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Story: Open source 'split by digital divide'
Posted by: Peter Ras (Monday 17 July 2006, 12:40 AM)
second attempt
First attempt was wiped by the cat jumping on
my keybord.so here we go again.
Before i forget, after 20 internet one still has
to give comment in a box the size of a rubic cube.i can't open a webpage without reading
about self declared leadership, 99 % of the involved are "leading" or "one of the leading"
well, i am not "leading" and coming from Amsterdam the Netherlands and moved to
South Africa where we bought a winegrape
farm estate does not make me a farmer.
As outsider i have spent lots of time to not only get a better understanding of the DIGITAL DIVIDE issue,but also looking at practical solutions which are sustanaible.
IGNORANCE is mankinds worst nightmare, as it is deeply rooted, not curable with medicines,
throwing money at it like the last 30/40 years
with virtual no results,corruption,complete incompotent upper management,philantropy,
charity,NGO's giving in, aid junkies and a life aid concert.Just the idea that the OLPC,Flexgo,50x15 initiatives would be or will contribute to closing a gap or avoid that the gap will increase shows a basic lack of understanding.
I don;t have no problem at with the fact when companies publicly formulate their interest to
target underdeveloped countries and hopefully it will contribute one day into making a nett profit.One has to be careful that for the sake of the coorporate image building phillantropy,charity crusaders whereas i would argue once you really have achieved something sustainable there is time enough to
make it part of the companies effort to show
they are actively involved in the fight against ignorance and poverty.
What i have seen sofar iis the same as the tractor which was donated 40 years ago, stranded after 2 days and no one to tell is has
to be filled up with fuel
A structural lack of education the last 2/300 year and just do as you are told has had a devastating effect.We have about a 100 people here on the farm 50 km from Cape Town at the city limit of Paarl,smaller town, and the general knowledge, communication skills, you have to see to believe it.
You can throw as much bombs as you want
on Germany and Japan, but those who survived , especially when the Marshall plan came into effect put them back on the map in no time as a result educational policies of the past.
A double figure % of the children on the countryside at the age of 5 or so are already sofar behind , mentally,physically that when they go to school they have major problems
to "hang in " and around 10 / 12 years old leave school.
Education, the quality is a serious problem,
classes too big,hardly individual attention.quality of teachers,uniformity, the curiosity to know or learn not stimulated.
So to formulate an opinion of their own or
take initiative, think idependently is missing.
When children would get a notebox (Notebook - lunchbox) and take it home and
the parents are no part of it the notebox will
either end up against the wall, the floor or sold for a bottle of beer if it is not stolen somewhere between school and house.
The parents must have acces to the web as well.
Most of the poor have no phone, 40 - 50 %
have mobiles but most of the time no money
to buy airtime.
VOIP WIFI is an interesting option to connect
everyone and for a 100 reasons very practical.Women and chiild abuse is a massive problem and calling the police can avoid lots of worse.
Why children should have a laptop in stead of
a server,download overnight what is needed
an where needed go on line.screens are all over the world getting more of a problem,
dumped illegally in Africa.Send them here, will be dealt with properly.
Part 2 follows
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