Yet another reason to get angry with Bill...

[Colin Watson]

On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 09:48:03AM -0500, Jonathan Jesse wrote:
> I don't understand the whole point of providing 3rd World countries a
> $100 laptop when there are greator problems, food, water, electricity,
> sanitation, disease, etc that should be taken care of before people
> start surfing the internet.  

Clichéd though it is:

  "Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish,
  and he will eat for the rest of his life."

Not everyone in third-world countries is starving and without clean
water; many are better off than that, but need good education in order
to get further. Yes, basic aid is obviously very important, but
neglecting education that might allow third-world countries to become
economically competitive means that they have to *stay* reliant on basic
aid.

I'm no economist, but it seems to me that giving people more than a
hand-to-mouth existence is a good thing.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]