An informal settlement in South Africa that can be seen
 near virtually every town ancity in the country 



This is a photo of one of the main challanges facing today's  heavies in Southern Africa; to bring education and socially acceptable ethetics and moral values to both the adults and the children living in such environments.  There is a simple solution as far as education is concerned, however, the real problem is to instil in the inhabitants a real sense of responsibility and the respect of the property of others.

Prof. Sagata Mitra of the Newcastle in the UK.  addressed the problem of bringing education to those parts of the world where for whatsoever reason, good teachers did not want to go.  The prof initiated a project which he called Hole in the Wall.  His pilot project was conducted in New Delhi, India.  The project involved embedding a computer which was hooked up to the internet, in the outside wall of a kiosk.  He then set the local children, who had never seen a computer before, a task without telling them how to go about it; they had to find out for themselves.

After two monthe the Prof came back and was amazed at what the children had learnt - by themselves.

When I told this story to some people I know, the comment which they unanimously threw back at me was:  "In South Africa, the computer would have been stolen within one day."

The Prof did in fact bring the project to South Africa, however, for whatsoever reason, he is relatively silent on this point.  One wonders why