While I agree the whole "one laptop for every child" concept is a bit wacky, Negroponte runs a non-profit not a business and there is no reason to doubt that it is a well-intentioned project. Also $13B may be a lot of money when it comes to Brazilian school children but I believe it is less than the 2007 bonus pool at Goldman Sachs. The Fed "injects" that much "additional liquidity" into the financial system on an average day without batting an eyelid. Maybe they can "inject some liquidity" into Brazil instead where it might actually make a difference. -raghu.
On Jan 11, 2008 9:45 AM, Ruy Lage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi > > I sent this to the World Summit on the Information Society list: > > > > After the $100 computer/ laptop (which ended up costing a bit more) > > now we have the $75 laptop. > > > > > http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2008/0801111001.asp?S=Reuters&A=REU&O=ql > > Here is the reply from a quite well informed Brazilian on the list: > > Quite a bit more!! Right now the Brazilian government cancelled a bid to > buy a few thousand for an experiment (I think it cannot go further than > an experiment, since having a "cheap" laptop for each school child in > the public school system in Brazil, with all logistics and educational > actions involved, would cost about US$13 billion or more!! -- I am > estimating 33 million children and a conservative full cost, with > everything involved, of US$400 per child), because the Negroponte > company and Intel were the only bidders and wanted to charge double of > what they charged in Uruguay and a lot more of what they charged in Peru > -- showing the obvious, it is just business... > > The whole thing is so off track that the Negroponte company tries to > sell the same package (one million gadgets) to every government, > irrespective of the numbers of public school children in each country... > I wonder if their accounting is: if we manage to convince education > officials (by what methods??) in 10 countries, this would let us get > away with about $2 to $3 billion... > > There has been a very revealing fight in the ranks recently, with > Intel's exit (an impossible relationship, as the OLPC is an AMD gadget) > and the ensuing disputes of both groups for contracts in developing > countries. Sad, but revealing of real intentions. On the developing > countries' side, there is always the possibility of a bribe to drive a > contract through and so on... > > I have been insisting that introducing ICTs in the public school system > is not just a matter of terminal hardware for each student. It is far > more than this, and it is obvious Brazil could do far better in this > process with $13 billion by spending this money in a true strategic > educational ICT program. For one, 93% of our public schools have no > local available access to the Internet. Most of the children's families > have no computer in their homes, and most of the schools have no > computers at all, there is no strategic educational planning for > teaching with ICTs etc etc etc. We are talking about far more than > easily breakable (and stealable!) toys in the hands of poor children.
