Dear Editor,
A pilot called Patrick Smith has something to say about Guyana. In a Salon.com article titled, ‘Measuring success by access to gadgets’ Mr. Smith wrote:
“I was in Guyana recently – one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. The government there is planning to spend $30 million over the next three years giving away laptop computers to children and families – part of the One Laptop per Child initiative.
Praise humanity, for now the children of Guyana can have their own Facebook pages. Meanwhile, in the capital city of Georgetown, people urinate into sidewalk gutters, and the drinking water is so polluted that it actually runs brown from the tap. This is progress?”
Patrick Smith also wants to know “What’s the point of owning a cellphone or laptop when you’re knee-deep in sewage and have no clean water?”
You could answer him by going to Salon.com and typing in his name in the search field. That will bring up his article and the magazine’s comment section.
Yours faithfully,
Justin De Freitas
