Re: [9fans] UN to fund linux for the 3rd world

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

ron minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov> writes:
> Order of importance, with each thing decreasing at least 10x each time
> - non-technical pubs
> - technical pubs
> - The Cool Table (as in grade school)
> - third party apps
> - good from a technical point of view
> - superior design
> 
> so the last item is 1e-6 of the first item. Now you know how these things 
> happen.

Oh great.  ``The Wall Street Journal says it's the next big thing!
Quick!  Ship it to Haiti!''  Yeah, that's progress.

So an anthropology professor who taught at Columbia told me a story
about UNICEF in a ``development'' project in India somewhere.  They
decided to do away with the stair-step system usd to access a well in
some remote village because they thought the idea of people crawling
down into the well to get their water wasn't very hygenic.  So, they
walled up the stairwell leading into the well and `purified' the water
source with a bunch of chemicals.  Patting themselves on the back for
this service to mankind, they proceeded to leave --- without putting a
bucket mechanism in the well for the people to get their water.  It
didn't take very long for the wall they'd put up to get torn down, much
to the dismay of the local UN reps.

She told us about another project where a bunch of flushable toilets
were installed *in the middle of a village* somewhere.  UNICEF couldn't
figure out why no one was using them....

	- Dan C.