Before I get into this post, I want to make it clear that I do not think this advocacy group is a bad idea. I think it has very good intentions, but I do not think it is the right path to go down at this time. The organization is One Laptop per Child. This program aims to increase the education in continents such as Africa and South America by giving every child a laptop. Laptops introduce the children to the technological world and could increase productivity in the future. From an economic perspective this sounds great but I feel as if there are a few flaws.
In the donate tab, the minimum donation represented is $50 or you can buy a laptop for a child which is $200. I believe in this day and age, $200 should be used in other areas in these countries. For example, a visitor posted on the organization’s blog and said it could buy food for a child in Tanzania for an entire year. Also, there is some background information on what the laptop can do, but what about the millions of people who do not even have electricity and in these countries? Electricity could easily make the daily lives of these people much easier, and I think it is much more important at the current time than laptops. Finally, many of these countries struggle with diseases such as AIDS and they also do not have clean water. Research into these fields is extremely important. These laptops might enhance productivity, but there is a direct correlation between health and human capital. So by finding ways to create better drinking water and focusing funds on research, these countries can excel in the future.
By no means do I think this organization is a bad one. I think it has great intentions and ideas, but I think there needs to be compromise. Someone posted on the blog with the idea of matching every laptop with funds towards other areas in need of improvement in these countries.
http://one.laptop.org
