By: Carlos Rabassa

Carlos Rabassa — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Sent today to Mr. Stross at The New York Times:

Subject: You are invited

Mr. Stross,

We read with interest your article about OLPC in today’s New York Times.

Would be glad to escort you during a visit to Uruguay, the country where I was born.

Uruguay is a small country and consequently does not have as many children as you may imagine.

The 400,000 laptops number that seems to impress you as very low, is extremely high if you express it as a percentage of all school children.

For the past three years, high school students are being incorporated to the program too!!

As an OLPC volunteer, I can tell you the effect of the OLPC laptops is fantastic.

The laptops go into the children’s homes and reach the whole family.

They even reach people of my generation, the grandparents, through the contagious enthusiasm of the volunteers.

Neither all the Microsoft horses nor all the Microsoft men will be able to stop this fanta

Carlos Rabassa — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

The end of my recent comment that was cut off, I overlooked its excesive length:

Neither all the Microsoft horses nor all the Microsoft men will be able to stop this fantastic project already under way.

The expansion happens not by cutting corners but by the viral effect, each child passing his enthusiasm to many other children and adults.

Carlos Rabassa
Montevideo, Uruguay
Phone: U.S.: 1718 312-8227
Uruguay 598-2 711-5800

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