A laptop for every Libyan schoolchild

MIT researcher Nicholas Negroponte's efforts to supply laptops to kids in developing nations are bearing fruit.
The New York Times
Photos: $100 laptop takes world stage

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[Penguinisto]

Sour Grapes from MSFT and Intel...

They're just grouchy because they didn't get a piece of the action (the laptops run a Linux variant and AMD chips).

Screw 'em - if Libya is improving like the few scant reports to be found about 'em say they are, I say good on 'em. A strong IT/intellectual-based economy would do Africa some good (for once), and may even help them do something they've not done since pre-history - have stable and strong [i]non-colonial[/i] nations within it.

/P

[Stufiano]

Learn your history!

Pre-history? What exactly counts there? As late as 1901 there was the Ashanti Empire [present day Ghana] was independent and stable. Until the British starting chipping at it [from the 1700s onwards] and finally annexed it in 1901.

And that's just ONE example of a stable country being destabilized by Europeans. Thusly, do NOT blame Africans for the instabilty in Africa blame the outsiders who destabilized the whole continent [over time] and still exploit and control governements [whether coorporations or countries influence the African states it hass resulted in massive corruption]

Remember its only been AT MOST 50 years since they became indepedent; what do you expect?

[Captain_Spock]

How about an FCHH Program First!

As this article states in part; "The two men also discussed the possibility of Libya's financing the purchase of laptops for a group of poorer African nations like Chad, Niger and Rwanda"; however appealing that this program may seem; how about sound FEEDING, CLOTHING, HOUSING and HEALTH (FCHH) PROGRAMS first for "poorer African nations like Chad, Niger and Rwanda" like what the Bill Gates Foundation appears to have on its agenda. Why provide laptop computers to poor people around the world who have no food to eat, hardly any clothes to wear, no shelter over their heads, no potable water to drink, no health care services, no transportation (remember PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS- PAN AM).....???

[Chung Leong]

One Laptop Thief Victim Per Child

This project is so bad it's hard to know where to start. Let's ignore the organizational and technical problems and consider the most basic question: how do you keep these laptops in the hands of the children? In places where people live on a dollar a day, $140 is quite a lot of money. Can one really expect children to walk around with such expensive piece of equirpment? Inevitably they will become targets of criminals. Most poor families, I suspect, will immediately sell the thing upon recieving one.