UAE-funded MacBook laptop to tornado torn Joplin Missouri.

[midnight]

"JOPLIN, Mo. — Two weeks after a mile-wide tornado tore through this city, killing 161 people and rendering a landscape of apocalyptic devastation, the public school system here received a telephone call from a man working for the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington.

“Tell me what you need,” the embassy staffer said.

Six schools, including the city’s sole high school, were destroyed in the May 2011 disaster. Insurance would cover the construction of new buildings, but administrators were scrambling to replace all of the books that had blown away.

Instead of focusing on books, the staffer wanted “to think big.” So the school system’s development director pitched the most ambitious plan that came to mind, a proposal to obviate the need for high school textbooks that had been shelved two years earlier because nobody — not the cash-strapped school system, not the state of Missouri, not even local charities — had the money for it: Give every student a computer."

I have so many questions about why education and supplies are never a problem for the wealthy and their children... The poor/middle class are lucky if the UAE steps in to help... Well they have a say in the race to the top curriculum? Or why are we spending our money on tax cuts for the wealthy win our infrastructure is being rebuilt by the UAE? Maybe you have some of your own thoughts on this generous donation by the UAE.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/united-arab-emirates-helps-joplin-think-big-in-rebuilding-tornado-scarred-schools/2013/02/17/ae6a5af0-7704-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html?hpid=z1

[Blue_Tires]

1. I guess the UAE gets some positive PR, Apple gets a kickback

and the U.S. Gov't will probably owe a "favor" to the UAE in the future -- Which is probably to grease the legal skids when the UAE wants to buy ownership of certain state-run public services...

[midnight]

4. I hope it won't be Race to the top...

[Frustratedlady]

2. This is more than a little shocking.

Usually, it's the US who is on the giving end. Pretty darned sad that foreign countries are now helping us rebuild.

I had no idea.

[AndyA]

3. $6 Million from the UAE is news to me

A very gracious gesture, not sure what they got in return because I never heard about it on the news, and Joplin is close enough that our local stations cover the weather in that area.

[msongs]

5. why do the people in Joplin not want to provide books for their schools? nt

[midnight]

6. I wonder if they were even asked because of the generous offer from the UAE.

"The UAE’s unusual approach has its roots in the 2006 controversy that erupted when a firm based in Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, sought to take over the management of six U.S. ports. Intense congressional opposition, some of it resulting from misperceptions about the UAE’s relationship with the United States, scuttled the deal."


And this generous deal is trying to promote a better view of UAE...