{"id":858,"date":"2013-03-07T16:13:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T21:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mudhutstudiosonline.com\/?p=858"},"modified":"2013-03-14T17:14:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T21:14:50","slug":"relative-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mudhutstudiosonline.com\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"Relative Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TWO<\/a>For two years in the early 1990’s, I lived in Bingi, a small village about 10 miles\u00a0off the main dirt road that ran\u00a0from Rutshuru to Butembo\u00a0through the Kivu region of the Congo.\u00a0 As any Peace Corps Volunteer can tell you, the term, ‘surreal’ becomes an everyday word.\u00a0 What planet is this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Only wispy shortwave broadcasts\u00a0remind you\u00a0of Earth. \u00a0Even the most well-to-do\u00a0people seem impoverished by our standards, and\u00a0since the natural and man-made disasters in this region are well documented, I can\u00a0assure you\u00a0that nothing has\u00a0improved in the\u00a0eastern Congo.<\/p>\n

You won’t find a single bar of cell coverage.\u00a0 There is\u00a0no electricity.\u00a0 Friends are\u00a0still dying from Malaria and AIDS.\u00a0 If they had social media, they would’ve\u00a0added Fear-of-Death-by-Roving-Militias as a Life Event to their Facebook Page.\u00a0 Generally, there has been\u00a0very little added comfort\u00a0through\u00a0advancing technology in the Third World.\"MAMMA<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, these\u00a0people still plant,\u00a0grow, and harvest\u00a0all of their own food.\u00a0 If there is any excess, they barter for something they need.\u00a0 They re-purpose tin cans as cups and rags as soccer balls.\u00a0 In other words, they use sustainable, green-like\u00a0technologies.<\/p>\n

For most of us<\/em>, no electricity\u00a0would soon mean… no food.\u00a0 But what does no electricity mean for the third world?\u00a0 Well… pretty much business as usual…\u00a0 no\u00a0phones, no lights, and\u00a0no hash-tag anything.\u00a0\u00a0They would still\u00a0laugh, cry, get married, have kids and grand-kids, \"CAT\"<\/a>and\u00a0then die.\u00a0\u00a0How important is<\/em> this electricity you speak of?<\/p>\n

The night sky in Bingi was amazing.\u00a0 No light pollution meant that\u00a0you could see or imagine\u00a0every star in the universe.\u00a0\u00a0The Milky Way ran from horizon to horizon.<\/p>\n

The stars are\u00a0visible because there’s no technology.\u00a0 But\u00a0you’re reading about them… because there is.<\/p>\n

Surreal should <\/em>be an everyday word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For two years in the early 1990’s, I lived in Bingi, a small village about 10 miles\u00a0off the main dirt road that ran\u00a0from Rutshuru to Butembo\u00a0through the Kivu region of the Congo.\u00a0 As any Peace Corps Volunteer can tell you, the term, ‘surreal’ becomes an everyday word.\u00a0 What planet is this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Only wispy shortwave broadcasts\u00a0remind you\u00a0of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,35,27],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-trends","tag-cultural-change","tag-green-technology","tag-social-change"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t