This morning I decided to tune into the radio, which I seldom do, and I was disappointed to hear the host and call in guests ridicule a Toronto city councillor who is urging the city to install free wireless Internet in public housing.

We laud campaigns such as the One Laptop Per Child project which gives laptops to the world’s poorest children to create “create self-empowered educational opportunities” yet the idea of closing the divide and providing the same opportunities for those in need in our communities is laughable?

In a country where email and the internet have become the most common means for communication, where nearly all school assignments are expected to researched online and where we are considered one of the world’s most prominent users of social networks how can we leave the underprivileged in our society in the cold and at such as steep disadvantage?

The least we can do allow is enable all corners of our community equal opportunity to learn and discover for themselves, connect with others in the community, give their communities a voice and give them equal access to the information and opportunity we all have access to.

We travel around the world trying to bring this technology to the world’s poorest but the idea of helping those in our own backyard is laughable? The hypocrisy kills me.

What can we do in our backyards with technology to help the poorest in our communities? If we don’t have an answer for that, then how can we help those in other countries?

Photo credit, Kevin Steele