The Thanet Star

site feed icon

Thanet Star - actively improving Thanet one idea at a time

A Small Price to Change Thanet and Part of Africa

Roughly £11.5 Million (a tiny fraction of the £3 Billion pound overspend by TDC) is all it would cost to give an educational tool to every child in Thanet and the same number of third world children too. The result would be a potential blow to the cycle of poverty such as has never been dealt in the history of the United Kingdom.

Edit: The over spend is in fact £3M not £3B the entire budget being £20M which wouldmean TDC would need to pull down KCC funds...

The laptop in question is the XO and it has been created expressly as a learning tool. As of January 2008 it will be available in the UK under the Give One Get One offer whereby you can buy yourself an XO if you also buy one for a child in the third world. Sadly due the pound tanking quite hard of late the $399 price tag comes in at £275. Still not bad for something built and destruction tested to last at least five years in rugged conditions - per unit thats just £27.50 a year.

XO Laptop. Now in the UK.

The astounding results of early years intervention demonstrated by educational nurseries like those in Millmead (Sure Start's Meadow Nursery) show that with the right tools the impact of poverty that sets the stage for future poverty can be undone. The price is a drop in the ocean for the area's education budgets and something the Council should easily be able to find.

To put this in perspective that's just £450 per councillor per day for a year. More than that is daily spent on lunches, fact finding trips to the US and China failed experimental builds for failed galleries.

I know the money for some of these things comes from different pots but what if inside of fifteen years we could start to see the trend of unemployment and unemployables reversed? Imagine what commerce, what business and what improvements we could make.

More than that imagine what all those young people might have to blog about. Imagine the impact on the political scene as these soon-to-be young adults start asking questions. Potentially this could set the stage for a year on year increase in the number of people voting.

I can see that our conservative overlords might not like that idea very much but those of us that still dream of things like justice, truth and the occasional bout of competence feel very differently.

Failing the council (TDC or KCC) actually doing something amazing and helping the area out you can make a difference on a child by child basis by taking up the offer on behalf of a child you know. You can order the XO from amazon.co.uk

Think you can do better? · read more items categorised Business · Don't miss a thing: Subscribe Today · Help: what's a feed? · This site is operated on set principles of policy and disclosure read them here

Public Comments

No comments yet

Add Comment

Please note that while email addresses may be given via this form they are not shown to anyone but the editor. This change is retrospective and has hidden all email addresses so that people wishing anonymity may have it.

This item is closed, it's not possible to add new comments to it or to vote on it

If you have a blog or other website of your own leaving the URL in this form will create a "do follow" link for Joined Up Blogging at the top of your comment.

Supporting Thanet traders

The following ebay listings are largely from Thanet based members (although items with a strong Thanet theme may also be included).

 
Matthew Brown Thanet Star Sponsored by Hiltons World Wide Ltd

Stay in and Read Thanet Star

Support Thanet Star

Help keep Thanet Star up and running by buying Matt a cup of coffee or even making a more seriouse donation.

Tweets from @thanetstar

Waste and recycling collections may be suspended say council http://t.co/vMCPUDLU
2012-02-06T11:38:45Z
RT @academyfmthanet: #Thanet News: Council to Reinstate 24hr CCTV Monitoring http://t.co/hJpiGBTy 107.8 Academy FM #Kent
2012-02-05T20:10:29Z
@huddi1 Short thaw expected Monday then freezing conditions. Expect lots of road ice. Could get stuck at a friend's house for a while.
2012-02-05T20:06:57Z
Dreamland Organ Restoration Under Way http://t.co/tEkKJ4yY
2012-02-05T20:03:19Z
Would you eat oddly shaped food? http://t.co/Lh6tgfkZ
2012-02-05T20:03:02Z

Thanet Star Mini Blog

Thanet's only microblog - tiny wee blog posts from Thanet.

Thanet Directory

I've been working on this for a while and now here it is The Thanet Directory. It's a work in progress that you can add to.

Recent Comments

Estualaenline says Then he felt the into a buy, cialis was to a creep. At that glint crept once to...

Matt B says Update - once more the snow is closing everything down. Are we ever ready for the...

Ted Todd says Don't worry Peter, there is always pocket billiards.

Peter Checksfie... says I wish they'd have clarified things BEFORE I signed up...

Matt B says The humbugs are getting addressed. Thankfully some super examples of Christmas...

mickbuely says hi there every one - hope yous had a realy nice one - doing the rounds and back...

James Maskell says The power struggle between the Tories and Labour is going to be fascinating. My...

Matt B says I should point out that the Conservatives I stood against were both nice people and...

Get the latest comments by feed

Thanet Finder: Search Thanet

Thanet Finder is Thanet's search engine created by people like me and you.


The following links area provided as is. Thanet Star is not responsible for the content of third party sites. Last updated May 2011. This list uses the ground breaking words-in-alphabeitcal-order-generally-speaking format.

Additional Points of Presence

Technology Tips

Keep safe online with an anti-virus, firewall and malware protection. I can recomend F-Secure Internet Security 2010


Blog Like a Pro

You need 3 things to host your own blog

  1. A host
  2. Some software
  3. A domain name

Web Host

You can pick up web hosting from £2.49 and have the freedom to do it your own way. (Seee also this Web Hosting Review Blog)

Blog Software (free)

Combine your low cost hosting with no cost software.

Domain

The domain name (such as www.thanetstar.com) is how people find you: Get your domain here (from me)

Contact Us

If you would like to chat with Thanet Star's Editor Matt B then a number of options are available to you. (You can also leave a message).

You can also get hold of Matthew on Yahoo IM, MSN IM and GTalk if you know how. However, the screen name(s) he uses on these services are not public.

Connect with Thanet Star on twitter as @thanetstar

Connect with Matthew on twitter as @lordmatt

Like Thanet Star on facebook



The "Name" saga:

Who is Matthew Brown?

On being Matthew Brown