[Groot Gouda]

Quote: IT Education Act

A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.


Category: Social Justice


Strength: Mild


Proposed by: Caradune

Description: The United Nations,

-A- CONCERNED by the number of children who do not have basic information technology education,

-B- CONVINCED that the mastering of Information Technology is essential in the education of every child worldwide and for his/her own future

-C- FULLY AWARE of the difference of technology level between member nations

-D- SEEKING to minimize the cost of the following clauses

-E- FULLY AWARE of the availability of cheap, basic and low power-consumption computers designed by non-profit organizations


-1- STRONGLY URGES all nations to secure that each child, aged at least 12, receive some information technology education adapted to the national technology level. This can be integrated into National Education programs,

-2- ENCOURAGES STRONGLY all nations to secure for every child, aged at least 12, some access in school to information technology school equipment with educational software and Internet access,

-3- SUPPORTS operations which provide children, personal computers with Internet access and educational software, or more powerful high-tech educational tool, when the cost for the Nations will not be significant. Computers, Internet access or others tools could be bought or rented at a very modest price for children not able to afford them

-4- RECCOMENDS all nations to be prudent by ensuring that these actions don?t undermine or reduce nutritional, health or clothing efforts

-5- ENCOURAGES all Nations to try to limit the cost induced by this resolution, by different means such as:

-5.1- providing cheap, basic and low power-consumption computers designed by non-profit organization as those that already exist

-5.2- Running the computers mentioned in this resolution with needed open-source software, freeware or software graciously paid or discounted by companies, as a sponsoring operation for them or by non-profit organization

-5.3- Proposing some non-profit organization or some companies to graciously offer some computers, internet access and technical support, as a sponsoring operation for them which can prove more efficient than a TV ad campaign

-6- ENCOURAGES all developed Nations to help developing Nations to implement this program, by different means such as:

-6.1- Sharing technologies with nations who don't have yet access to them

-6.2- Giving access to these nations to a low rate loan/bonds system, which will be repaid in middle term by the growth of the amount of taxes collected due to the growth of information technology economic sector

Co-authored by Love and esterel


Voting Ends: Mon Nov 21 2005 [/quote]

[Groot Gouda]

I don't think the UN needs it. And it's from Love and Esterel. I'm voting against.

[Grosseschnauzer]

This must have just been posted at Nationstates in the last few hours. The last time I checked early this morning, nothing was at a vote.
I will cast the region's vote late on Sunday, then.

[Antrium]

We also vote against, for the same reasons as Groot Gouda above.

[Malabra]

We're against. It doesn't really require anything at all, just "encourages". We mostly vote against curriculum based proposals anyways.

[Lawtonia]

Lawtonia has voted in favour - not because of the author or the content. Lawtonia believes in voting for resolutions for social justice.

[Groot Gouda]

LawtoniaNov 18 2005, 03:52 AM Lawtonia has voted in favour - not because of the author or the content. Lawtonia believes in voting for resolutions for social justice. [/quote]
Pity. So I could write "Capitalism sucks" in a social justice resolution and you'd support it? O_O

[Grosseschnauzer]

I received the following TG from Sober Thought through Nationstates:

Quote: Vote FOR UN's IT Education Act.[/quote]

[Grosseschnauzer]

Taking into account the message from Sober Thought, the vote tally is 2 for, 4 against.

Unless three votes come in favor in the next few hours, I will cast the region's vote against the resolution, reflecting the majority opinion.

[Lawtonia]

Firstly I believe that personal opinions about a resolution's author should have no part in how I vote.
Secondly it is an issue of non-roleplay game mechanics - if this gets passed it increases my nations level of social justice which is something personally believe in.
Thirdly in a roleplay sense - giving children as much access to information not only increases their knowledge and education but provides the community with information that they might not otherwise have which could lead to the downfall of repressive regimes and bring more democracy to NS, which is something that the IDU believes in.

And if the Leader of Groot Grouda managed to gain enough endorsements for his social justice resolution "Capitalism Sucks", I would indeed vote for it, if for no other reason to increase sales of Lawtonia's "Capitalism" brand of vacuum cleaners

[Groot Gouda]

I don't have any personal grudge against certain resolution authors, it's just that they produce crap all the time (apart from the natural process, that is). I won't vote for (or against) a resolution just for stats reasons. The stats are the least interesting. If I want to do something about my stats, I'll answer the issues in a particular way. What bothers me about resolutions like this is that they are fluffy. They sound all nice, so why vote against? But at the same time they are either toothless and have no real effect (LaE has said on the forums that if you have problems with this resolution it doesn't matter, because it isn't compulsory - which is nonsense on game-mechanics level), rendering the discussion useless, or they have an effect but it's not desired, no thought has been put into it, and it's domestic policy which simply doesn't make sense on an international level with 30,000 nations.

IT Education is good, but it only makes sense when there is money for those computers, when the other basics (language, maths, social skills, history & geography) are covered. Bringing down dictatorships? A repressive regime will be smarter than that. Simply censor the internet (or don't connect your nation to it). Quite easy to manage. There are better ways to achieve democracy than this resolution.