Dear Cindy, Thank you for your mail. For those familiar with the world of resourcing projects, funds do not come out of charity unless the organisation is in the business of charity. Negroponte is not in the business of charity. He managed to raise funds for creating Media Lab and sits on the Boards of Motorola and the likes but even that does not give him resources unless an idea is appealing enough to the investors.
All these ideas are competing for resources. And just because some of us feel otherwise, investors will not change their mind. If they see merit in it from the point of view of what they are maximising, they will go for it. Just because you may have 100 times more than the average poor in the developing world does not mean that you give 99 people what you have equally and become like them. That will most likely impact your ability to have what you do indeed have now. Similarly, just because there are poor and starving people does not mean that those who are living just the opposite way, in opulence, start sharing it. That is where the issue gets muddled. If you are talking about Darfur in the same breath, we are likely having a very different conversation here. Just because the world may not invest in the laptop for the poor will not mean that the starving will get money. It may just mean that some more people may get bombed in Iraq and some of us may spend billions of dollars on that instead. I would urge to keep a discussion focused rather than bring in all that we want to bear upon that. Thanks On 11/29/05, Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Dear Mr. Jha, > > You said :: In the case of $100 laptop the poor > do not have to realy pay for it. Someone else > is planninbg it for them, someone else is > organising it and its coming out of funds that > have been generated for the project ... > > PRAY can you tell me where the funding would be > coming from? MIT, Nicholas Negroponte, OR tax-payers > the world over? (of course donations) > > I find it very difficult to accept when anyone talks about > funding in this careless tone. > > If money is readily available, when then Negroponte > has to use UN secreatry to help PUSH his product? He should > have funding to give away his 100$ lap-tops, I would assume? > > WHAT we GIVE to Peter, John would END up receiving > less ... There are only SO MUCH money to go around. > IF funding is so readily available, when then do we still > have problems feeding the starving in Niger, in Darfur, the > earthquakes victimes in Pakistan ...? > > Cindy > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > ============= > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in > the body of the message. > -- Satish Jha Special Adviser, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICTs Principal Adviser, vMoksha Technologies Co-Chair, Economic Opportunities Commission, WITFOR Management Consultant - Technology Strategy, Management and Program/Project Management www.vmoksha.com; www.dpindia.org; www.aiti-kace.com.gh; www.witfor.org _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
