Message-ID: <330CAAAA.2D01@uniontel.net> Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 11:48:58 -0800 From: David Johnson <mailto:pinefarm@UNIONTEL.NET> Subject: Re: Technology transfer and world change. To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
mailto:DRypkema@AOL.COM wrote: >
> David Harris writes ".......interested in the role technology transfer can
> have in finding solutions to the world's many problems - and I mean social
> solutions on a MASSIVE scale....."
>
> It seems to me that the 20th century has more than demonstrated that social
> solutions are NEVER solved on a massive scale, they are most effectively
> addressed and solved on a neighborhood or community scale.
>
> Donovan D. Rypkema
> mailto:DRypkema@aol.com
David Harris asked a big question there, one that I've wondered about for some time. Again, I fall back on my most recent experience abroad. The Mexican papers said that there were 2.5 million poor people in Guadalajara, a city of about 4 million and not the poorest city in the world by any means. How in the world can programs such as Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children etc., etc,.even begin to make a dent in such a situation? The numbers are even more depressing on a global scale but, Guadalajara brings it down to something I can grasp. Clearly, in my opinion, they can't. I have come to believe that public health programs are the way to go. I think that, if the only goal of a program is to help people, there is a lot that can be done. This is almost never the case, however, PC has at least three goals and Habitat and many others have religious or social goals. Government programs have government goals. If you don't care about morality or religion and you don't feel you have to change people's behavior and just want to help them regardless, then there are opportunities. An example: In Paraguay, one of the major health problems is tooth decay. It is a rare Paraguayan who leaves his teens without major loss of teeth. There are several causes for this. Poor dental care, high sugar diets, [A Paraguayan meal is not complete without a liter of coke or Fanta], poor dental hygiene and, lack of minerals in the soil. The first of these three are often what is addressed by aid agencies. PCVs run around with big tooth brushes giving dental hygiene programs to school kids and work to change people's diets, dental associacions pass out free tooth brushes, an occasional free clinic is held etc. Nothing wrong with any of that but, it reaches few, requires changes in behavior and long term commitments. What I would do instead of or, possibly in addition to, these programs is to fluoridate the water supply in the major cities. I wouldn't expect anything but permission from the local authorities. I wouldn't expect any follow up by anybody. I would pay for and install the equipment, buy and donate all of the chemicals and, if necessary, send an American over there every so often to be sure it was all working. I know this flies in the face of a lot of doctrine you read about but, God Damn it, it would do more to prevent tooth decay than any of the feel good programs currently in place. True it would benefit people who I might not like and it wouldn't cause people to behave as I might hope they would but, it would do a lot of good for not much money. This is just one example: Power plants and irrigation projects do the same thing but, because they are large, expensive and disruptive they present problems that public health projects don't. Dave Johnson RPCV Paraguay 1989-93