Slashdot Mirror
U.N. Lends Backing to the $100 Laptop
willki wrote to mention an AP story stating that The United Nations has pledged support to the $100 Laptop. From the article: "Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program, will sign a memorandum of understanding Saturday with Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, on the $100 laptop project, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. The program aims to ship 1 million units by the end of next year to sell to governments at cost for distribution to school children and teachers. UNDP will work with Negroponte's organization to deliver 'technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries,' the U.N. agency said in a statement."
Will the $100 Notebook ship with the QWERTY Keyboard or will it be regional? (Arabesque, Hindi, Cryllic?)
The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.
I'm going to be real curious as to the after market value of these things. If it goes above $100, you can bet that those kids won't be getting them.
The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and, so the thinking goes, to fend off potential thieves.
So, if I paint a Ferrari lime green and put a hand crank on it, nobody will steal it?
something tells me you are a fool....
this program is targeted for poverty stricken children but children that are above the point of survival..
not everything is about the absolute worst off, some programs are *GASP* desigend to help other people too.
basically those children you mentioned have nothing to do with this article or the focus of this device.
the children that will greatly benefit are already going to some form of school (which will hopefully be made quite a bit better with some technology)
different programs have different targets, this program is not targeting the child prostitutes and orphans of the world.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
Mkay. I see this type of troll everytime these stories come up. These laptops aren't for starving children with hanta on their death beds. These are for children who live in poor nations, but are otherwise living and doing ok. Countries that education is their next step to becoming a modernized country. Their governments are concerned with getting their own people education right now, not feeding starving children half way around the world. It wasn't long ago they were the starving ones. You act as if the money would go to one or the other. That's not the case. If the money weren't going towards these laptops, it'd probably go right into their education systems.
And money isn't what those starving countries need. It's social order usually. America pays farmers for their food and buries it to control food prices. We have PLENTY of food to give away. Getting it in the hands of starving people is the problem. More often than not they will end up in the hands of warlords or destroyed. Throwing money at the problem isn't going to help those countries. Until dictator X is overthrown their people will continue to starve. And the UN isn't about raiding countries to overthrow dictators.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
It won't cure corruption. But you can't cure corruption by spending money anyway, quite the opposite. Now empowering and educating the masses.... hey, that might work. As for restributing weath, that one is easy to see how it might work. Compare educated vs. uneducated incomes in any country.
-Ryan C.
You're responding to a post about a:
( ) Technical innovation in a developing country
(*) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the devbeloping world
The location is:
( ) Africa
( ) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
(*) Other unspecified
You're objecting to it on the basis that:
(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
( ) American jobs will be lost
Your argument is bogus because:
( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
(*) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
(*) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
( ) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I think one reason people on Slashdot have such a pessimistic view of the $100 laptop, is the images that have been conjured up by Negroponte and co. Mostly extremely poor children living in some jungle village somewhere.
In reality, these laptops would probably be used by the urban poor and working class or those in well developed rural areas in rapidly developing countries. I have been to Fujian porvince in China, stood in a rice field and then used the internet, in a small village composed of mostly really old windowless stone buildings.
Urban infrastructure was near enough to provide internet and electricity to those who could afford it, but even so, people were very poor. This is the kind of setting I can easily see the laptop coming to its own. Those people were poor enough so as not to be able to afford good educational material, but can sustain themselves and would not benefit from food or whatever Slashdotters are offering instead of laptops.
I think those pessimistic views reflect an inherent ignorance about the world. The media often paints a rather bleak picture of the rest of the world, whereas most people get along fine, though could always use a little help.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
The project: http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
It might seem a bad idea to offer laptops over water, food and shelter, especially to governments/organizations, who in the past have held donations at ransom or misappropriated funds.
However, one can only hope, there are some smarter distribution plans this time.
As to the value;
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day...
Teach a man how to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.
Best to think of the project in these terms, no?
If someone wants to use their talents to make this happen, I applaud it. One cannot dictate to other the form of charity they wish to participate in. There are many dedicated to feeding the malnourished. There are others who work towards better treatment of disease and preventing the spread thereof. Perhaps there are those who think passing out crackers is a higher priority than passing out condoms, but there are valid arguments for both. Only by taking a big picture approach can the third world nations be granted the tools to bring themselves out of poverty. This laptop program is a commendable step in the right direction, and only one of many neccessary.