$100 Laptops
I have always thought that this US $100 laptop project was at best well-intended silliness and at worst a criminal waste of resources. The laptops will now cost roughly $200 each and the purpose has changed. Originally, they were intended for children in remote areas with no electricty. The prototype had a cord that could be pulled to generate power, although it took roughly an hour to generate enough power to use it for an extended period of time. I guess someone finally realized that if there was no electricity the kids would probably be either too busy or too ill with dysentery to pull a cord for an hour and then play video games. Now the computers can only be used in areas with electricity.
However, no one connected to OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) has been able to explain why it is more efficient to waste a considerable amount of money designing cheap laptops and then pay to have them produced when people in the West are constantly upgrading their laptops and desktop computers. Instead of an ever growing pile of discarded laptops being tossed into the recylcing bins, they could be repaired if necessary and distributed to needy children in poor countries. I wonder if this entire misguided project is motivated by the desire to avoid the impression of asking less developed nations to basically accept hand-me-downs. While concern for the dignity of the less fortunate is laudable, it is also misplaced. The world is facing an increasingly severe environmental crisis and the modern emphasis on replacing things like cell phones, cars, computers, and clothes as soon as they are a bit worn out or when something slightly shinier comes out six months later is producing very, very, very large piles of garbage. Distributing the already used computers to less developed nations would significantly reduce those piles.
Most important, it would cost a fraction of the current approach and the leftover money could be used to improve drinking water, build roads, build schools, build houses, well you get the point. The interesting thing about less developed countries is that US$ 200 goes a long way. I have met people who were quite happy if they made a dollar a day and they were not at the bottom of their respective social ladders. One of the spokespeople for OLPC tried to justify the mindboggling lack of common sense by saying that once millions of children in the developing world have computers they will be able to express their needs. I suspect that they will say something like: "Dear Mr. Negroponte (initiator of the project), thank you for the computer but what I really wanted was a school with a roof and a bathroom with a door and water that looks like water, not all brownish and yucky. Maybe next Christmas. Hugs and kisses."
However, no one connected to OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) has been able to explain why it is more efficient to waste a considerable amount of money designing cheap laptops and then pay to have them produced when people in the West are constantly upgrading their laptops and desktop computers. Instead of an ever growing pile of discarded laptops being tossed into the recylcing bins, they could be repaired if necessary and distributed to needy children in poor countries. I wonder if this entire misguided project is motivated by the desire to avoid the impression of asking less developed nations to basically accept hand-me-downs. While concern for the dignity of the less fortunate is laudable, it is also misplaced. The world is facing an increasingly severe environmental crisis and the modern emphasis on replacing things like cell phones, cars, computers, and clothes as soon as they are a bit worn out or when something slightly shinier comes out six months later is producing very, very, very large piles of garbage. Distributing the already used computers to less developed nations would significantly reduce those piles.
Most important, it would cost a fraction of the current approach and the leftover money could be used to improve drinking water, build roads, build schools, build houses, well you get the point. The interesting thing about less developed countries is that US$ 200 goes a long way. I have met people who were quite happy if they made a dollar a day and they were not at the bottom of their respective social ladders. One of the spokespeople for OLPC tried to justify the mindboggling lack of common sense by saying that once millions of children in the developing world have computers they will be able to express their needs. I suspect that they will say something like: "Dear Mr. Negroponte (initiator of the project), thank you for the computer but what I really wanted was a school with a roof and a bathroom with a door and water that looks like water, not all brownish and yucky. Maybe next Christmas. Hugs and kisses."
posted by History on Film at 1:47 PM
1 Comments:
Collection, testing and distribution of the used laptops is one reason why the idea of using the West's discarded machines was probably not considered. Furthermore, the idea of shipping standardized PCs, rather than a mish mash of discarded machines is the reason the powers that be came up with this idea.
I for one think that providing laptops to people who have no food, medicine and shelter (and probably could not read or use the PCs) is really stupid. As for the PCs being able to be generated using a crank, this is still the case, and the cost is closer to $175 per machine.
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