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Aide to China

There’s not a day in the world of money that does not report something about China and its emerging market.  Heck, why not, with a GDP of over 8 TRILLION DOLLARS, twice that of Japan, and 6 TIMES that of the United Kingdom.  China is definitely a powerhouse economy that is really heating up.

Yet, today you can read about this $100 laptop that is being manufactured by a company named Quanta and distributed by Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child non-profit group.  What is the scandal about this laptop?  Well, nothing really, except that it is going to be distributed in CHINA, as well as India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand.  So what, right?  Well, let’s see what the GDPs of those countries are:

  1. China: $8,859,000,000,000

  2. India: $3,611,000,000,000

  3. Brazil: $1,556,000,000,000

  4. Argentina: $518,100,000,000

  5. Egypt: $303,500,000,000

  6. Nigeria: $174,100,000,000

  7. Thailand: $560,700,000,000

The UK has an estimated GDP of $1,830,000,000,000, which is just above Brazil and half of India.  Yet, why isn’t the UK on that list?  The US is only $12,360,000,000,000, and yet it’s not on the list either.

Then I see Nigeria (LOC.GOV , US State Dept) on there, which is very disturbing.  Nigeria is notorious for its blatant disregard for information security.  A vast majority of identity thieving organizations are based in none other than Nigeria.  So now this wonder group of Negroponte’s is going to distribute laptop computers (along with Google’s help) to the very country that has a problem with information crime. Maybe we should give guns to The Mafia too?

Why don’t we look at some other countries too?  For instance, there is Iran, with a GDP of $561,600,000,000, and a huge population of “disenfranchised” (non-Google search making) people.  They could use some laptops, don’t you think? Saudi Arabia has a GDP of only $338,000,000,000, but they’re not on the list. What about Vietnam with a GDP of $232,200,000,000 – oh, they get a bunch of USAIDE money, so they don’t qualify, right?

Hey, we all know Ireland, right?  We love their whiskey and nifty beer drinking songs, but they didn’t make the list.  Their GDP is a paltry $164,600,000,000, which is LESS than that of Nigeria! I don’t think there’s a whole lot of information crime going on in Ireland, so why not give those honest, whiskey drinking, and potato farming folks a chance at Google? We owe it to them for giving us U2.

Honestly, no aid organization in this world should be giving money to any country that has a GDP like China’s.  China can certainly help its OWN people get access to information.  We do not need to subsidize their internet access any more than China is going to help our poor and “disenfranchised” people in the USA.

Negroponte, give me a break.  Go peddle your money and aid to countries that need medical and potable water services, not nifty search engines and access to Amazon.  Your money can be better spent really helping people rather than contributing a huge amount of waste product to the already unmanageable amount of “information age” waste produced today.  How many more dead computers are going to hit the trash in the next year because of Negroponte’s pathetic effort to “enfranchise” these people? I can think of something better to do with $100,000,000 than to give it to China.

(GDP figures are from the CIA World Fact Book   ChinaView - English - reports that China’s GDP in 2005 was 1.3 TRILLION US, with a growth rate of 9.5%)

(The $100 Laptop )

(The China Development Brief)

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