AMD To Help Make Bono’s wish a reality

[Steve]

Working with U2's lead singer to bring more people access to the Internet.

AMD, Bono and TED share the belief that there is a profound benefit to connecting a larger share of the world’s population to the Internet. AMD’s support of this wish springs from the company’s 50x15 Initiative to connect 50 percent of the world’s population with basic computing capability and Internet connectivity by the year 2015.

[Press release]

[iranu]

Whilst the above quote is admirable, as is the intentension in the article, it follows that;

Computers to access the internet are of little use if you have no access to clean drinking water/sanitation/adequate food/electricity/housing/education etc etc and are brutalised by a corrupt government.

Sadly many Africans find themselves in this position. Unfortunately noBo (Brown and Blair) do not realise that the only effective way for any progress in Africa is to empower ordinary people and help them to set up democratic accountable institutions that protect the ordinary citizen enabling stability for investment and growth.

Increasing aid budgets and setting up psuedo aid schemes (read oil for food programme in Iraq) does nothing to break the stranglehold of the likes of Mugabe, Hassan al-Bashir, Mswati III, et al.

A political post I know, but I do not see how anyone can comment purely along the lines of technology bringing empowerment and benefits in Africa without mention of the political situation in many of that continents' countries. It certainly can do in other less developed/poorer parts of the world but only if governments allow free (as in unrestricted) access to the net.