The $100 laptop moves closer to reality

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Unfortunately

...the West (governments and press in particular) are pitifully uninformed about the realities on the ground in certain countries. They are also unawares that they should not impose "solutions" and nor should they blindly assume that what works in their country will work in another.

In the case of SA, I am not worried about corruption for a scheme like this. I am concerned because the suburbs which have the infrastructure will already have schools with computers. The suburbs without the infrastructure require money for the infrastructure to be built firstly - so essentially there is also, in addition to what I outlined above, a three tier structure:

1. Suburb with infrastructure and computers already
2. Suburb with infrastructure being built up but not complete, so schools just surviving with getting the number of textbooks etc
3. Infrastructure needing development, severe lack of textbooks, etc.

A scheme like this would only be useful to those under (2) and future plans for making (3) like (2). In addition, there needs to be investment in those communities to reduce the high crime rate. Imagine a poor kid coming home with a computer...he'd be robbed. Imagine a poor school in a bad neighbourhood full of these computers, and you might as well call the police before handing the laptops over.

There are monetary, community, safety and developmental issues all tied together.

The reality on the ground is extremely complex, and articles such as these simply do not grasp it - much like the adverts that you mention do not convey the real picture of what percentage of the money actually reaches the real people in need (or specifies what choice those needy people have over the add - is it a "survive" aid, will it be a long-term development aid to get them out of poverty, etc etc.).

I read zdnet every day but rarely post. This story though touches too close to my heart to let it pass unspoken. Thankfully though the SA government is well aware of the very issues raised in my posts, and many issues besides.

Posted by: mikeybrass   Posted on: 09/28/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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