[Community-news] [sugar] where is Walter?

[Edward Cherlin]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 5:13 PM, Michael Stone <michael at laptop.org> wrote:

>
> On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 05:54:13PM -0500, Joe Barr wrote:
> > It really sucks to see OLPC shriveling up and dying.
>
> Joe,
>
> It's good for people who have been unable to reconcile their differences
> with one another to separate themselves, to recuperate, and eventually,
> to re-engage one another with fresh insight and perspective. Also, while
> I sorely miss Ivan's and Walter's constant presence and advice, I remain
> confident that they will find ways, large and small, to educate and to
> empower those who are ignorant and powerless.
>
> Michael
>
> What in this description of events leads you to the conclusion that OLPC
> is "shriveling up and dying"?

Not this situation by itself, but the extrapolation of the climate in
which a number of OLPC's best people can't stand to work there any
more. Basically, the impression that outsiders get is of imperial rule
by Nicholas Negroponte, with no sense that the workers or the public
deserve to be informed of anything until after the decisions have all
been made, and made wrongly.

I recently wrote to Nicholas about Illinois HB5000, the Children's
Low-Cost Laptop Act, and received no reply. Illinois Lieutenant
Governor Pat Quinn's office is taking the lead on this bill, and OLPC
Chicago is in direct contact with them and with the Legislature, but
we are frozen out of the OLPC process. I don't like the thought of
Nicholas and I and other OLPC Chicago members all turning up to
testify before the Illinois Senate's Education Committee without prior
consultation.
-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay