Enlightenment: September 2007 Archives

The Daily Mantra loves this inspirational message, and has been sending it to our single 'n' sad-about-it girlfriends all morning. Here's the link if you want to pass it on: http://phocks.org/stumble/girlsarelike.php

An innovative low cost laptop, intended for children in the developing world, has received numerous design awards and accolades in the US and European press, causing it to become a must-have item for children of the overdeveloped world. Prompted by the attention the XO-1 laptop has received –– even before the first mass produced model has been shipped –– its developers are rolling out an innovative Get One, Give One (G1G1) scheme. For a limited time, staring on Nov 12th, G1G1 subscribers will receive one laptop for their children (or themselves – after all this is a HOT machine) and pay for another laptop to be shipped to a child in need. The cost for both computers will be just $399. The first 25,000 units will be shipped in time for Christmas, with remaining customers receiving theirs in the first quarter of 2008. The first countries to receive the donated machines will include Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti.

The laptop was conceived by a group from MIT, led by Nicholas Negroponte, who wanted to design a low cost $100 laptop to empower and educate children in the poorer parts of the planet. The laptop has been developed by a Delaware-based non-profit called OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), which was founded by Negroponte, and is funded by sponsors such as Google, eBay, News Corp. and Intel, amongst others. The machine currently costs $188 per unit, if ordered in bulk, but the goal is for the price to be lowered to $100 by the end of 2008.

OLPC hope their laptops, which roll out in October 2007, will be bought by governments (such as Peru's who have ordered 250,000 units) and NGOs, but despite much lip service and many promises, business has been slow. “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written,” said Negroponte to the NY Times. “And yes, it has been a disappointment.” Instead, inspired by demand for the cute green and white machine from wannabe customers in the western world, OLPC hopes individual consumers will lead the way, shaming governments into action via the G1G1 scheme.

The rugged laptop has few moving parts, making it perfect for children everywhere. A traditional hard drive is replaced by a I GB flash drive, negating the need for costly cooling fans. The computer has a high resolution, energy efficient dual mode display, that can be read in sunlight, a unique peer-to-peer wireless interface, a camera, speakers and microphone, and can be reconfigured in an energy-saving eBook mode. With just 256 MB of RAM to run off, the operating system is a pared down, Linux-based graphical user interface called Sugar, which focuses on a single task at a time, making the most of the computer’s low cost design. The energy efficient machine uses batteries, which can be recharged conventionally, or by using optional hand cranks and foot pumps or pull-string and solar chargers.

Those interested in the Get 1 Give 1 schemes can go to www.xogiving.org. The site also offers the opportunity for individuals to donate a computer for just $200.

The Daily Mantra is all about seeking knowledge, wisdom and spiritual guidance, opening your mind to a multitude of sources, so we’re feeling student Ricky Travis’ frustration. The pupil at Harry S. Truman High School draws his personal inspiration from English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, studying history and anthropology through the group’s eyes. Sadly this 10th grader’s efforts have been under-appreciated by his world history teacher, Mr. Bradley, who gave Ricky an F grade for the class last semester.

“I suspect that perhaps Mr. Bradley just feels threatened that I know more about the subject he teaches than he does. It's not exactly a secret that I've seen the band Iron Maiden in concert 57 times, and that I own every album they've ever released,” says Ricky in an online statement, co-signed by six of his classmates.

At the heart of Ricky’s objection to Mr. Bradley’s closed-minded curriculum, is the class’s official reading material, World History & You. “This so-called educational textbook completely ignores the crucial influence of Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie in the events that have shaped human history,” argues Ricky. “The omission of Eddie from the text amounts to dangerous revisionist history on the part of the publishers.”

Ricky contends that the Iron Maiden song “Quest For Fire” is, “a badass track that chronicles the true story of man's life and death struggle with dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and fire in caveman times,” a position that Christian Creationists would surely agree with. Ricky quotes song lyrics to support his passionate belief that the group offer text on the subject of world history, that is equally – if not more valid – than that of the official class tome. “Mr. Bradley would have us believe that the logic of this song is flawed just because of the fact that dinosaurs and humans never actually co-existed, but how many platinum albums has he released? Relatively few, I suspect.” The Daily mantra also suspects that unlike monsters of rock Iron Maiden, Mr. Bradley has neither an Ivor Novello Award or a spot on the Hollywood Rock Walk, adding more fuel to Ricky’s fire.

Offering further examples of Iron Maiden’s historically factual lyrics, Ricky focuses on the group’s song "Alexander The Great (356-323 B.C.)" from the album Somewhere In Time, which accurately portrays events in the life of the Macedonian king, in chronological order. “I performed an a cappella air guitar version of the entire song while standing atop my desk as my final project in World History 101, and Mr. Bradley was forced to admit that it was –- despite being 'inappropriate and disruptive' -– 100% historically accurate,” says Ricky. In a historical footnote, the student also assures us that there are no Satanic messages in the track if played backwards, but “Alexander does get younger, and his life progressively less impressive.”

Other songs from the band’s impressive catalog offer important information on the Roman empire circa 100 B.C. (“The Ides Of March”), ancient Egyptian culture (“Powerslave”), the Viking conquests of the 11th Century (“Number Of The Beast”), Genghis Khan’s 13th century empire (“Genghis Kahn” from the album Killers), medieval torture (“Iron Maiden”), The Crimean War ("The Trooper"), and 19th century American history ("Run To The Hills”). For further study, the Daily Mantra suggests readers check out Eddies Head, a definitive 16 CD collection of the band’s most important works.

(Ricky's post "Everything I Need To Know I’ve Learned From Iron Maiden" appears on the spoof blog site SpazOutNY.com)

Just inland from the idyllic beaches of the Dominican Republic, where U.S. vacationers go to capture winter sun, slavery is thriving along with the cane in the county’s sugar plantations. Almost all the work product from this slave labor ends up in the United States. Imported under favorable terms, the sugar price is fixed at up to double that of the world market, with the Dominican Republic receiving the highest import quota from the U.S. government. The documentary, The Price of Sugar, tells the story of a priest’s journey of discovery in the sugar plantations of San Jose de Los Llanos in the Dominican Republic.

Father Christopher Hartley had a privileged childhood. His father’s family owned England’s Hartley’s jam and pickle empire, and his mother was part of the Spanish aristocracy. Finding purpose through his faith as a teenager, Father Hartley was ordained by Pope John Paul II in 1982. He worked with Mother Teresa at several of her missions in the poorest parts the world for 20 years before volunteering as a missionary for the Diocese of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic in 1997.

When Father Hartley first arrived in his new parish, he was warned to stay away from the local sugar plantations, owned by the corrupt Vicini dynasty, who seemingly operated them above the law – and the government. It took Father Hartley several months to pluck up the courage to visit his parishioners in the plantation bateyes, or shanty towns. The conditions and stories he uncovered there would eventually shock the world.