[Oberon] Re. OLPC - One Laptop Per Child

[John Drake]

--- Arnim Littek <arnim at actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

> On Thursday 14 December 2006 15:01, John Drake
> wrote:
> > more so than a "charity" project.  Like I said,
> > they're SELLING the machines.  And frankly, at
> > $100 I'd buy one myself.
> 
> If you can scratch together US$100 in disposable
> income for such a device, 
> that doesn't mean that a waif in the third world has
> any realistic chance of 
> accumulating that much money in its entire lifetime.
>   Maslow's hierarchy of 
> needs provides some perspective.
> 
> Arnim.
> --

And if you snip out all relevant points that address
your point you can repost something that's already
been answered.  :) Not to sound "snippy" but let's
put back some of what you snipped out.

1) This isn't just targetted at Africa.  China and
India are two of the fastest growing economies in
the world.

2) The MIT plan is to sell the laptops to 
governments who could then distribute them
to schools.  So it's not up to a "waif child
to scrape up $100."

3) Despite stereotypes to the contrary, there
are people in these countries that actually
HAVE the money and can make use of an inexpensive
laptop.  I gave you the link earlier to 
http://www.kiva.org.  That sight is geared
to entreprenuers in some of the poorest countries
in the world who use the site to procure
microloans.  Typically such people have to
pay money to access computers at Internet 
cafes.  If they could somehow work "offline"
then upload their work the laptop might pay
for itself sooner than you might thing.  These
entreprenuers often take out loans of $100 to
$500 dollars, but completely pay them back in
a matter of months.

So please drop the straw man tunnel vision.
Yes, everyone knows that a "waif" living ANYWHERE
(even in America) is unlikely to scrape up
$100 to buy a laptop.  But nobody is proposing
that.

Regards,

John M. Drake


 
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