Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
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Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#2So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what?
There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me.
Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, resilience and climate change."
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#3So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
> So what's the actual news here?
School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy.
> That they were denied entry in the US?
Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively.
> Should we feel bad about it or what?
Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it be better to celebrate this, promote this and encourage things like this until a time that such things are common place enough to not be news worthy?
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#4So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
> So what's the actual news here? School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy. > That they were denied entry in the US? Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively. > Should we feel bad about it or what? Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it…
That's not the actual news here, because as I said, there's 0 insight on whatever they achieved. The emphasis was put on how bad it is to not let everybody in the US. Hence I believe this to be just some propaganda piece.
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#5So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
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Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So what's the actual news here? School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy. > That they were denied entry in the US? Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively. > Should we feel bad about it or what? Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it…
That's not the actual news here, because as I said, there's 0 insight on whatever they achieved. The emphasis was put on how bad it is to not let everybody in the US. Hence I believe this to be just some propaganda piece.
You want their blue print ? Would that be actual news to you ?
Edit: turns out a five minutes search on mobile isn't enough for me to get a picture or a description of the actual robot.
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#7So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
> So what's the actual news here? School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy. > That they were denied entry in the US? Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively. > Should we feel bad about it or what? Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it…
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Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#8So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
> So what's the actual news here? School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy. > That they were denied entry in the US? Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively. > Should we feel bad about it or what? Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it…
I'd like to encourage their achievement, but it's not clear what they achieved.
> The team’s winning entry was a solar-powered robot that would help small farmers carry out tasks including seeding and cutting crops like wheat
Apart from the general idea, what was created?
Here's a more detailed article from the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/world/afghanistan-girls-r...
> The team, which had only two weeks to build its robot for the event because a shipment of parts was delayed, won a silver medal for courageous achievement.
Courageous achievement is good politics, but not necessarily good engineering.
Here's an article from NPR:
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/22/538088825/what-re...
> The winner was chosen by the thousands of spectators who attended the event.
They mention what the robot actually does:
> Every team arrived with a robot in tow, each built with the exact same components, but designed, engineered and programmed differently. The goal: to gobble up and sort blue and orange plastic balls representing clean water and contaminated water.
> The Afghan team's consolation prize: a medal for "courageous achievement" and knowing that they placed much higher than countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S.
- - -
So my takeaway is that apart from facing all of the challenges that come with delayed shipments and denied VISAs, the girls managed to build a robot out of the standard parts list.
Their robot was voted on by thousands of attendees, and they placed higher than teams from developed countries like Canada, the UK, and the US.
What's the actual news? Not much, this is a fluff story. But it means something that a team of Afghan girls even made it to competition, much less built something that could legitimately outcompete more developed teams.
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#9So what's the actual news here? That they were denied entry in the US? Should we feel bad about it or what? There's 0 insight into what they achieved and the reporter even got the name of the European country wrong. Looks like propaganda to me. Edit: yes, it's propaganda: "Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, p…
Apart from just celebrating that a group of teens won a competition, there are several newsy points, though all beg further questions.
The fact that a team of girls from Afghanistan built a robot. That seems amazing, but what were the circumstances around that? An all-girl tech team from Afghanistan seems like a political statement in itself; was there a boy's team, or a mixed team, for example? Were they poor kids? Was an NGO involved and in what capacity? Did they just get together and build the robot after reading wikipedia?
The fact that they won a prize in an EU competition. Was that based purely on merit, or were there political considerations? Eg "poor girls from war-torn country should be supported", or "The NGO behind this should have their work promoted", or "Public snub/rebuke to trump's disgusting visa policies", etc. Or should we be hearing more about an imminent improvement in agricultural productivity?
The fact that it's quite a saccharine narrative, and has raised questions and suspicion. That says something both about the news system, and society, I think. It seems sad that we can't just celebrate achievement without considering (with justification) the hidden forces shaping the landscape.
Etc. Cui Bono?
Re: Afghan girls win European prize for solar-powered farming robot
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So what's the actual news here? School girls from Afghanistan built a solar powered robot. That's news because this is something which is very hard to do in the absence of the many privileges that would make such an achievement easy. > That they were denied entry in the US? Yes. That too is news worthy and was covered extensively. > Should we feel bad about it or what? Maybe. But rather than feeling bad wouldn't it…
I'd like to encourage their achievement, but it's not clear what they achieved. > The team’s winning entry was a solar-powered robot that would help small farmers carry out tasks including seeding and cutting crops like wheat Apart from the general idea, what was created? Here's a more detailed article from the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/world/afghanistan-girls-r... > The team, which had only two we…
Thank you for doing this research. This looks fabricated, the same way Abdul's clock was.
In response to the guy down here (I can't post anymore): the fact that they "won a prize", as shown in the title of this post, is highly misleading, when it was just a consolation prize. THe takeaway of these news is "look at everything the US is missing for not opening their borders", and this being a consolation prize, the US is simply missing nothing. So the entire thing is a fabrication.