What’s better a laptop or food?
Written by Michael Vass
Sometimes there are good intentions, sometimes there are good intentions that serve no purpose other than to makes people feel good about themselves. I think it’s important to know the difference between the 2.
You might have noticed a television commercial recently for Laptopgiving.org. It features one of the entertainers from the television show Heroes. In that commercial the theme of the organization is mentioned, they want to give a laptop computer to every child. The goal is to ensure a proper education to every child in the developing nations of the world. I feel its time and intentions wasted on a stupid idea.
Now I am not saying that the people behind this are out to make money, or deceptive. I do not question the conviction of anyone who is involved or making donations. I just think it’s stupid.
According to the official website nearly 2 billion children in the developing world receive little or no education, or are poorly educated. It states that 1 in 3 does not complete 5th grade. They state that in some countries less than $20 per year per pupil is spent on education. I don’t dispute any of these claims.
Intel, Norton, Wikipedia, eBay, Peru, Libya, Uruguay, Nigeria and many other countries and companies are all involved in this organization. This is a huge accomplishment and is well worth noting. Again I do not dispute the intentions.
My problem is that of the estimated 850 million people in the world that are hungry, 146 million are children that are under the age of 5 and underweight. That roughly 5 million children under the age of 5 die from hunger every year. That there is enough food in the world to feed every person a meal every day, and probably much more if much of that food was focus solely on children.
I have a problem when I realize that children are being made to be soldiers in many parts of the world. I have a problem with the U.N. and the United States in their progress on the Child Soldiers Act (and related Acts). I have a problem with the U.S. on the speed and attention given to the genocide of the Darfur Accountibility Act (HR 180 I.H.).
I have a problem when I realize that virtually all the developing nations have rudimentary (at best) landline capabilities. That the cost of wireless connectivity services is still far beyond the means of perhaps 40% of the world, and the lack of terrestrial repeaters make wireless options infeasible at best for most of the world.
Would I sleep well knowing that children are being educated properly around the world? Of course. But I am not naïve enough to believe that the lack of income, or religious persecution, or lack of technology is surmountable simply by buying a laptop for a child. I am perceptive enough to realize that hunger is a far more important basic human need and without it innate brilliance or learned knowledge is useless. That the dangers of war and lack of safe drinking water supersede an electronic box.
Is an education important? Absolutely. But if there is something that you want to do to help children, education far lower on the totem pole than improving life expectancy and quality.
Perhaps buying a kid in a poverty stricken nation a box of electronics is going to help some sleep at night. But when I think about the kids living in shanty towns in Brazil, or selling their bodies in Southeast Asia, or being killed for being born to the wrong tribe/religion/place/parents, or other parts of the world I just can’t see the internet as the answer. Maybe it’s just me.
Trying to improve the lives of children is important, and I’m glad there are many trying to do so. I just think all that effort and money can be better used than providing a product with limited uses that does not address the essential basic needs of children.
What do you think? What if it was your child?
Chinese Goods Should Contain Ingredients Label
There has always been a certain stereotype about goods that are made in China. Visit any flea market in the country and 80% of the goods are made in China. Unquestionably, many of the products that the average American uses on any given day are made in China. Now as we read the news regarding Chinese goods and the amount of lead and other hazardous substances contained in Chinese goods, we will be faced with the problem of who should actually regulate these goods? I was at the toy store yesterday doing some Christmas shopping and was looking at some of the conventional labels such as “4 and older” or “Contains Small Parts”. As I was reading the labels, I though to myself that it would actually be much more valuable for these goods to contain a label like our foods. Lead 30%, Date Rape Drug 2%, and more.
Now the government is faced with a dilemma, just how do you regulate these goods. An ingredients label would be good but agencies such as the Consumer Products Safety Commission have little or no jurisdiction over these types of matters. In addition, the agency is responsible for regulating the safety of 15,000 consumer products in the United States, including toys, and provides governmental regulatory compliance. The agency is not responsible for testing the ingredients. So, who should regulate these types of items? Should the FDA be responsible and how do you actually regulate these types of items? If a factory in China is not complying with given standards, do you blacklist that factory? It seems like a useless exercise to me. Companies such as Disney have been fighting China for years to stop the importation of counterfeit goods with little or no success. So how is the government going to regulate some factory in Guangdong Province and how do you audit a blacklisting designation? In other words, how do you blacklist a factory if they are not complying with our safety standards? In addition, where will these goods be tested and who is going to pay for it? Are Chinese Manufacturers going to pay for it or is this cost going to be transferred to the consumer? All of these questions remain to be unanswered so I agree with Senator Biden, halt the importation of dangerous Chinese goods for now.
