Belgrade, Serbia

One Laptop Per Deputy

Published: October 31, 2007

The Serbian blogosphere is buzzing these days about the plan of the national assembly to hand out laptops to deputies “in order to replace paper comsumption and increase effectiveness.” The blogosphere is, of course, upset because no one in their right mind thinks this is going to improve the pathetic state our parliament is right now, especially after such statements given by Lidija Vukicevic, for example, that she can’t possibly know much about computers because “she is into books, and those two things do not go well together.” But everybody knows that Lidija said she used to eat sand during her pregnancy, so I wouldn’t pay much attention to what she says anyway.

Anyway, back to the subject in hand – One Laptop Per Deputy – being that I am not in my right mind, I am willing to oppose the general blogosphere negativeness on this one. Even though there is nothing I enjoy more than bashing the politicians on every occasion possible, I am willing to wait on this one, because I believe that even Lidija can learn to use the computer. Yes, I really do, call me crazy if you will, but the technophile I am, I believe that technology brings out the best in people and yes, why not, even politicians.

I am not even mad that they are probably going to spend half a million euros on this, and I would even go so far as to forgive if they take their laptops home with them and never return them, even though this is not the general idea, and it would be against the regulations – on condition that i see some results in effectiveness – heck, I am sure it is possible to spare that much money in a year if they stop wasting so much paper.

On the other hand, it will take away the pleasure of seeing pictures like these and laughing at Mrs Vukicevic’s statements, but it’s the price I am willing to pay.

So: give them laptops, give them free broadband internet, teach them to use it, let them connect and something good may come out of it. (If by this point you still don’t think I am completely gone off the rails, I also have to let you know that I believe the war in ex-Yu wouldn’t happen if we had internet back then.)

What’s the situation in other assemblies around the world, I wonder? Are they playing WoW tournaments during the boring session, any odd IT-litterate politician’s blog you read, anyone caught playing Solitaire instead of voting on important state matter? Let us know in the comments.

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