[Wylug-discuss] One Laptop per Child becomes One Tablet per Child

[Tim Schofield]

Well I don't think the solutions lie at the levels you are talking about,
but on the ground in the developing countries.

Tim


On 22 February 2014 21:07, Richard Ibbotson <richard.ibbotson at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Saturday 22 Feb 2014 20:11:36 you wrote:
>
> > An interesting piece. I have worked on ICT projects in developing
> > countries for some years. The biggest problem with projects like
> > OLPC is ensuring that the units really get to the children.
>
> That's right.  I can't argue with that.  But, try approaching Bill
> Clinton and some of the others about this.  I have done.  A few times.
> I've had some long conversations with them.  I used to work with the
> Clinton Foundation in various countries as well as California.
>
> > One of Uhuru Kenyatta's election pledges in Kenya was to ensure that
> > every school child had access to a laptop. However the project has
> > got mired in corruption and malpractice and I really doubt that any
> > child will ever really get the benefits of this as everybody creams
> > off their own bit of the budget.
>
> I've run and walked and cycled around most parts of Africa.  I always
> try to tell people who run charities that if you are working abroad
> you should do it yourself and not trust someone else.  One of the
> problems you get is that if you hire in a security team or ask for
> help from the Marines you are creating a "Foreign incursion".  To
> quote the local crimininals and terrorists.  So, f***** if you do and
> f***** if you don't
>
> Anyway, for that particular purpose I was asked to do a conference
> report in Boston.  Which just happened to be running an OLPC press
> release.  I thought I might as well write about it. Good for
> diplomatic relations.  I would have liked to have seen some children
> helped out but what can you do ?  I nearly got 12 snipers rounds in
> the head and chest in Syria for helping women and children in the
> local Homs community.  The BBC were supposed to be paying me for that.
> They never did.
>
> --
> Richard
>
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>


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