Libya Purchases 1.2 mil Wind-up Laptops

An anonymous reader writes "The government of Libya is reported to have agreed to provide its 1.2m school children with a cheap, durable laptop computer by June 2008. The laptops offer internet access and are powered by a wind-up crank. They cost $100 and manufacturing begins next year, says One Laptop per Child. The non-profit association's chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, said the deal was reached on Tuesday in Libya. Professor Negroponte told the New York Times in an email that the project mirrored Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's political agenda of creating a more open Libya and he also expressed interest in purchasing the computers for poorer African neighbors."

Why?

[acvh]

Look, I think personal computers have proven to be a revolutionary addition to modern life, but poor and hungry kids in third world countries don't LIVE a modern life. They would be much better served by modern medicine, education, and help in removing the dictators who rape their own countries and KEEP those poor kids poor.

Re:Ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not sure if you are joking, but this is a serious problem in desert communities. Were not talking about just being out on a windy day. I was in Desert Storm and ALL of our equipment suffered sand problems.

Before the comments roll in...

[arun_s]

... about third world countries needing food and medicine more (god I can't stand those comments!), here's a very nice article [greenstar.org] I found through reddit about what happened when an Indian computer chap put a comp in a slum in the capital city.
Its 6 years old but sure makes for nice reading. Stuff like that makes the OLPC worth it IMO.

Would be nice..

[joshetc]

If someone out there cared about US citizens. I am sure there are tons of kids out there that could use a $100 laptop, even some grownups. Were stuck with buying them in pairs of 3s and getting one of the 3 at some undisclosed time in the future.. anyone know if these will ever be sold retail in the USA? I'd take one of these over a PDA any day.

Also I had heard they were going to remove the wind-up power, I guess they changed their mind again? I think these seem really cool and would love to get my hands on one...

Re:Why?

[2.246.1010.78]

First of all every people should get rid of of their own dictator. But educated masses are the first step for creating democracies and raise the awareness of political and social problems. Maybe it will help.

how about one laptop per child in US?

[192939495969798999]

We dont have one laptop per child here, not even close. Why is it that we're not on top of this stuff, yet we're happy to catapult other countries ahead by selling them the laptops?

Too Bad India Opted Out

[eldavojohn]

I never thought I'd say this, but I wish India would follow Libya [theregister.co.uk] and reconsider--I mean this is the first time a humanitarian effort has strongly targeted learning tools. Food & medicine are important, but I sincerely hope we can show those we help how to continue to support themselves with tools like this.

Re:Why?

[A beautiful mind]

Yeah guess what, charity doesn't work in Africa, it just keeps up a dependency relationship.

Education works. Laptops are a nice way of showing some effort on that front.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

will you people ever stop with the "dictators are bad, democrayies are for the free". If you even have a government ruling you, you aint free, so stop pretending you are. You could have a bad life if live under a democratic government, or under a dictaror, the type of government is not what makes them good or bad, its the people that run it.

You need to learn, that there are good dictators out there, and at least they get things done.

Re:Why?

[Dr. Eggman]

A personal computer can be a great way to improve education! You don't think they're going to be playing video games or cranking out word documents with that (printerless) thing, do you? Libya is not some super-poor country, either. They have an 82.6% literacy rate so we know they're getting some education. CIA rates their average risk of getting Major infectious diseases as "intermediate" so they do have some competent level of medical care. Considering all that and their 2.3% rate of population growth, I'd say Libya is a second world, or developing, nation. Not a third world.

And if their Jamahiriya government style wanted to 'rape their own country and KEEP those poor kids poor" why would they be buying the laptops or trying to create a more open Libya?

Re:Why?

[Lumpy]

You are right! these kids will be educated that they can get more than $100US for their laptops on ebay from hungry geeks dying to have one of these things.

The maker is being completely idiotic not selling them to geeks. I'd pay $200.00 for one right now for tinkering. Hell as a backpacking/camping PC it's down right perfect!

So the third world will get their money via paypal and ebay, and geeks get them in spite of the sillyness of the company/foundation making them.

Re:Ummm

[pfoorion]

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger (Libya's neighbor to the south). Niger is very poor and the vast majority (99%+) of kids live in mud huts and sand gets EVERYWHERE. If Libya is indeed considering buying these for Nigerien kids, sand-proofing the machines would be key. Electronics in general do not last long at all in the harsh environment there.

I want to challenge your perceptions.

[burnttoy]

Africa is not some dust bowl or rain forests full of poisonous monkeys.

It is a rich continent and although technology ("progress?") hasn't reached every corner that does not mean the images of doe eyed children starving to death in the middle of nowhere are emblematic of the entire continent.

Something the computer _CAN_ provide is information. What I mean is you can take all the supplies you like but unless you have a hand book or instruction manual those supplies (unless it is just food aid) are all but useless. Imagine having the biggest reference book ever openly available for you and your tutors. Want to build a damn for hydroelectricity in your village? Search for it. Want to build a wind turbine? Search for it then search for companies that can supply and ship components you can't make.

When you talk of providing modern medicine - yes, great. Now look at who rapes who. The "west" (with its extraordinarily tight grip of patents, trademarks, copyrights on most modern drugs) is implicit in the denial of medicine to these countries. Why? Because the corporations of the west will not sell drugs in those countries at the low prices required.

Libya is certainly not as ravaged as your post would indicate. It's a rich(ish) country with food, oil, medicine etc etc. Although maybe their dictator is a bit loco. Then again, he certainly seems to have grown up a lot over the last 20 years.

Other problems in Africa (Darfur, Ethiopea, Eritrea, Congo Basin etc) are cause by _WAR_. If it wasn't for the gutless inaction of the UN then maybe, just maybe those problems would have been sorted out (or at least the long road to recovery) long ago.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting but.. well.. I guess I am.

Re:Terrorists!

[Silver Sloth]

The recent history of Lybia is an example of how protracted negotiation with 'terrorist' regimes can result in a positive outcome. For many, many years Muammar Gaddafi was seen as the ultimate bad guy, worse even than Saddam Hussain. Now he's, if not exactly one of the good guys, not part of the axis of evil.

If Iraq is a classic example of 'how not to do regime change' then Lybia is a classic example of 'how to do it right'.

Really?

[ThinWhiteDuke]

If Iraq is a classic example of 'how not to do regime change' then Lybia is a classic example of 'how to do it right'.

Regime change?

So Gaddafi is no longer the boss in Lybia? No, he's still there.
But it's a democracy now, right? No, still dictator for life.
At least, he's not a terrorist, is he? Well, it's been proved that Lybia has destroyed at least 2 airliners.

If the official story about Lybia was true, it would be such an asset for the current administration that they would be talking about it every day. Yet, Gaddafi's "redemption" receives a surprisingly low media coverage.

When you read between the lines, you realize that Gaddafi got an exceptional deal. 1. He got pardoned for his terrorist acts, 2. economic sanctions were lifted, 3. the US has stopped trying to kill him. In exchange for that : 1. he gave up a non-existing WMD program, 2. he paid a token sum to his victims' families, 3. he gave up terrorist activities (which he had not been able to pursue in the latest 10 years because of the embargo). In exchange, US/UK got 1. drilling rights for Lybian oil, 2. a good PR case for their "War against Terror" (TM) brand.

The irony is that, in 2003, Iraq and Lybia were very similar. Both were led by homicidal madmen, both were under UN embargo, both had no WMD, both were rich in oil.

There were just 2 differences. Lybia was actually a terrorist state and Iraq was not willing to give access to it's oil.

Guess which one was invaded...

Re:Why?

[Trailer Trash]

CIA rates their average risk of getting Major infectious diseases as "intermediate" so they do have some competent level of medical care.

Read here:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/fu ll/443254b.html [nature.com]

Lawyers defending six medical workers who risk execution by firing squad in Libya have called for the international scientific community to support a bid to prove the medics' innocence. The six are charged with deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV at the al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi in 1998, so far causing the deaths of at least 40 of them.

The six are all foreign workers. Poor conditions at the hospital led to 400 kids getting AIDS, and now the Libyan "government" is trying these six in a death-penalty case to try to blame them for the poor conditions at the hospital.

Libya is a 3rd-world hell-hole, but it doesn't have to be. There's plenty of money, they just need to can the idiot running the place and get an actual government. Probably the best piece that I've read on Libya:

http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/in-the- land-of-the-brother-leader/12/

In Michael Totten's words: Libya is the most oppressive state on earth next to North Korea.

I would strongly suggest that anyone in Libya who may be reading this to read the "Declaration of Independence" of the US. There you will find that you have a duty to can the dictator. Note: DUTY.

Re:Really?

[chill]

WTF are you smoking? Libya turned over a crapload of chemical weapons, and unveiled their bio and nuclear labs that were a lot more advanced than our intelligence had suggested. Ghadaffi's redemption got plenty of media coverage when it happened. Iraq is an ONGOING event, so it gets tons more.

Iraq gave plenty of access to it's oil -- it was selling as much as it could, as fast as it could to finance it's war with Iran.

You forgot the teensy fact that we had tens of thousands of troops sitting next door to Iraq; had suppressed most of their military; and had all the logistics already in place. Iraq was primed, Libya was not. Iraq was a perfect buffer to Iran -- we don't give a shit about a buffer with Tunisia, Algeria or Egypt. Libya complied with the conditions set upon it by the World Court and U.N., Iraq did not.

There are plenty of things to bash this administration about without having to make some up.