It’s Children’s day today. And in my country, Nigeria, today is the day we shall see a display of the true Nigerian child. After days, and weeks, of hard work and rehearsals, these children shall be donning the colours of the Nigerian child and engage in lots of activities, usually a joy to watch. When I was little (I still am, I guess), there used to be a state-wide (and also nation-wide) march past at the Stadium, where children of different schools show off hours of rigorous training and exercise by performing near-military grade march and stunts (I never made it to any of those events though; maybe I was too “lanky”).

But between those times and now, a lot has happened, and unfortunately, much is not too positive. The Arabs are fighting, the Shiites are fighting, Syria is (still) fighting, even the seemingly secure US of A is getting bombed, and religion has become more important than humanity. Did I almost forget that the infamous Boko Haram is troubling Nigeria too? No I didn’t. I wonder how children in these troubled areas of Africa, Asia and the Middle East will celebrate today. On the local front, many schools and state governments have indefinitely postponed all forms of public march, and I wonder what fun there still is to Children’s day.

But leaving the depressing part aside, there’s a lot to hope for in this generation. There are now really cool gadgets, some good enough to rival Spy Kids and Double-O-Seven. But most of these gadgets are still only accessible to those in the developed and the high class of the developing nations. What happens to children in remote cities in India, Paraguay, Nepali, Nigeria, and the likes? Many have never set eyes on a laptop in their lives, and those that have, cannot afford to get one.

This is why I love the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a not-for-profit organisation that aims to “create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.” I love children, and I would want them to enjoy the same benefits adults enjoy, including exposure to information technology. Everyone (figuratively) now has at least one gadget or the other, but we leave the poor children out, maybe because we believe they should be stuck with just paperbacks, or maybe because we cannot afford such luxury for them.

But I propose a (probably already existing) solution...
Read more here...
http://echo.com.ng/2013/its-childrens-day-my-thoughts/