That girl in Africa Options

[thekohser]

According to Wikiquote.org...

Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's empowered with the knowledge to do so.

...is attributed to Jimmy Wales and sourced to:

Wikipedia-l mailing list (23 October 2005)

As far as I can tell, Jimmy Wales didn't publish anything to Wikipedia-l mailing list on that date, nor to the WikiEN-l mailing list. So, was his post a figment of our imagination, or was it oversighted, or did Wikiquote just make a typo (perhaps intending "2006" instead of "2005")?

[Jon Awbrey]

This says Foundation-l —

Will keep looking …

Jon

Here

Jon

[Jon Awbrey]

Like everything else, WMF appears to keep a double set of books on its mail list indexes, rewriting the history of the indexes at some later date, so the links that people give at run time get outdated later on.

For example, this = that.

That's Wiki-Perspicacity !!!

Jon (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/dry.gif)

[Moulton]

Here it is.

[RDH(Ghost In The Machine)]

Here it is.

Well found Mr. Moulton!
This is rich:

> Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for
> us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives
> of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's
> empowered with the knowledge to do so.

Let me be just as blunt, I think that's a fairy tale and unlikely to
happen. The vast majority of information on Wikipedia would be next
to useless to them. Wikipedia is no "A Young Lady's Illustrated
Primer" and will not be anywhere near that kind of level for another
20 years assuming things go through best case scenario. By then I
would hope the UN and African countries have moved off their asses to
do something about it. I seriously doubt that it's information holding
back Africa; it's leadership (as in plenty of bad, and little good).
You can have all the knowledge in the World and not be able to do
anything against corruption, greed, and power.

--slowpoke at gmail
Oct 23, 2005, 3:13 PM
Post #48 of 95

As I said before, we would do better to get the poor girl a free cell-phone so she can order a pizza and have something to eat while she learns about Pokemon and All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.

[Moulton]

...To which Jimbo replies...

>> Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for
>> us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives
>> of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's
>> empowered with the knowledge to do so.

> Let me be just as blunt, I think that's a fairy tale and unlikely to
> happen.

Ok, but that's what I've devoted my life to doing. :-)

[Milton Roe]

Here it is.

Well found Mr. Moulton!
This is rich:

> Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for
> us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives
> of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's
> empowered with the knowledge to do so.

Let me be just as blunt, I think that's a fairy tale and unlikely to
happen. The vast majority of information on Wikipedia would be next
to useless to them. Wikipedia is no "A Young Lady's Illustrated
Primer" and will not be anywhere near that kind of level for another
20 years assuming things go through best case scenario. By then I
would hope the UN and African countries have moved off their asses to
do something about it. I seriously doubt that it's information holding
back Africa; it's leadership (as in plenty of bad, and little good).
You can have all the knowledge in the World and not be able to do
anything against corruption, greed, and power.

--slowpoke at gmail
Oct 23, 2005, 3:13 PM
Post #48 of 95

As I said before, we would do better to get the poor girl a free cell-phone so she can order a pizza and have something to eat while she learns about Pokemon and All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.

Nice allusion to "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer." From Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Which describes an interactive A.I. sort of cheap cyber teacher gizmo which is capable of entertaining any kid into college-knowledge en-culturement, no human-teacher input needed. No, I don't remember that it spat out loads of alternative sex-act pictures. But I haven't read the book in awhile. Jimbo probably hasn't read it at all-- this is "user:slowpoke" satire.

[GlassBeadGame]

Here it is.

Well found Mr. Moulton!
This is rich:

> Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for
> us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives
> of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's
> empowered with the knowledge to do so.

Let me be just as blunt, I think that's a fairy tale and unlikely to
happen. The vast majority of information on Wikipedia would be next
to useless to them. Wikipedia is no "A Young Lady's Illustrated
Primer" and will not be anywhere near that kind of level for another
20 years assuming things go through best case scenario. By then I
would hope the UN and African countries have moved off their asses to
do something about it. I seriously doubt that it's information holding
back Africa; it's leadership (as in plenty of bad, and little good).
You can have all the knowledge in the World and not be able to do
anything against corruption, greed, and power.

--slowpoke at gmail
Oct 23, 2005, 3:13 PM
Post #48 of 95

As I said before, we would do better to get the poor girl a free cell-phone so she can order a pizza and have something to eat while she learns about Pokemon and All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.

Nice allusion to "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer." From Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Which describes an interactive A.I. sort of cheap cyber teacher gizmo which is capable of entertaining any kid into college-knowledge en-culturement, no human input needed. No, I don't remember that it spat out loads of alternative sex-act pictures. But I haven't read the book in awhile. Jimbo probably hasn't read it at all-- this is "user:slowpoke" satire.

Makes Mr. Gate's mosquito nets look better and better.

[RDH(Ghost In The Machine)]

...To which Jimbo replies...

>> Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for
>> us. It's for them. It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives
>> of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's
>> empowered with the knowledge to do so.

> Let me be just as blunt, I think that's a fairy tale and unlikely to
> happen.

Ok, but that's what I've devoted my life to doing. :-)

Being a Constitutional Monarch, that is.

However, we must give the 2005 Jimbo credit for the pretense, at least.
Today he would simply call him a troll and/or an idiot and move on.

This post has been edited by RDH(Ghost In The Machine):

[thekohser]

I guess "proxying for a banned user" is not a punishable offense on Wikiquote, especially if you've been graced with a welcome note from Poetlister.

[Mike R]

I guess "proxying for a banned user" is not a punishable offense on Wikiquote, especially if you've been graced with a welcome note from Poetlister.

I do whatever I want, whenever I want.

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

Given the suggested financial value of the Wikipedia and Wikipedia traffic ...

If Jimmy Wales really wanted to help "That Girl in Africa", surely they could find a third way with advertisements, accepting them only to use the funds purely for charitable purposes in developing nations, e.g. starting with basic literacy programs?

Given that there are around one billion people in Africa under the age of 20 ... and adult literacy rates fall to just 25% in some nations ... perhaps their pressing needs are a little bit more basic that topics on autofellatio and bukkake? Although I suspect many African men would love looking at the porn pictures on Commons.

(IMG:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4663211354_70b81dfcef_b.jpg)

Of course, as with many women on the patronisation and of women, many Africans are sick of the patronisation and portrayal of Africa as being weak, ignorant and "savable" by powerful white Western males ... when all they really want is freedom from onerous debt and the financial exploitation of Western corporations.

Africa is littered with the dried bones of well intentioned but failed neo-colonial aid programs ... what exactly has the Porno-pedia shown to suggest that it is in anyway more qualified to succeed?

Having said that, I can imagine many project that would benefit from encyclopediac cataloguing ... such as the documenting and spreading of indigenous plant knowledge, intermediate technologies, tribal language and histories etc ... but to do that, real money would have to be laid down for real technology; PCs, cameras, network connections etc.

Instead of using hyperbolic cult-like aphorisms

such as "Saving the Girl in Africa" ... why don't the assholes

just stop bickering, get their hands off their dicks and

use some of that $10,000,000 Wiki-war chest to do so!?!

Go on. Just one small project. A couple of million dollars or so.

Walk your talk, 'Bwana Jimbo', Great White Encyclopedia Hunter.

Or is securing beachhead offices in 'San Fran Cappuccino' more of a priority right now ... call it Jimmy's 'Pre-Bono' rock star indulgent phase?

Of course, one would have to budget in teaching someone language and IT skills but I suspect one could even pull in genuine volunteers wanting to do so ... a sort of 'Wikipedians Sans Frontières'. (How do they recycle their old servers anyway?)

However, what African women would probably prefer to do would be research market prices and run an e-commerce site allowing them to sell products at a fairtrade price direct circumventing the big corporations ... if they could keep the men off the porn on the Wikimedia sites.

But surely they could have a few hours of free internet connection to do so ... after working unpaid for 'Massa Wales'?

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

I am sorry ... was that cartoon too much of a conversation killer!?!

[Milton Roe]

I am sorry ... was that cartoon too much of a conversation killer!?!

Of course, as with many women on the patronisation and of women, many Africans are sick of the patronisation and portrayal of Africa as being weak, ignorant and "savable" by powerful white Western males ... when all they really want is freedom from onerous debt and the financial exploitation of Western corporations.

I think nobody really wants to take on the task of trying to aleviate your cluelessness about the basic source of Africa's problems. But I wish you'd read the history of the Zulu before they really ran up against the power of "white Western males" and their "corporations."

Say, are African corporations run by Africans evil things, or does that idea make your head explode? And who sends me the phishing spam from Lagos? Inquiring minds want to know.

[A Horse With No Name]

I am sorry ... was that cartoon too much of a conversation killer!?!

The cartoon pretty much summarizes everything wrong with Wikipedia and Africa. Thanks for sharing it.

[GlassBeadGame]

Before this thread degenerates into another below the fold lame discussion for finding fault for the problems of Africa, flavored with six kinds right wing nonsense and the dusty tweed of Larouche I think the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides a sane reference point for evaluating the utter bankruptcy of Mr. Wales claiming he, WMF or anythings on Wikipedia has anything to offer African children.

[EricBarbour]

Instead of using hyperbolic cult-like aphorisms
such as "Saving the Girl in Africa" ... why don't the assholes
just stop bickering, get their hands off their dicks and
use some of that $10,000,000 Wiki-war chest to do so!?!
Go on. Just one small project. A couple of million dollars or so.
Walk your talk, 'Bwana Jimbo', Great White Encyclopedia Hunter.

Can't do that. It would involve work.

Much easier to bullshit stupid college students and random flakes into volunteering.
As long as no one has to get out of their Aeron chairs, it's a "worthy pursuit".

Great cartoon, btw.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[A Horse With No Name]

Before this thread degenerates into another below the fold lame discussion for finding fault for the problems of Africa, flavored with six kinds right wing nonsense and the dusty tweed of Larouche I think the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides a sane reference point for evaluating the utter bankruptcy of Mr. Wales claiming he, WMF or anythings on Wikipedia has anything to offer African children.

I just shared that link with my Facebook posse. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

This post has been edited by A Horse With No Name:

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

I am serious about what I see as the ramification of the current Wikipedia model hitting Africa.

If it is ... let's just call them idiots for want of a better word ... idiots protecting idiocy, then all they will attract are more idiots and each culture, as it comes on line (in the Pedia's case literally rather than metaphorically) will go through the same baptism of fire and then produce the same crap.

I have already seen evidence of this from Indians vis-à-vis Desi Porn pictures ... do we REALLY have to repeat the same old crap and encourage indulgences of every culture that comes along? Is that not the lesson of failed cultural imperialism?

I mean ... aren't black penises under-represented on the Wiki? Has Africa really travelled far enough culturally to dream up QUITE so many perversions and then depict them graphically for others to be "educated"?

Say, are African corporations run by Africans evil things, or does that idea make your head explode? And who sends me the phishing spam from Lagos? Inquiring minds want to know.

Probably some dodgy Yoruba, far less likely Igbo or Hausa. How specific do you want to get?

My God ... they let African run corporations there days!?! Something should be done about it ...

I do not know Milton ... "Arica and its history" is a rather broad and long topic so you would have to narrow it down.

By only direct area of knowledge/experience is in West Africa, e.g. let's start with France's colonial and mercinary shock troops - the Légion Etrangère - and their excursions into Dalhomey, but I did have a friend who was drafted by the SA army but who left as soon as he discovered the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the former apartheid regime in South Africa were directly involved in terrorism against their neighboring Mozambique who at that time was fighting for independence from the Neo-Imperialist.

As you know, the African Union opposes US plans considering AFRICOM to be a danger to the independence and sovereignty of the continent.

Just was it did in the Far East, the U.S. is engaged in numerous war games and training programs under the guise of fighting “terrorism” and funding a few puppet regimes, especially where its corporate/financial interests lie. It is all business as usual. Of course, it is sold as "Protecting Freedom" to the tax payers back home.

So ... specifically ... what are you headed off topic about this time?

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:

[Herschelkrustofsky]

[Vigorously brushes off tweed]