Apple sending sun-juiced iPads to rural Zimbabwe If you want a solar-powered iPad 2 with a pico projector, get a job as a school teacher in Zimbabwe, where Apple has entered into a joint venture with the Mugabe government to supply such setups to rural schools. "Great meeting with Apple today in Paris - unveiled a fascinating new 'School Box' which will take iPads to the …
From the Zimbabwe Education minister's Failbook page:
"The press unfortunately have read too much into my comment. I need to stress that there is no agreement with Apple but we would like to use iPad technology and we are in discussions in this regard. Furthermore the "School box" concept is being run by the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in Dublin."
Personally, I think clean water and ample food for their citizens might be a better starting point. Then a working health care system. Then teachers, and paper and pencils for the children.
Where's the humanITy icon when you need IT?
Where else can you get a contract for several trillion monetary units?
To be fair, Cupertino probably knows nothing about this and, for all we know, the "meeting with Apple representatives" is probably a chance encounter with Swiss Tony outside a Parisian house of assignation. Meh.
It is very strange. What ever view one takes of Apple Corp their marketing dept has a reputation (understandably) for being one of the smartest in the retail sector. This would appear to be a major fail inasmuch as the association with the Mugabe regime is, frankly speaking, poisonous.
I have an excellent proposition for you; my trusted friend and confidant. I have come into the possession of many solar powered IPads and miniature projectors which are being surplussed from a recent education project here in Zimbabwe.
All I need from you is provide your bank account number and password so we can transfer the funds required to pay the customs duty upon arrival in the United States of America.
For that inconvenience I offer you a 51 percent share of the proceeds of the sale of these fine devices.
Please be so kind as to remit these details as soon as possible.
Yours very sincerely,
Mr. Vincent Mugabe
Minister of Education
Well, when the white farmers (<1% of population) 'own' 70% of the best arable land, and the former colonial power reneges on the buy back agreements (thanks Claire Short), I think he went a little nuts, to say the least.
Remember that until Mugabe, this was the attitude of Smith, and the other leaders right the way back to Rhodes:
"the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of Southern Africa"
You can see why he's a little paranoid.
A country where most of the wealth is owned by a few selected ones, with enough food production to export grain to the neighbouring countries
OR
A country where everyone can starve in perfect equality
Don't forget that you and I are probably both living in a country of the first type...
I'm not qualified to fully analyse the situation here (having never been to zimbabwe, rural or urban, or used fondleslabs for academic purposes), but aren't fondleslabs mainly for consuming media (that is, porn, music, porn, movies and porn)?
surely they would have been better off being tought computer skills like spreadsheets, wordprocessing, ketc? its still very much a developing country, surely there would be better skillsets to instill in the coming generations than multitouch?
If they had to choose between fondleslabs and feck all then by all means, roll out the cool aid, but surely if you had the option of getting some actual computers (be they solar powered or not) it might teach the students some actal useful skills?
Think about the 5 million Zimbabweans under the age of 15 who can benefit from this.
Read more about it, its not 'Apple' and 'Mugabe', its a pack put together by IADT to address the needs of rural Zimbabwean kids, so they can hopefully get a better education.
Conflating this with Mugabe is funny, since David Coltart is an MDC politcian, not ZANU-PF.
... or pick one up on ebay.
In Zimbabwe and equivalent, cool stuff like this is considered a bonus for anyone that encounters one. They will end up being sold. Chances are they won't even make it out of the customs shed, let alone get into the teachers' hands.
That's rather assuming they had books in the first place.
I'm astonished at the closed-minded nature of posters on this topic. Leaving aside the whole Mugabe regime and whether Apple know/do not know anything about this, I think this idea is fantastic.
Think about all the information that can be stored on an iPad. Have a look at apps like Elements for the sorts of teaching aids you can have. Access to the internet would be possible too --mobile telephony coverage is actually pretty good in Zimbabwe. Hell, we could do with something like this in UK schools!
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