AIDG Begins . . .
by Peter HaasJuly 15th, 2005
It was an uncharacteristically sunny day for that spring. Much of the rest of that spring I had been pulling out the trench coat for the 50 degree rainy weather. But that day I had my jacket over my shoulder, sleeves rolled up, shoes in hand and a smile on my face. Wandering slowly back from a convention on the promises of the wireless markup language (WML) to change the world, I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauties of the blocks around Russell Square. Near the British Museum the area around Russell Square is one of my favorite parts of London. It also happens to be where I was living the spring of 2000 when I was working for a wireless data consulting firm and doing things like writing enterprise java applications to serve WML to people’s cell phones.
All in all it seems now a bit unnecessary; the need for people to do banking on 1-inch cell phone screens trying to type out passwords on tiny keypads was grossly overestimated at the time. You couldn’t blame us, it was the end of the dot com bubble, new wireless technologies were emerging and people were hoping to ride the next big thing before the venture capital dried up. But it still was grabbing me how much something like WML really wasn’t going to change the world. Perhaps it was those tuggings on my “barefooted boy in a business suit” soul to do something more than just code, maybe it was my innate interest in engineering, whatever the reasons I found myself drawn into the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) bookshop.
The Intermediate Technology Development Group is a British charity that is concerned with the promotion of intermediate or appropriate technology. They publish books about and do projects with technologies that are low cost, simple to repair, and easy to produce that allow people in rural areas to solve their development problems using local resources. They run bookstores around the world and publish books on how to build and maintain these technologies. One of these bookstores is in Russell Square.
Entering the store I wasn’t unfamiliar with appropriate technology. I’d helped with strawbale and rammed earth tire construction on the ranch I used to live at. I’d played with solar water heaters. I’d always been interested in farming and sustainable living. But the sheer volume of material in the ITDG bookshop left me reeling with the possibilities. Never had I seen so many books, explanations, diagrams, etc. all in one place. Never had I thought about the global power of appropriate technology to initiate change for the rural poor.
I bought motors as generators for micro-hydro power, a Chinese biogas manual, and sanitation without water. This rather unassuming commercial act, under the auspices of supporting a charity and expanding my knowledge as an engineer, would actually become a strangely pronounced moment of importance for me. Through a rather round about course in Alaska, Burma, Zimbabwe, Chile, and Cuba those books led me to my current situation of teaching Guatemalan engineers manufacturing appropriate technology solutions. And helping Guatemalan farmers power their propane ranges off of pig excrement.
