Abstract

The age-old adage "Give a man a fish; he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish he'll eat for the rest of his days", has truly manifested itself in Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child program. His organization seeks "To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning". While it is seemingly a noble humanitarian effort for the enhancement of education, support for the "$100 laptop" has fallen short of its stated goal with only twenty-eight participating countries. The fact that only a limited number of countries are willing to enter the program demonstrates that it does not address the majority of problems faced by developing nations. Inadequate education is one of many pressing social concerns, but its necessity should not be placed above the immediate needs of developing nations. And for an organization devoted to a non-survival-essential cause to pursue such an ambitious objective brings its social significance and ethics under question.