Let them eat Cake

Let them eat Cake

Posted Jul 5, 2006 17:12 UTC (Wed) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803)
In reply to: Let them eat Cake by botsie
Parent article: Interview: Jim Gettys (Part II)

Well the third world is a big and diverse place. Certainly there are places where the necesities must take absolute priority. And some places, most people have what they need, just not a lot for "extras." I suspect it's that group that the project targets.

I currently live in Ecuador, which could easily be a first world country if it weren't for government mismanagement. There are amazing natural resources here. There are some real needs among some parts of the population, and the organization I work with does, among many other things, help rural communities with potable drinking water. (Amusingly, I was at a dedication of such a project once, where the community threw a big feast for lunch, with what to drink? .... Pepsi!) There are sad cases here where parents force their small children to sell in the street, and beat them if they don't sell enough. And families that have to live near the garbage dump (they were recently required to move their homes out of it).

How this project could help the least fortunate is hard to see. But most in Ecuador have the basics, and if done correctly, I could see it helping.

Another big question might be -- are computers really beneficial to schoolkids, at least before high school? Will it make it easy or tempting to not learn such things as long division, or even decent handwriting?

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