INTEL’S WILL SWOPE used the occasion of a local digital content summit in Ghana to air his patronising and paternalistic views on business in the mother continent.

It seems that what Africans really need right now is just an Intel programme outlining the fascinating world of maths and science.

Swope was rather insistent about Africa needing an Intel-based digital infrastructure so that the global economy could properly exploit, er, sorry, drive African development.

Swope told a room of Ghanan officials and African tech-sperts that they needed to learn maths and science if they ever wanted any hope of dragging themselves up to the level of the ‘civilised world’. Well, that’s how it reads between the lines, anyway.

In his own words, Mr Swope condescended, “If we want to solve the world's problems such as population growth, global warming, alternative fuel, etc, It requires scientific advances. The world needs creative thinkers and Africa also needs creative thinkers. Maths and science can help in this process.” Is it just us, or does that come across as insanely arrogant?

Swope felt the need to point out the fairly obvious truth that it is in fact, “crucial to train and equip teachers, so that they can teach more effectively and avoid too many young people, especially in Africa, from running away from maths and science."

Why especially in Africa? we wondered. Are children everywhere else in the world being drawn like moths to a lightbulb towards maths and science instinctively from birth? We wonder what Mr Swopes was implying about his apparently not very esteemed African colleagues and partners.

Swope reminded his audience that Intel had been pushing its corporate nose into world-wide education initiatives for 40 years already, and not to worry, Ghana was next on the list. Intel will now be launching its interactive teaching platform, Skoool, Ghana. Which sounds like a great spelling lesson to start with. Its main features are listed as being multimedia learning objects (Learnsteps), interactive simulations (Learnsims), a maths toolkit, exam centre study notes, exam guides for maths and integrated science, study and revision tips. (Tip: only use Intel’s classmate PC. Any attempt at using an OLPC will result in flunking out. See Nigeria for examples).

Intel’s Education Initiative purportedly invests about $100 million a year in spreading the Intel educational love across 50 different countries. The master-plan is purportedly to train 10 million more teachers on the effective use of (Intel) technology in education, reaching a captive audience of one billion students.

Dumbing it down, we’d call that a plan for World Domination. µ

L’Inq
All Africa