June 2nd, 2007
Hugo Chavez Planning His Own PC
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
I’m sure you’ve heard of the OLPC program, One Laptop Per Child. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s controversial leader wants to produce his own computer, which he will then distribute throughout Latin and South America for little or no cost.
The PCs would be part of Chávez’s strategy of winning friends in the region through gifts paid for through Venezuela’s oil industry. Cuba, Bolivia and other nations have all been recipients of gifts from Chávez. The PCs would likely cost little or could even be given away. Venezuela has been contacting companies in Asia about the project, said sources. Source: News.com
We Say: Controversial is probably an understatement for Chavez. Some would even call him comical. But if this works out and helps people, should we criticize? I’ll stay out of that discussion. At any rate, we’re most likely not looking at a potential threat to HP here …
Should We Criticize? : Venture Chronicles says:
[…] HELL YES and I’m not reluctant to have that debate. […]
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:40 am
Mark says:
I second the comment above. It we refrain from criticizing evil every time it decides to put on a pretty face, in this case to confiscate and spend someone else’s money to make itself look good, then evil has already won. Let’s not be so blind in our passion for technology to think that a PC paid for with blood money could ever be a good thing.
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 am
allen says:
Let’s check back in six months.
Noble Marxists are big on promising, not so big on delivering.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:40 am
av says:
The loonies have spoken. Chavez Comical? evil? What stupidity. providing cheap fuel is evil? a growth rate at about 8% is comical? what’s your government’s record over the past 6 years? lied to go to war, wiretapping, torture prison, repeal of habeus corpus…. come on let’s have some honesty here.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
alklia says:
This is really funny. Here in Venezuela we´ll have to buy the bolivarian computer (around $700) when it´s available -who knows when- and now Chavez wants to give computers away to Latin America. Seeing is believing!
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Charles says:
Let’s see, where to begin. How about…
> Democracy does not exist but only in name
> Free-markets and enterprise do not exist
> Crime and Corruption is rampant
> Infrastructure and hospitals are in dire strates
> Uncontrolled domestic spending
* Chavez’s power is allowed by his popularity, so he spends significant amounts at the local level on neighborhood beautification and other quality of life programs.
Where does the money come from? It comes from draining their natural oil reserves to pay the bills. That is not growth. Global foreign investment in Venezuela is stagnant.
Sorry friend, that’s not growth.
The U.S. is an easy neighbor to get along with. But try to squeeze us with high oil prices or disregard human rights and we’ll stop by for a visit.
This government provided laptop program Chavez has is just the kind of popularity booster he funds to keep the masses happy. And him in complete control.
It’s no coincidence that just when the U.S. based program is getting off the ground, Chavez announces his program.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Jeff says:
“Global foreign investment in Venezuela is stagnant.”
Actually, it’s capital flow in Venezuela is negative for the first time since 1986 (or ‘89… can’t recall which year). Capital is fleeing Venezuela, and with inflation twice what the government has targeted it’s no wonder.
AV, 8% growth in an economy where your dollar is worth 20% less every year is actually called something other than growth, it’s called collapsing.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Randy says:
I wonder if he’s going to nationalize a privately-owned computer company to accomplish this? Just in the last couple of months Chavez nationalized the country’s largest and oldest TV network. Good for the people getting the free computers. Bad for all the people who invested money into a company just to have it stolen by Comrade Hugo.
June 4th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Bill says:
Where did the Computador Bolivariano go then? Sounds like this new cheap PC is to give away abroad, whilst the Computador Bolivariano gets sold in Venezuela for between 800,000 and 1,500,000… NICE!!!
June 4th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
82ce0b1bb805 says:
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May 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pm