Voice of a Mountain is a video documentary of the lives of rural Guatemalan coffee farmers [in Santa Anita La Union, a small village in the Quetzaltenango region] who took up arms against their government in a civil war that lasted 36 years. This documentary explores Guatemala’s dark history from the perspective of those who saw armed revolution as their only hope for change in a poverty-ridden nation under years of military dictatorship. Ex-combatants talk about the bleak reality of the country that led to their involvement in the war, and the response of genocide from the Guatemalan government against its people. The documentary gives insight into their motives for joining an armed conflict as interviews reveal personal accounts of struggle, hope, tragedy, and the fruits of their resistance.
First part of this video is in Spanish and then he translates into English.
In his film, “Documigrante,” Willy Barreno shows what [Guatemalan] migrants go through to get [to the United States].
Starting in Santa Anita, Barreno filmed the journey into Mexico, where Central American migrants hop freight trains in the southern state of Chiapas and endure robberies and rape at the hands of smugglers and Mexican police. The film then tracks the journey north, across the U.S. border and into the Midwest.
Barreno, a Guatemalan native, said he was overwhelmed by the grief of those he met—Hondurans sniffing glue in Central Mexico to stave off hunger and the human-rights worker who recounted how a woman had accidentally suffocated her crying baby while hiding inside a truck trailer from U.S. customs agents.
This reminds me of the last episode of M.A.S.H. where a mother suffocates her child to save her herself and other refugees from being killed by enemy soldiers. Life imitates art imitates life. :(
AIDG’s somewhat weekly roundup of appropriate technology stories. This week: prefab homes that look like computer servers, power from poop, sugarcane charcoal in Southern Haiti, a mobile phone-based vehicle anti-theft system and more.
Nestled among the towers of midtown Manhattan is a new housing development made entirely of prefab houses … that look like rack-mounted computer servers … In fact, these houses are intended to be mounted and stacked in giant racks that can be built in days. Soon, all of New York City may look like a giant Google server farm.
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The houses are part of an art installation for the Museum of Modern Art exhibit “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.”
The exhibit is running from July 20–October 20, 2008.
At a properly run farm, “nothing is waste. Everything is a resource. It’s just a matter of harvesting.” With 750 cows, Laurie Stanton’s farm has a lot of manure to harvest. Martin Mittelstaedt writes in the Globe and Mail about Ontario’s largest farm-biogas installation. It seems like the perfect solution to a big problem; there are only so many places to put the 50 million tonnes of “biomass”, as it is politely called, that is produced each year in the province. Instead, it is fermented in a big tank, and the methane is collected and piped to a diesel generator. The leftover liquids make a good fertilizer and the solids become bedding for cows.
Haiti and other nations continue to struggle in the grip of a worsening world food crisis. But Haitians in the island nation’s remote Artibonite and Northwest regions are gaining food security, through a sustainable agriculture program supported by global humanitarian agency Church World Service and funded in part by a new grant from the U.S.-based Osprey Foundation.
The program’s expansion will provide more people, particularly women, with opportunities to grow enough food for their families and increase income for other basic needs through access to credit and training.
According to a new technical market research report, Carbon Capture & Storage Technologies from BCC Research, the global market for carbon capture technologies was worth $88.7 billion in 2007. This is expected to increase to over $236.3 billion by 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.8%.
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This report … goes against the findings of a similar UN report that show that renewable energy is really where the money is.
Morris Mbetsa, an 18 year old self-taught inventor with no formal electronics training from the coastal tourist town of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean in Kenya has invented the “Block & Track”, a mobile phone-based anti-theft device and vehicle tracking system.
This instructables will show you how to recycle, by desoldering, all your old PCB’s components.You can find PCB in every electronic things(DVD,computer,camera,toys…).All you have to do is to disasemble them, and desolder the components you want.So here how to do step by step.
8. The folks at Proje Espwa in the South of Haiti have been making charcoal from corn cobs. A fewpics oftheir success.
This is JaRoro holding a briquette of charcoal we made this morning from our own vegetable waste. We use the stalks of corn along with vertiver and end up with this which lasts longer than regular charcoal. It is economical and ecological as we don’t contribute to the huge problem of deforestation here. JaRoro was the project leader for this and did and excellent job. The idea is based on Doctor Amy Smith’s (MIT) D-Lab work. We now have a team of 16 working on making these briquettes and freeing us from super-expensive propane and regular charcoal.
[A] team from CEA/Leti-Minatec has created a system that is capable of recovering kinetic energy from the impact of falling raindrops.
In a study featured in Smart Materials and Structures, a physics journal, the authors, Romain Guigon, Thomas Jager, Ghislain Despesse and Jean-Jacques Chaillout, write about how it is possible to recover [very small amounts of] energy from the impact of a raindrop of water.
General Motors is working with utility companies to make sure its next-generation plug-in hybrid has a smooth rollout in 2010. GM is pushing utilities to move forward on so-called “smart-metering.”
Hands-on Biodigester Installation Course Date: August 8-10th, Location: International Renewable Resources Institute - Mexico
El Molino, Eronga, Michoacan, Mexico Cost: $275 USD. Does not include lodging, food or local transportation, but arrangements can be for all of these by IRRI, and inexpensive options (less than $30 USD/day) are available. Discounts are available for students or renewable energy installation program representatives. Contact: info {at] irrimexico [dot} org
Description:
This three-day course will cover an overview of biodigester applications, and the impacts this technology can have on the energy production, health, water quality, emissions and economics of households and communities. The science of anaerobic digestion and its many applications will be covered, but the course focus will be the installation of a functioning biodigester and working with the family members to design, install, and support the system.
The goal is to provide a fuel source to a local family for cooking and heating as well as a waste treatment system for the production of organic fertilizer. Biodigesters convert organic waste into clean renewable energy for heating, cooking, or the production electricity and has the potential to make significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The byproduct of biodigesters is a high quality organic fertilizer that can support local agricultural systems. IRRI-Mexico is promoting an inexpensive, yet durable design that can be easily installed and maintained in a variety of contexts.
This installation will primarily be taught in Spanish, but there will be opportunities for translation English. Translation and extra time can be given to those who need clarification or more English materials.
About 200 ex-soldiers occupied former military buildings in northern Haiti on Tuesday to demand the reinstatement of the disbanded army and 14 years of back pay, the group’s leader and witnesses said.
The men took over the buildings in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, and in Ouaminthes, a town on the border with the Dominican Republic.
I think Reuters got the name of the town wrong. It probably should be Ouanaminthe.
The developing story from Radio Kiskeya [in French]:
Armoured MINUSTAH tanks and members of the Haitian National Police’s (PNH) special units tried, without success, to remove the 100 or so ex-military who were occupying the Ministry of Culture and ISPAN (Institute for the Safeguard of National Heritage) buildings.
The leaders of the occupation claim that the reinstatement of the military will help “restore safety and fight against the kidnappers”
In a bit of good news for Haitians:
Emmanuel “Toto” Constant goes down like Al Capone.
A former Haitian paramilitary leader who has been branded a ruthless killer by human rights groups was convicted Friday of helping hatch a mortgage fraud scheme that cheated lenders out of $1.7 million.
A Brooklyn jury found Emmanuel “Toto” Constant guilty of fraud and grand larceny. Constant faces up to 15 years in prison at his sentencing on Sept. 10.
CNN reports that he could face between 15-45 years. I don’t know which reporting is correct.
Background on Constant:
The son of a military officer, Constant emerged as the notorious leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled in 1991.
Human rights groups allege that between 1991 and 1994, FRAPH terrorized and slaughtered slum-dwellers loyal to Aristide. When Aristide returned to power in 1994, Constant slipped into the United States.
Despite a 1995 deportation order, Constant was allowed to remain in the U.S. because of instability in Haiti. He kept a low profile, living with relatives in the New York City borough of Queens until being jailed in 2006 in the fraud case.
Starthrower Foundation, another NGO working in Cap had this grim news in the beginning of July:
I am sending on some news about what’s happened in the past few days. It seems lawlessness here is at an all time high.
In Cap-Haitien:
A 23year-old kidnapped from our katye was killed as her parents had no money to pay ransom.
A doctor kidnapped from the corner paid $50,000.00 US for his freedom.
A friend of Jack’s was kidnapped last night while riding a taptap; the same ransom demand ($50,000). He has 2 small children, no job.
Relief Web, the online hub for humanitarian information, reports that:
[The] kidnapping of children remains an area of high concern [throughout Haiti]. Children represent 35% of the total number of victims of kidnapping, and an increasing number of girls and since the beginning of the year 66 minors, including 28 girls, were victims of kidnapping [in Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien] (compared with 80 victims (41 girls) in all 2007). Two of these children were killed.
The victims were a six month baby in Arcahaie and a 16 year-old boy, whose body showed signs of torture, in Port-au-Prince.
Month
Boys
Girls
Total
January
4
2
6
February
4
3
7
March
7
5
12
April
6
4
10
May
13
2
15
June
7
8
13
July*
2
2
4
Total
41
26
67
* Reported on July 22nd.
Most of the girls who were kidnapped were also sexually abused. “A significant number of kidnapping cases reported during this period were perpetrated against children nearby or on the way in/out of school.”
AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity.
“We see political instability first because we go down as far as we can into the market,” says Alexander Cummings, head of Coca-Cola’s Africa division. The ups and downs during Kenya’s post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi’s slums and in western Kenya’s villages. Events in the Middle East, such as the 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, can dent sales in Muslim parts of Africa, though anti-American feeling usually wears off quite quickly.
In 1988, Simon Berry, Chief Executive of ruralnet|uk was working as a development worker in remote north east of Zambia, conscious that while he could buy a bottle of Coke anywhere, 1 in every 5 children under the age of five die in these areas through simple causes such as dehydration through diarrhea. Twenty years later, through the power of social media technology, Berry has launched a simple campaign asking Coca Cola to use a small part of its incredible distribution capacity to get medicines, such as rehydration salts, to dying children.
The rest of the post details headway that the campaign has made of late.
Jan Chipchase, the Principal Scientist at the Nokia Research Center, speaks on designing phones for illiterate consumers. 799 million adults worldwide are unable to read and write [based on UNESCO definition of literacy].
As traditional markets for mobile phones such as Sweden, U.K., and Singapore reach saturation point handset manufacturers actively seek growth in ‘emerging markets’ such as India, China, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia including some of the world’s most populous countries [2]. Targeting products and services at new markets creates many new challenges, not least of which is understanding and meeting the needs of new customers.
A number of these markets have limited formal education and consequently lower levels of literacy and numeracy.
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The key question for mobile phone manufacturers who wish to address the communication needs of this potential customer base is: How does the inability to read and write affect the ability of mobile phone users to make effective use of mobile phones? How can we design communication tools that draw on the knowledge and experiences that these users do have?
The talk drags a bit in the beginning. At around minute 7 or 8, he talks about the types of interviews and home visits his team did to determine what strategies illiterate people use for coping with written material (e.g. bankbook, analog clock, text on motorcycle handle ), what devices they use, how they maintain contact information, etc. Minute 12, he reveals the results of their research.
One of the questions Jan poses: “To what extent is textual literacy a barrier to device competency?” Here is a simple test to help you found out that answer for yourself.
If you’re wondering just how hard it is for a non-literate person to use a mobile phone? Change the language setting on your phone to one you don’t understand for a day and see how well you manage.
Another interesting slideshow from the Nokia Design team discussea how they do some of their research with consumers in developing countries.
Editor’s Note: This is a combo post that merges a visit with Rob Katz at Acumen Fund’s NY offices a few months ago and a talk that he did at IDDS earlier this week. Rob is another one of my favorite bloggers.
Steal! I don’t mean steal money. Steal ideas! Talk to other people who don’t work on your project. If you go to New York to see your friends or your parents, look up the other groups working in a similar area and say hello. If you can’t meet with the executive director, that’s good, because if the organization is more than five years old the executive director has no idea what’s going on anyways.
Talk to the program officer, the deputy director, the receptionist — and steal ideas. And grab onto people that you stole the ideas from. If you go overseas, make sure to visit some of the non-governmental organizations in other countries. It’s amazing how many problems have already been solved that you’re still stewing in and suffering through.
Sound advice. So while in NYC visiting my mom, I popped into Acumen’s offices to chat with Rob Katz to learn a bit more about Acumen, their processes and how they are similar and different to AIDG’s.
Outside Acumen Fund’s New York Office
Social Venture capital at the BOP: Acumen Fund in a nutshell
Duration: 41sec
Acumen Fund invests philanthropic capital in existing social ventures that serve the bottom of the pyramid. They focus primarily on enterprises in the water, health, housing, and energy sectors that are a few years old with a decent track record under their belt.
They got started in 2001 with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three different philanthropists. I’ve heard that their starting capital was $10 million, but I have to verify this figure. [In this way they are a bit like Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and philosophy, who sprang forth fully formed out of the head of Zeus. ;)] To date they have raised $55 million from private individuals and foundations, with the goal of having an investment portfolio of $100 million.
Acumen’s General Process
Enterprise Identification.
Currently they do a mix of searching for qualified prospects (which is non-trivial work in the markets they specialize in) and sorting through pitches that come to them directly.
Due Diligence and Investment.
Acumen’s investments range from $250,000/$300,000 to a $1 million. They take the form of debt or equity with a payback period or exit in about five to seven years. By comparison, AIDG lends $10,000-$100,000. We’re more of an initial investor who also is involved in R&D, while Acumen engages in mezzanine financing. That said, Acumen does do some “lab investments” at the $50-60,000 level.
Part of their long due diligence process involves analysis of the companies financial records, talks with customers and suppliers, a good hard look at the product line and the management team, a series of pro/devil’s advocate debates within Acumen, etc. Once a biz gets past that stage, an investment memo is prepared to lay out how much money will be involved, the debt vs. equity mix, payment terms, success and failure factors, financial projections and barriers.
Distribution of investment capital
In 2/29/08, Acumen had $18 million under management and $13.3 million approved, but not distributed. The regional breakdown of investments under management was as follows: $10.7m in India, $3.3m in East Africa, $700,000 in Pakistan, and $3.1m spread in U.S/Egypt/Sri Lanka/South Africa. Sectors: water, health, housing, and energy. Currently funded enterprises (according to website): Scojo, 1298, Kerala First Health Services, Saiban, Kashf Foundation, d.light design, GEWP, Drishtee, Voxiva, Aqua Aero Water Systems BV, Lifespring, SHEF, Jamii Bora, ABE, A to Z Textile Mills, Broadreach, Books of Hope.
Photography by Susan Meiselas (Magnum)
Direct Involvement.
Acumen take a direct role in the companies they invest in, for example by talking a seat on the board of directors. They also have a fellows program where, after 2 months intensive training in NYC, selected participants spend a year working in the field with an Acumen supported enterprise.
Provision of managerial experience and access to business and government connection.
An illustrative example: Tanzania’s A to Z Textile mills, the largest manufacturer of insecticide treated bednets in Africa, was previously a regular textile factory. The entrepreneur came to Acumen with an idea. He’d been getting multiple requests to make bednets in recent years from UN related organizations. Given the sudden demand, he was quite happy to shift production, but needed some help. So Acumen introduced A to Z to Sumitomo, the Japanese creator of slow-release insecticide treated bednets whose mosquito killing potential lasted 5 years compared to the normal 6-12 months. They helped broker a partnership with Exxon Mobil, normally so sketchy, but who donated resin, an important starting material, as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. Acumen also worked with higher ups at the UN and WHO to determine in they could guarantee a purchase of 4 million units. Now A to Z makes 20% of global bednets and provides 4000 jobs. Not too shabby.
Sharing of failures and lessons learned.
Working in the creating high-impact nonprofits mold, Acumen is working to develop our field of social innovation. They want to influence the sector as a whole, spreading the gospel.They are developing portfolio data management tools, social impact assessment frameworks, knowledge sharing partnerships and new investment vehicles. Acumen’s offices in NY are in the Google building and they are getting to take advantage of Google’s generous 80%-20% rule
(Innovation Time off).
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