The case against OLPC?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Dec 07, 2007 at 11:05:37AM -0500, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> I usually think John Dvorak is a headline-grabbing crank, but this
> latest column rang true with sentiments that simply won't leave my head.
> 
> Isn't the whole idea of "let's give the developing world little
> computers" a kind of rich-person's feel-good thinking, when so much of
> the world doesn't even have enough to eat?
> 
> Is the OLPC going to fix literacy rates without teachers or books?
> 
> IMO Dvorak goes too far in calling the OLPC little more than an
> ad-delivery device, and the project's very existence is driving a whole
> new genre of small, cheap and mostly Linux-based computers. But his core
> point -- about the OLPC being a kind of cultural imperialism, offering
> computers to societies that need food, books, clean water, jobs and
> safety -- is hard to shake.
> 
> Perhaps the OLPC isn't really designed for the poorest countries, and
> should be concentrated in places -- such as Brazil and Malaysia -- where
> basic needs are (generally) met and computer literacy is a _next_ step.
> But that's not how the program is being promoted.
> 
> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2227850,00.asp
> 
> What do you think?

I think John Dvorak is in idiot and no longer read anything he writes,
nor anything in the magazines he writes for.

As for the OLPC, I am not sure.  I have even heard opinions that food
aid is a bad idea because it in some cases (supposedly many) is just
spent buying weapons rather than feeding the intended people, and that
not giving the food aid would make those weapons not get bought and
actually let them stop dealing with war and start dealing with feedin
themselves again.  Having not been to any of these places I have no idea
if that is true or not.  The OLPC seems less likely to be convertible
into weapons than food does, so perhaps it is actually a better thing to
give people.

--
Len Sorensen
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