Slashdot Mirror
Thailand Government Cancels OLPC Participation
patiwat writes "Thailand's new junta-appointed Education Minister has cancelled Thailand's participation in the One Laptop Per Child project and scrapped a plan to give a 2B1 laptop to every primary school student. He has also cancelled plans to roll out computers and a broadband connection to every single school in Thailand. The cancellation of half a million scholarships for needy students is being studied. He cited the lack of readiness of teachers and the need to focus on basic education standards. "We will not focus too much on technology and materials. We will focus on substance," he said. This comes on the heels of the cancellation of the Thai government's open source policy."
"We will screw our dear students by not giving them much needed educational materials. We will further screw our students by teaching them stupid, useless stuff. Because we think we cannot compete with the tech services offered by nations such as India et al, we will provide the so-called developed world with cheap, undereducated, unimaginative lumpenproletariat who will not and cannot act against oppression-thru-sweatshops. Therefore, we will be able to compete with other developing nations to provide you the cheapest possible labor."
Believe me when I tell you: I know how such a government thinks...
Soviet Union. China. Vietnam. North Korea. Cambodia. Cuba. And until relatively recently, Poland, East Germany, Romania, and the rest of Eastern Europe.
No, I don't get why anyone would think that communism was inherently totalitarian and anti-democratic, let alone brutal and dehumanising, just because this has been true of every country with a communist government, ever.