“Building a fibre-optic backbone or putting plasma screens into schools may be much more glamorous than building electrical grids, sewerage systems, water pipelines, roads, railways and school.”
plsj:
“The World Bank concludes that a country’s capacity to absorb and benefit from new technology depends on the availability of more basic forms of infrastructure.”
Every time I read about the one-laptop-per-child program, I immediately think, how beneficial could a laptop be to a child who lives in a country with virtually no infrastructure?
On the one hand, it’s still good; it will do much in the way of education and help raise smarter kids who can fix their problems. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be even more beneficial to skip the laptops and concentrate on infrastructure and essential services? (Maggie Thatcher whispers: afterwards, the laptops will come trickling down)
Maybe they’re tired of waiting for laptops, and maybe it’s a bunch of tech-nerds doing what they do best—trying to solve tech problems.