60 minutes ran this great story about the SEED school, “a boarding school for the poor,” located in Washington D.C. Here is what grabbed my attention:
“Kids learn social skills like self-discipline and etiquette.”
I believe poor kids overflow with self-discipline. Their circumstances force them to. I also believe that poor kids have etiquette. Only theirs is a different kind from the etiquette practiced at debutante balls. So what this piece should have said is that poor kids are learning the self-discipline and etiquette as defined by the rich. But that’s not my point.
My point is that self-discipline and etiquette are perfect examples of the cultural barriers that prevent the poor from pulling themselves out of poverty. Take this clip from The Wire
When the dessert cart comes around, D’Angelo reaches for the cake his girlfriend requested. “Oh no sir,” the waiter condescendingly says, “sorry that’s the sample.” D’Angelo is embarrassed, though he shouldn’t be. He didn’t grow up going to restaurants, fancy or otherwise. But there is an expectation that he should; he should because regardless of where he’s from he’s in that world now. Except he’s not, which he points out by saying, “hard as you try, you still can’t go no where.”
Development “experts” teach the poor how to write business plans, irrigate farms and develop distribution and supply chains. But what good are any of these efforts if we in the West turn around and ostracize the poor for the way they order at restaurants?
Dignity is a term bandied about in development circles. For us it means launching a business or creating a job rather than accepting a handout. What does dignity mean for the poor? Does it have anything to do with being accepted rather than constantly being subject to improvement?
Western development intensions are noble. I just wonder if our expectations exacerbate rather than alleviate poverty. It’s something Nicholas Kristof has been thinking about too. And that, as Bill Easterly has made clear, is a whole other discussion.
“The Depression,” writes David Leonhardt in today’s 
“I’m a volcano refugee,” rolled off thousands of tongues as Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull crippled the trans Atlantic last week.
I didn’t want to attend the 
Every spring I hear the same thing: “Oh you poor thing, it must be so hard to be a Mets fan.”
iPads for poverty?
Photo by Elmira Bayrasli
These are kids I met in Cambodia. But I shouldn’t have. The older ones should be at school. Instead they were with their parents, who are rice farmers selling rice to the mill. Their farm is three to five miles away from the nearest school. So they only go when they can.
There are a lot of kids not only in Cambodia, but in many developing countries that don’t go to school because the distance is too far. That is just one of many reasons children in the developing world don’t attend class.
And it reminded me why I’m bothered by the One Laptop Per Child program, which has just announced that its partnering with Marvel to become the one tablet per child program.
One Laptop is a program that provides inexpensive (read cheap), computers to children in the developing world. These computers are battery operated and come with the most basic operating features. Their purpose to provide kids in the developing world with the same technological training as children in the West – so that they’re not left behind in this rapidly globalized high tech world.
This program has had mixed success in Uruguay and Rwanda, where both country’s governments have poured an enormous amount of resources into improving education standards, which includes providing public transportation to and from schools.
One Laptop Per Child does not operate in Cambodia. And it shouldn’t. Not yet at least. Not until Cambodians can get all school age children to school. Most kids here get to school on bicycles. That would be an excellent place to start. Lucky there is an organization way ahead of me. Bikes for the World is a non-profit that provides affordable bicycles to people all over the world. They work in places like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, countries that are no strangers to violence and war. Cambodia, aka The Killing Fields, would be right up their alley.
Affordable bikes, however, is only one solution. Cambodia’s roads – well, they suck. Most are unpaved dirt paths. Where there are paved roads, they’re single lane – shared by cars and cows alike. This makes them more like Grand Prix obstacle courses with faster cars trying to pass slow moving wagons, tractors and bicycles – all while avoiding on coming traffic. Bicycles where no riders are wearing helmets.
I’ve searched around for an organization that provides One Helmet Per Child but haven’t come up with anything. A helmet is sure cheaper than a laptop and a tablet. And, yet, far more valuable than either. Start up anyone?