Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project had big plans for Thailand: The nation was set to play host to one of the project's five pilot programs, and it was expected to be OLPC's flagship in Asia. But politics seem to have gotten in the way.
A September coup effectively ended the career of Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister whose cabinet had pledged to buy 250,000 of Mr. Negroponte's $100 laptops, according to The Nation, a Bangkok newspaper. Thailand's new administration now says it has no interest in the project, which would have provided all of the nation's primary-school students with the low-cost machines.
"We will not focus too much on technology and materials," said Wijit Srisaarn, Thailand's education minister, this week. "We will focus on substance."
One Laptop Per Child has struggled to make inroads in Asia: Earlier this year India rebuffed Mr. Negroponte's advances (The Chronicle, July 27). But the project is forging ahead in Argentina, Brazil, and Nigeria, and Libyan officials have signed a memorandum of understanding that could result in the nation purchasing more than a million machines. –Brock Read
15 Responses to Thailand Nixes One Laptop Per Child
kaiswanson - March 7, 2012 at 10:46 am
Having just checked “Ride the City of New Orleans” off my Bucket List, I can concur from experience. The height of inconsideration on my trip was the pair of ladies of a certain age returning south from a church meeting in Chicago. Their observations on the other ladies at the meeting (and in their home congregation) were as comedic as they were un-Christian. Thanks for the column!
not4nothin - March 7, 2012 at 11:02 am
My wife and I have ridden AMTRAK many times recently between New York and Chicago. My advice is to keep your expectations low and you’ll be happy when things don’t turn out quite as bad as you expected they would.
On my wife’s first trip with me, upon leaving Penn Station,she asked the very nice conductor if we’d be getting to Chicago on time. He chuckled and told her the train never arrives on time, in part because freight traffic is given priority over passenger traffic. She asked him why, then, they didn’t change the timetable to reflect reality and he just laughed and laughed and laughed.
We had dinner in the Diner Car, as the sun set behind the Hudson River. She ordered the fish. I ordered the beef. When our meals arrived you couldn’t tell them apart, they were both breaded and fried to death.
Later that night the plumbing froze and none of the toilets worked for the rest of the trip. We were informed that they were “working on the problem.” Indeed they were. At 2 a.m., a crew was swinging a giant pipe wrench over hand and clanging on a pipe located just beneath my seat.
During breakfast a uniformed Customs Agent boarded and walked the length of the train asking everyone, “Are you a citizen? Were you born in the US?”
Rail travel in the USA sucks just as much as air travel, costs as much as air travel if you prefer not to travel in a cattle car, and it takes much-much-much longer.
tlgriffith18 - March 7, 2012 at 11:19 am
I just did the same train ride, and it was relaxed and delightful. The worst part for us was waiting in line to board the train and the number of people who didn’t feel it necessary to wait politely in line. At least I had a reserved compartment/sleeper so I didn’t have to worry about finding a good seat. Nor did I have to worry about passing through security or fret about my electronics or liquids in my bags. It was such a good time we are thinking about our next train trip through the Rockies.
dank48 - March 7, 2012 at 12:43 pm
But without the strip search or the X-ray.
leah_shopkow - March 7, 2012 at 12:48 pm
I haven’t taken the train for a long time in this country, but I used to take the train to college (in Rochester) from New York and I really enjoyed it. Even then it wasn’t great from a getting from one place to another perspective. The roadbed along the Hudson was so bad that the train couldn’t do more than fifteen miles an hour–so we could be outpaced by a good cyclist–and the seats were old and lumpy. But in other respects, it was wonderful. I once heard a lecture by an enthusiastic amateur historian on the history of the Mohawk River valley. Conductors helped some of the more fragile passengers to seats where they hoped they would have friendly seatmates–the dog of an elderly blind woman patiently slept on my feet on one trip. I heard a pair of young sisters speaking Spanish to each other, while their young father spoke to them in a language I later figured out had to have been Papiamento. I read for uninterrupted hours (and slept some). Your article brought it all back and whetted my appetite for another train trip. Thanks!
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benpipe - March 9, 2012 at 3:00 am
Thanks for the big share
wolfneilg - March 9, 2012 at 11:08 pm
As a young person, I traveled from Chicago, across Illinois, to Rock Island. I recall that the train was known as the Rock Island Rocket and my aunt and uncle met me at the depot. Compared to the relatively fungible “segments” of commercial flights, and those concentrations of hassles we also know as “airports”, travel by rail (circa 1961) seems downright romantic.
zesiranjha - March 12, 2012 at 4:03 am
I was ride on train same like this in 1986, I have very enjoying journey in these training…zig zag movements…lol. Very good memories.
fluffyross - March 12, 2012 at 9:55 am
Many, many years ago, I took a road trip with Prof. Kenneth Hopkins (arcane researcher of the arcane Powys brothers), a visiting prof. from Norfolk, England. He was a r.r. enthusiast, and we wandered through many small-town bookshops looking for books on railroads. We stopped in St. Louis, MO. and visited with a professor there, likewise a r.r. afficionado, who was also all tied up with research on Pancho Villa and his newly-discovered skull.
rsgassle - March 12, 2012 at 11:55 am
It’s my understanding that the conductor is the one in charge of the train. I had always thought it was the engineer.
barbarashell - March 12, 2012 at 4:53 pm
“…ask where the egress is.” With apologies to Tattoo – you will have to “de plane.”
northeaster2 - March 12, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Tony Hiss has recently written a book, In Motion, which delves into the aspects of travel by train many of us can relate to, having to do with the physical and psychological aspects experienced. I travel on Amtrak fairly often and most often go from Syracuse, NY to Chicago where I proceed on one of the west bound trains. In ten years of this travel, the equipment has improved dramatically, the service aboard, including meal service, has gotten much better and certainly the on time performance is 100% better. It would be wonderful if this nation could appreciate and integrate passenger rail service into its transportation life, but the culture has wedded itself to the automobile and all of its attendant massive overhead and its unquenchable thirst for oil. Passenger rail has a very important part to play in our transportation mix and right now Amtrak is the only game in town. Perhaps private operators could do a better job at this, but no one is stepping up to the plate so I for one will continue to enjoy the trains and routes as they exist, hope for better days and suggest to others to at least consider making their next trip by train.
marka - March 13, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Good to hear that service has improved, especially ‘on time’! Maybe I’ll look at train travel again.
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