Comments on: Uganda: Katine Project brings villagers to blogosphere

By: Roy G

Roy G — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:53:42 +0000

Welcome Sarah. There have been other high-profile events like the Live Aid (1985) and Live 8 (2005) world concerts, and numerous aid organizations like UNICEF and Peace Corps have been engaged for decades on the problem of course. More recently the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative have made inroads, as well as the micro-lending programs sponsored by some multi-national banks & numerous peer-to-peer websites like Kiva.org. But yes, citizens in the First World need to make an issue of it. And because we can connect directly now via the WWW, I think in time we'll manage to do just that. This goes also to the B/P Maxim of Global Economy. I see a globalized economy (we're there now), as unifying of the material interests of ordinary working people at whatever station they may be in it. In a few more decades, we'll have collective understanding of that IMO.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:36:35 +0000

People in the west often don’t realise how others in less well developed countries live. I think more would be done about poverty and the world’s problems if people began to understand what needs to be done. They might also start asking how their governments’ policies are affecting poorer countries.
The success of Slumdog Millionaire is a case in point. The news coverage of the lives of the child stars has highlighted the problems facing India’s poorest.

By: Roy G

Roy G — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:12:49 +0000

This story in Uganda also reminds me of the One Laptop Per Child Project. The idea is to eventually outfit every child in the Third World, with an Internet-ready laptop.

Specially designed for functionality and durability at low cost, they are getting the latest model of the machine down to about $75.00 – maker is Quanta Computer of Taiwan.

So, run some numbers. With all the billions the First World wastes on everything, that lofty goal is probably reachable at some point if we really wanted to make it happen. This is what Bill and Melinda Gates are getting at in a more general way, with Gates Foundation (see link under B/P Favored).

That kind of broad-scale, progressive thinking married to today’s technologies – may indeed be able to change the world in profound ways, like gigantic reductions in poverty and disease. And by untold positive future contributions from those children, having had their education upgraded just because of that machine. Awesome.

See this link for the One Laptop Per Child organization -
http://laptop.org

By: Karen USA

Karen USA — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:22:16 +0000

Those are amazing personal stories at that link for the school girls! Teresa Acupo rides a bicycle to get water for her household each day, then goes off to her school. It’s very good they are getting a chance to film and let the world see how they live, and very heartening to see that there seems to be an equal chance for girls there to get educated! That is not true in some parts of the world.

By: Roy G

Roy G — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:04:04 +0000

Excellent post Rebekah. I always find it important to understand the curve of development in various regions of the world. Hard for Westerners to even imagine, an entire village or town "off the grid". And it's also compelling how Katine residents would suddenly get exposed to some cutting-edge technologies when they aren't even used to turning on lights or TV. What must that be like... There was a great segment on NPR today about cell phone use in Kenya, it's deployment for banking transactions that aren't even available yet in the U.S., and how cellular phone infrastructure has allowed Kenya to just leapfrog over the established nation-building block of telephone land lines. Many Kenyans have cell phones, few have wired phones. As we mention often on B/P, technology is indeed changing, shrinking and equalizing the world.