I write in reference to a letter which appeared in your Monday edition of the Kaieteur News from M.Maxwell, captioned “Will Guyanese be able to afford internet for these election season laptops?”
Presumably M.Maxwell has not been following the OLPF programme and its modalities that have been coming into effect over the past months, particularly the more than 200 ICT Hubs being established across the country for the express purpose of providing internet access for all recipients, computer training for recipients and elected family members, technical support and ICT related guidance and assistance in coordinating the community service component of the programme, all to be executed at NO cost to the recipients.
Already, more than 50 of the approved set of ICT Hubs have been engaged for activation by this weekend to cater for the needs of the first batch of 5000 recipients.
With regard to the assumed purpose of the OLPF initiative, according to M.Maxwell, it should be instructive to note that this revolutionary vision hitherto referred to as gimmickry by him/her, was in fact derived from the framework of the Guyana ICT 4D (Information and Communication Technology For Development) Strategy constructed since 2006, through careful considerations of the inescapable nexus that has emerged over several decades on the globalisation and development paradigm, placing Guyana squarely on a do or die adjustment threshold for new frontiers in development.
Notwithstanding the misplaced perceptions that can be deduced from the coincidental timing of the OLPF roll out ( this project is unique, unprecedented, and revolutionary, and would have understandably taken painstaking efforts to get operationalised since its announcement last year), notwithstanding the plethora of imaginings that are normally conjured up and vulgarly peddled in seasons such as this – for selfish reasons regardless of the potential national transformative impact of programmes such as this – OLPF, the uncontrollable outbursts of pure unadulterated joy that have been reverberating through the OLPF phone lines when staff members call this week to inform applicants of their selection for a laptop, are unshakable.
The more than 44,000 Guyanese from every nook and cranny of this country who listened to our positive messages understood the unspeakable magnitude of this investment in their families future, from their own hard-earned taxes, and ensured that they signed on to partake in this visionary Guyanese thing, will not be dissuaded, will not be coerced, will not be fooled by any last ditch wolf cry from anyone.
Tell the Private Sector,  the Trade Union Movement and potential investors that can foresee a transformation of the skill set of the Guyanese workforce, academia and its students that will experience a magnetised link between the class room and the home, tell the differently abled among us, youths, mothers, fathers, single parents,  grandparents and our children who crave advancement in their social well-being and the dignity of knowledge, who will experience a timely bridging of the digital divide between those who have access in our society and those who don’t, those who are growing up in the technological renaissance and those who did not, tell them that this is just a strategic plot to “ maximize potential vote benefit”; tell the United Nations MDGs Council, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the former Chairman of CARICOM  and leading regional and international thinkers, shakers and movers who commend our strides, our brothers and sisters in the diaspora, tell all those who marvel at the soundness of vision and the tenacity of Guyanese willpower to mount the world stage unhindered, tell them  and tell the 90,000 Guyanese  that are set to benefit from this programme over the next two years,that a computer –mobile in its reach for access to the world wide web of information and opportunities being given without any costs whatsoever – not for the instrument, the training, technical support, opportunities guidance nor the connectivity; tell them that it’s a ploy to “prey on the tragic deprivation syndrome that afflicts impoverished societies such as Guyana”, M. Maxwell.
The fact of the matter is that the One Laptop PerFamily (OLPF) programme is real, it’s happening all across Guyana, starting this weekend, with the first 5000 approved applicants from phase one receiving their laptops, getting assigned to an ICT Hub near them and becoming engaged with over 200 ICT Youth Clubs throughout theirneighborhoods. The Community service component, which is the “give back” requirement, will see recipients coalescing around established projects in their own communities or initiating new and creative ones to support the climate change agenda, community and heritage tourism or other projects that add social value to their lives and communities.Hand in hand with their neighbors, OLPF members will lend new impetus to the spirit of volunteerism and spurn the engenderment of national social cohesion which could only augur well for our nation.
Could they have ever afforded one on their own? Possibly. How will it benefit them? The possibilities are endless! Gimmickry,  or the birth of Possibility Guyana?