[FRIAM] water, again (was murder offsets)

[Prof David West]

A personal experience that supports the more cynical / realistic posts in this thread: technology, capitalism, poverty, etc.

In 1987 I was taking a graduate course in "development anthropology" and had to write a term paper on economic development in the Sudan (one of my professors was married to a woman from there). The proposal centered on solar power as the innovative tech and as an alternative to several planned hydro-power projects being planned. In addition to solar panels for local energy needs, the proposal included a framework for manufacturing 12-volt appliances, like refrigerators, lighting, heaters, toasters, kitchen appliances, etc. as well as computers. 80% of the manufactured goods were for export — to the, then, luxury RV market in the US and Europe. Huge net gain in Sudanese economy demonstrated.

Prof sent the paper to a competition at the World Bank and I won a $2500 prize. World Bank tried to get funding for the project from member nations, especially the US, but USAID vetoed the plan in favor of a multi-billion dollar hydro project that "just happened" to award construction money to US companies and incorporated technically obsolete generators and transformers for the inevitable, very wasteful transmission grid.

davew


On Mon, Apr 19, 2021, at 12:33 PM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:
> Yeah, when I incorporated back in '01, I did it in Oregon, knowing we 
> were likely to move there within a few years. All my advisors said that 
> was a mistake, that I should incorporate in Delaware or somesuch. I was 
> more libertarian, then. But even then, my ethos was to try to 
> contribute to my locale (network or geo). So incorporating in some far 
> flung place just doesn't seem right. Since we're still only 2 hours 
> from PDX, I figure it's still roughly local.
> 
> Just this morning, I saw a van delivering groceries to the neighbors 
> <https://www.imperfectfoods.com/>. And although everything about it 
> sounds good, that they're based in CA makes me resist, perhaps in order 
> to find something *local*. We have a cool little store less than a mile 
> away that seems responsible and is owned by a long-term family in these 
> parts.
> 
> On 4/19/21 11:18 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
> > If the principals behind Redwood Materials INC are all upstanding long-time NV residents or there were something specifically obvious about their geography that makes them an obvious location for such an operation, then I can give that question a soft pass.   To be fair the principals listed on their website <https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/about> do seem to have honest credentials, albeit maybe weighted toward having come from places that acutely helped to create the problems they are promising to solve... 
> 
> -- 
> ↙↙↙ uǝlƃ
> 
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