Food vs $100 Laptops: Which to Choose?

University of Minnesota PhD candidate, Krista Kennedy, recalls a conversation that took place in a class she taught following a student's presentation about the $100 laptop project.

An Ethiopian student shared his perspective on the value of this soon to launch technology:

against the $100 laptop

He was a remarkably reserved man, but when he spoke this time, his voice shook with anger. “People who are starving do not need laptops,” he said in his softly accented English. “When you have not eaten for so long that your brain cannot work, that you have dementia, a laptop will not help you. Sending us machines does no good! You need to send food to Africa. You need to send doctors and medicine. Not computers!” He stopped then, not wanting to insult the speaker. She looked at me, along with the American students. Clearly, there was no rebuttal for his argument, and no opposition to his ethos.

He raises a fair point, but the same point could be applied to any form of aid that doesn't specifically address immediate needs. For example, investments made in irrigation won't help someone who could die of starvation this week, but could save the lives of thousands for years and years once implemented.

In the case of the $100 laptops, the knowledge gained through access to the world's information has the potential to generate wealth in a community that could translate into local independence. Some of the kids receiving laptops will end up contributing to the world's economy, bringing wealth to parts of the world that have gone without for too long.

Additionally, laptops that are connected to the world could be used to provide first-hand accounts of issues including starvation, drought, and genocide.

Would the time and expertise of the people behind the $100 laptop project be better spend providing food to a single generation of children, or working to create change the economies for the better in impoverished countries? The choice is obvious.

via Chuck Olsen's Twitter.

Software is provided with the laptops, also the laptops come with hardware/software that allow them to make a internet mesh.

There are other organizations helping with food already. Let the $100 laptop program work the way it was intended.

"Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

I agree that for peple starving form hunger laptops are nonsencial. At first we must provide food and required medical equipment.

Sending food and medicine to countries has destroyed their agricultural base and done nothing for their healthcare, and generally such programs have actually aggrevated their problems rather than solving them. A good example is a recent article in Nepal entitled "Nepal's poor can't depend on foreign well-wishers or profit-minded doctors in the cities for much longer" telling about foreign doctors descending on villages in helicopters and distributing medicine like candy. When villagers were asked what they really needed, they said "honest doctors who live with us and really care about us" (ha, this could probably be said for the US insurance-driven healthcare as well). Whether or not that it works or is the way to do it, the 100 dollar computer perhaps has the right idea that if given a chance, people, especially young people, can solve their own problems better than any amount of paternalistic, culture-destroying and dependency-generating foreign aid.

"Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

"Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can sell him fishing equipment for life".

Comments

1. Posted by: Sire on November 4, 2007 6:25 PM:

Apart from laptops, they would also need software and access to the internet etc. or is this also being supplied with the laptops. It's sort of like giving them the utensils but not the food to go with it.

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