A blog I love, Afrigadget, posted today about a Ugandan woman who made her own mobile phone charger out of D-cell batteries.
The full article appeared on the Women of Uganda Network, which I wouldn’t have seen if Erik Hersman hadn’t reposted, giving the article a bit more coverage.
So i know we discussed this in class quite a while ago but everytime i see these pictures i realize that there humans have been endowed with magnificent abilities.
Even though here in the developed west we might not see this woman’s feat as an incredible one i believe in my heart it is.
I mean, ask any 20, 30, 40 or even 50 year old to make their own cell phone battery charger and they will tell you: “What for when i can just buy one?”
And truth is our ability to access items like such have made us become less ingenious in many areas. although some might argue that our level of sophistication is different, the place where we find ourselves thinking and creating have already gone past those of immediate need, i believe the overwhelming complexity that we have become accustomed to live by has made us forget the simple yet powerful things we can do. I think that ironically, many new applications and gadgets are taking us back to the basics: the pricelessness and effectiveness of simplicity.
For example, as a MAC and PC user, i have found that having too man commands to many things to choose from makes PC’s more difficult to work with. Windows vista for example, rather than making navigation easier, has made it harder and more complicated in its vain attempt to imitate MAC’s simple docks and visual effects.
all in all, i can say that until we find ourselves without so many gadgets, necessity might once again take us to the simple.
Alejandra I believe has argued her point very brilliantly and I agree with her. I can remember vividly, I came to New York in 1994, when i was just 4 years of age. We did not have a car back then until 1997. I used to walk to school everyday, walk to the subway station everyday, even go do my grocery shopping at a local supermarket walking carrying a cart. However, ever since 1997 when we got our first car, walking to the subway seems like a achievement, going to the supermarket and carrying groceries seems impossible without taking the car. The more humans adapt technologies in their everyday lives, the more they handicap us.
For me, i will never try to do the similar thing this woman did, because i do not have to. So, from this story, i found that life in poor country is really hard to image. Why do they have to suffer this, what can we do to help them, to some extent, it is what western countries did hundreds years ago that made them develop much slower than us. The story shows we should do more we can do.
On the other hand, the story also tell me that a tough environment always give people motivation to do something, i think it is also what we-teenagers need to grow up.