Mwalimu Paul et al: If one defines poverty as not only on the simple basis of cash income, fine but if one really wants to dive in, then one has to define it as a condition of hopelessness and lack of opportunity or will to participate in life. But therin lies the quandry: Then those of us in the "west" may need a big mirror: Then maybe we all better look a lot more closely at industrialized society, not just the third world …
Our own two cents on it over the past few decades, is that everyone has something unique to contribute. No one is an object to be pitied and "helped" unless the situation is sudden and catastrophic. It is not the material sign of wealth but that needs to be "targeted" first, as much as it is a more fundamental issue: The capacity for solutions often very unique ones, is usually there is you dig deep enough. It is the setting for the unleashing of natural human tendency for survival in just social circumstances that needs to be most addressed. it is as much or more of problem in the US part of the Ameicas today as it is in the third world. You don't want to approach it as working with someone as a potential recipient of your benifiscence, but as a potential participant in a process of shared discovery and contribution. This is not Mother Theresa stuff but rather jut plain pracitcal common sense: You do nto want to create a trail of dependence upon your efforts : Rather youd like to see it all take off on its own two feet eh ? If that all sounds a bit vacuous, then heres somethign more specific: Last week up in the Usambaras, or Tanzania, we reconnected with some core producer-trainer teams from amongst the Mkombozi, Likozi and Wema groups whom we have been in contact with since 2007. They all would nicely qualify as "poor". They make briquettes presses and provide training. Thye do all of these things bette than we can and differently than we originally taught them. They had devised new blends and strategies for disrtibution of briquettes and application in stoves, a novel divider to double the produciton in the new ratchet press we are developing with Steve Kitutu up in Arusha, etc etc… What a kick to learn what the fellow citisens have to contribute. No aid has given these groups beyond initial training and funds to construct their own building (It rains alot there). One can find similar innovation in the slums of Kangemi Kenya with such as the $5 buck press of Francis Oloo, or the "chewey" briquette of Zaugia and Marietta in Lushoto, or George Owino's clever adaptation of the side fed stove in rural Uganda. I come along with a bright idea about making sausage briquettes with the conventional mini- Bryant press and I will soon be back in contact with Mzee Senkenge in Doche village to see how he and the production team there has adapted the idea, to make it work better--or for that matter, rejected it as impractical. The next step is to find a way to insure that ideas like this get communicated fairly, with due reference to the sources-- something that needs to be taught to us back home as much as here it seems. Who is poor? Pressing on, Richard Stanley Dar es Salaam, Nchi ya Tanzania > _______________________________________________ Stoves mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: http://www.bioenergylists.org/
