AIDs is now thought to have originated in Africa, which goes a long way to explaining why it is far more common in Africa. Why does South Africa have such a large AIDs problem, when it is a relatively affluent (by African standards) and Westernised country?

Education is a good thing, but blaming the African position on lack there of, is not correct. Education does not help unless economic and food aid is also provided - else, no one would be alive to use the education. Education does not feed people and if there is no means to create a better life through education, it is a pointless waste of time.

Having said all that, Western countries really ought to sort out their own mess first before interfering in other regions - e.g. US and UK poverty in minorities and metropolitan areas. There are enough children starving and living an extreme poverty in both US and UK to make one wonder why we are looking the other way on a daily basis.

Not every child in a developing country is in immediate danger of starvation. Obviously, the children who ARE will need the donation of food, not books or technical equipment. But what about the children whose communities have enough food to survive, but who live in an area where educational opportunities are limited, at best? Education can make the difference between seeing a child remaining in poverty throughout his/her life, or improving their lot in life. Don’t those children deserve what they need to make their lives better, too? If technology makes books (in the form of e-books) more available to students, it will be beneficial. If it helps students research material in ways that would have been unavailable to them, in the absence of having a well-stocked local library, so much the better. It’s important to lose sight that the XO is a TOOL, not the goal, and that the goal in this project is education.

BTW: regarding issues like tech support, repairs, etc. for the XO computer. Where naysayers see a lack of such things in communities where the XO is being deployed, I see the potential for a whole new set of jobs to be created in these communities. Full-time jobs? I don’t know. But if not, some people could surely do some work “on the side” as the local geek, helping neighbors master the use of a program or perform repairs, as needed.

I don’t see the XO as a way to solve all the world’s education problems. But I see it as a new tool that can be used to make people’s lives better, and I salute the people who conceived the idea and are working to put it into practice.

I also believe that as the project matures, it will continue to evolve to resolve any shortcomings that become apparent in the original plan. So I’m unwilling to label the project as a failure, when in truth it has only just begun to become a reality.