<incom> OLPC linked to Thaksin Shinawatra

[Felipe Fonseca]

Etienne Delacroix, a MIT researcher based now
in São Paulo, has one of those. There will be
a workshop with David Cavallo next week. I'll
try to get there, even if uninvited. If it happens,
I'll send a report here.

f

On 1/21/07, Geert Lovink <geert at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Country Update: Brazil On - Thailand In Trouble
>
> http://www.olpcnews.com/
>
> Posted on November 02, 2006 by Wayan in Countries: Brazil, Sales Talk:
> Countries, Countries: Thailand, Prototypes: XO
>
> Brazil is on!  Guilherme Felitti on IDG Now Brazil is reporting that
> the Brazilian government will receive 50 test laptops from OLPC. From a
> Bablefish translation: The special assessorship of the Presidency,
> agency of the responsible government for the choice of the platform to
> be used in the national education, waits to receive the equipment
> "close to day 15" from November. Brazil would be the first country to
> have working models, which the OLPC developers are working franticly to
> finalize. You can follow their discussions on the OLPC developer
> message boards.
>
> There, it's a wild race to the deadline, with new builds coming in
> every day, making new problems as they fix older conflicts. No matter
> the chatter, I'm confident the technology whiz kids will deliver a One
> Laptop Per Child $100 laptop CM1 2B1 XO Children's Machine, and be
> quick in fixing bugs with secure update methods.
>
> The larger question will be how the 2B1 Laptop compares to the
> Classmate PC in a classroom setting. Brazil is testing both education
> tools, and has an undisclosed amount already set aside in its 2007
> budget for educational laptop purchases.
>
> No matter who wins that contest, the OLPC leadership might want to
> re-connect with its team in Thailand asap.
>
> There, the military coup risk for OLPC sales seems to be rising.
> Songphan Choemprayong interprets a Thai News article about the OLPC
> roll-out in Thailand and sees trouble: The new ICT minister of the
> junta government said he doesn't believe that the [OLPC laptop] program
> would work. If the government would want to buy a computer for kids,
> the quality/performance should be better than that, not just like a
> "toy"."
>
> According to Kamthorn, a OLPC Thailand team member, the OLPC team was
> not able to meet with the new minister before the Than News article, so
> the Minister could be persuaded to change his mind.
>
> Unfortunately for OLPC, the Children's Machines were closely linked to
> disgraced ex-Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was a
> proponent of the OLPC project, announcing in August that laptops would
> replace books in Thai schools.
>
> Now the OLPC Thailand team will need to not only prove that Children's
> Machines work and are worth the $208+ million dollar minimum purchase
> price, but also that the OLPC program is worthy of support no matter
> who is the future Prime Minister of Thailand.
>
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