, and that we may have to defend this land from aggressors homeland. Did we fight WWII to save the Jews? Did we fight it to liberate France or free England from the threat of her neighbor? Did we wish to liberate the people of Germany, Japan, and Italy from a repressive government? No! We realized that we may be next.
Just so I am clear, the American government cares about American's first. Thats why we, the American people have put it there. It is the job of our American government to do what is right in defending our way of life.
We have been placed in a world were the agressor with the biggest stick wins. This is apparent in Afghanastan, Cuba, Iraq, most of the middle east in fact, China, North Korea, and every other home of an oppressive totaltarion government. These governments would like to rape America of its fortune and discard are scared bodies to die. I support my government in setting up an empire in order to protect my family from the evil totaltarian governments of the world.
Further more, let me explain something else to you. The group of people with the biggest production get to build the biggest army. The group of people with the biggest army get to defend there borders and do what is neccesary to prevent aggression on its people. Therefore, economy, as shown in WWII, is equal to military might. Production is directly related to infrastructure, energy, and food. The power in the world that has the greatest infrastructure with sufficient food and energy gets to dictate whatever it wants. It was has allowed America to dominate in the last 50 years. The American capitalist system pays those who produce. Therefore, for 200 years, men have worked very hard to produce. We have spent lifetimes building businesses to take home money to our families so they can have nice things and live in luxury. As a side affect, because our individuals are paid per production and each generation grew beyond their parents, we have the biggest infrastructure in the world. Also, we grow way more food than we eat.
But remember, three things are needed in order to protect our borders. We need energy. Without it, our production (war making ability) goes down, and we are aggressed on by our neighbor. Therefore, war for oil makes since. Without war for oil, we fight wars for our territory. I'd rather fight wars for oil.
In conclusion, if you're not american, watch out because we will do whatever it takes to survive and defend our borders against you. If you your lifestyle to be directly related to your production, come aboard. It's a sturdy ship.
This isn't the sig you are looking for... Carry on...
Sending food ruins local economy as it works as would dumping of say memories into this country.
colombia used to produce alot of it's own wheat. back in the 60s or 70's the us started dumping wheat on their market left over from subsiding
farmers in the us. this infusion of wheat dropped the price of wheat in colombia to the point where farmers couldnt make any money on it. the farmers had to produce something to feed their families.. you can guess what that something was. now we are opressing them with a war on drugs.
-- john
It's not that all Americans are this clueless - it's just that the attitude betrayed by the parent post is particularly irksome. Americans are resented for their cultural and political hegemony, not because everyone else is starving.