[ILUG] Why education matters

[Colm Buckley]

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 7:24 PM, David Howe <david.howe at howesystems.com>
wrote:

>
> I am not a fan of the OLPC as $188 (the Windows variant costs at least
> another $10) is a lot of money in the third world. Food is a much more
> important basic requirement.


You're falling into the trap of assuming that the OLPC's target market is
"starving peasants".  Of course it's not.  Most of the developing world is
not starving, the bulk of the population of Africa (for example) is urban,
semiskilled workers or professionals.  It's the children of these people at
whom the OLPC is targetted, the original intent is a massive infusion of
computer resources to kickstart a generation of IT professionals in these
regions.  The choice between "computers or food" is a false dichotomy.

Colm


-- 
Colm Buckley / colm at tuatha.org / +353 87 2469146