In america our lives are overly complex . Nearly every aspect of our society is mechanized or automated and we consider life without technology a hardship. There is no getting to work without a car, there is no communication without a phone or computer and entertainment is impossible without billboard sized televisions and the latest accessories. The average American is more concerned about celebrities than then their own families. That is why I like to read about Africa.
I have never been to Africa, and honestly the first time I ever took interest in the continent was to read about bumbling criminals who were fleecing people by email, which was a novelty at the time. Now Africa is no model society - far from it, but I took a keen interest in their science. Science as a discipline has the uncanny power to cut through religious and tribal misinformation and reveal useful data. If the west brought anything of value to the African continent it was scientific method. There being immediate need for basic sustenance, medicine and water much of the simple but genius inventions made me wonder why we had not thought of these things before.
I posted recently about my low flow toilet, but it was too long and no one read it. In rural Africa dealing with doody is much more difficult so some smart guy came up with this system. I was especially impressed with the "raceway" term to describe high velocity sections of the design. I liked the idea of my doody in a race when I flush.
This same site was the first place I saw the Zeer pot, which was so simple and brilliant I feel stupid for not having thought of it myself. Two pots are nested and sand goes in the space between. Wet the sand and the evaporation lowers the temperature in the pot. Cover it with a wet cloth and food that would spoil in days is good for weeks. The whole thing costs 30 fucking cents. Folks that used to hustle back and forth to market have more leisure time for schooling or 419 scamming.
The biosand filter was another stroke of genius. Anyone who has kept tropical fish is familiar with the biological cleaning concept. Pour nasty water in the top, algae and other microbes dine on the nasty stuff that lives in the water and the sand separates out all the debris. Gravity provides the motive force and clean water comes out the other side. The system isn't flawless of course, well water contains some heavy metals that can make it through, but it removes parasites and other gross stuff.
So the next time you put your brainmeat to work on that first person shooter or if you realize that you just spent an hour on the phone talking about poor Britney and her progeny, well maybe you should take a moment to - you know... think.
