The Hundred Dollar Laptop movement was in the news today, and I have to admit I missed the story. As I work and listen to the radio, I often miss things and get just bits and pieces when my tools are turned off between operations. The story seemed to have involved some kind of setback in the proposal that would make inexpensive, rugged laptops available to the poorest children on the planet. I could check on CNN.

I have to applaud the generosity of those involved and also have to call to question the idea that technology will solve the world's problems. Do children need laptops? Or do they need laps? We have been witness to hundreds of years of cultural displacement and loss in which traditional values passed down through generations are displaced by incessant fixation on the entertainment provided by new products.

So here I am, writing this on my old mac. Seven years old is very old in computer standards. I am no Luddite, and when this mac dies, I'll get another. But I would ask that children be provided with tools beyond laptops. We could do as much for the world by supplying children with saws, hammers, and the tools that under the guidance of their own mothers and fathers would be the foundation of loving communities.

One of the dangers inherent in the distribution of laptops is the displacement of the traditional role of the parent and grandparent in the community. Give children laptops, and their loving parents and grandparents will no longer be the centers of their children's lives. That may be acceptable in the US and Europe. But is that a standard which we should offer to the rest of the world? Or should be we doing other things first? Food? Clothing? Adequate Shelter? Clean Water? Freedom from HIV and malaria?