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Libya Purchases 1.2 mil Wind-up Laptops
An anonymous reader writes "The government of Libya is reported to have agreed to provide its 1.2m school children with a cheap, durable laptop computer by June 2008.
The laptops offer internet access and are powered by a wind-up crank. They cost $100 and manufacturing begins next year, says One Laptop per Child.
The non-profit association's chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, said the deal was reached on Tuesday in Libya.
Professor Negroponte told the New York Times in an email that the project mirrored Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's political agenda of creating a more open Libya and he also expressed interest in purchasing the computers for poorer African neighbors."
The laptops offer internet access and are powered by a wind-up crank.
Is this more shoddy BBC journalism? I thought this had been dropped from the OLPC spec a while ago?
Please do some reasearch. Libya is a huge thinly populated country with oil. It has the highest or second highest std of living in Africa. Most middle class people speak Italian (former colony). If anyone in a '3rd world' country can make use of cheap computers, it's them.
Where do you people come from? It's like, no matter how much light is shed on this matter, people keep objecting with that irrelavent point. These computers are for countries that are poor, yes, but they already have modern medicine, education and democracy. Yes, such countries exist, like the ones already planning on buying these computers: Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, and now Libya. The countries like the ones you describe aren't the ones getting these. They have bigger problems to deal with, as you say.
You were more likely than not right in the desert, which is a lot worse than being in the city and operating out of air conditioned buildings. I used to live in kuwait and had less problems with sand&dust than many other places. If you can use the equipment in a closed area then you should be fine.
I know this is a joke, but Lybia essentially changed sides in 2003.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Companies are falling all over themselves in order to gain exploration contracts there.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Judge by facts, not because your own dictator says "evil man over there".
Yes, human rights are still a problem. But a country that just legalised imprisoning people without charge, trial, access to lawyer and for as long as you like is not really the party that should speak accusingly of other parties on this matter.
Get rid of your own dictator first before you tell others to do so.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org