Tuesday, December 04, 2007

One Laptop Per Child Doesn't Change the World -- one man's opinion

PC Mag's John C. Dvorak, ever the cynic, has -- ahem -- a negative opinion of the OLPC project. He has good points. Just not sure they're well-founded.

His story does put a damper on my one laptop per child piece, though. Not to mention that the statistics he calls out will make you cry:
Every year, 15 million children die of hunger. For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for five years. Throughout the decade, more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well fed, one-third is underfed, and one-third is starving. Since you've entered this site, at least 200 people have died of starvation. One in 12 people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. Nearly one in four people, or 1.3 billion—a majority of humanity—live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people.
Thanks, John. Way to rain on the parade. Jerk. :)

One Laptop Per Child Doesn't Change the World - Columns by PC Magazine

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