OLPC -- don't be ridiculous.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no way I could support a program like One Laptop Per Child. I think people need to get their priorities right and figure out a way to solve more pressing problems. That being said, I do think it's appropriate to try and bridge the digital divide -- see my post about the company in Illinois that recycled the computer parts and donated them to schools. That is appropriate, because the majority of the kids in that school are generally cared for.

Say there were, 50,000 kids who deserved the laptops. Each laptop is supposed to go for around $100 each, so there's $5,000,000 on a technological lesson that would hardly teach them to sustain themselves and their families. I hardly think these kids are going to Google their way out of a better life. And why should we expect them to? They're surrounded by hunger, disease, poverty, but here kid, go tinker on this computer for a while.

Nicholas Negroponte might have been better off asking the UN how the world could better spend this money. Vaccines? Food? Schools? Spend the money on schools if you want to teach the kids!! I just get very frustrated by this whole thing.