cjsmith: (cjlo joe1)
cjsmith ([personal profile] cjsmith) wrote2002-08-08 06:24 pm

(no subject)

Ghana's Digital Dilemma: Bridging the digital divide in this African nation isn't just a matter of computer-equipment care packages and free Internet accounts. (Most of the article unavailable)

Reading this (in my low-tech paper version), I daydream of buying a plane ticket for Richard Amaning to come here to study and maybe work. I could house him myself. These folks are SO willing to work SO hard, and programming just isn't that difficult if you're moderately bright. I'm imagining what he could do with a semester or two at De Anza... and I'm imagining whom he'd send next, once he got back home and picked out someone else promising.

It's odd. I don't usually want to help humans. Animals, sure. Humans, usually not. I guess it's that this problem seems so frustratingly almost-easy-to-solve. Almost.

There's something else to it, too. The caption on Amaning's photo reads "...but his next goal is to become a software programmer." This is the career I'm just about ready to THROW AWAY, and here someone has it as a goal. I'm floored that it would be so difficult a thing that it would have to be labeled a goal. I wish I could just give it to him. Here, have it. You want it, I have it, here, take it. I'll just box it up and send it to you. Simple, right?