rant...

It's rant time again. The more I think about this, the more irritated I get. Basically when I see someone "solving" a problem incorrectly, it bugs me to no end and so I'm venting here. Here's the deal. A friend of mine posted this on facebook. These people are sending "talking Bibles" to Mozambique. These are pretty slick looking MP3 players that are powered by solar panels or batteries. They have given out 2,500 of them so far. That's the background and now on to the rant.

Haven't they heard the phrase "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"?

So they spend $100 - $300 per player? That's anywhere from $250,000 - $750,000 (because of the 2,500 units given away). To read to them? Who thought this was a good idea? According to the CIA world factbook, the GDP is $900. So let's say we round up to $1,000. Assume we pay a missionary or teacher, $10,000 to go teach them to read. That's 10x more than they make and I'm guessing that is a livable salary. You could send 25 - 75 people. Let's assume you pay them $75,000 per year. That's got to be livable! You could still send 3 - 10 people. Plus it would make an actual difference in their lives. Instead they have a electronic gadget that will wear out in 6 months or so and then they will have a fancy paperweight.

As someone who is trying to learn French over a computer, trust me... Drop the electronic gizmos and get teachers (or missionaries since this is a religious organization).

feh.

Anyway... To those people's credit, they are actually there and doing schools, etc... But it just seems like a big waste of resources.

nc