Update:
This prototype is pretty different from the one back in berkeley because I couldn't find the proper materials. I had to redesign many of the parts as I went along, and now many of the components are made of plastic and pressed together, rather than have anything secured with screws. We're just now starting to put the designs in peoples homes. I've been going out with my teammates and talking to people in the slums, trying to recruit 20 households into our study. So far we've gotten 17, but there's quite a bit of work explaining to people what the designs do and why they should be used. For the most part, people have been accepting. Only once have we been turned away because of feeling insulted. I think the Indian people pride themselves on living very simply/traditionally, and to say that some of their practices make them sick, then might come off as offensive. We held some focus groups, inviting many community members into one person's house, or talked to them in the street, and explained what we were trying to do. Those people that we talked to for a long time, and in a large group, were very easy to recruit into the study because we had a long conversation. Now we've run out of familiar people, so it's difficult to find more households.
The cows do really just walk around in small packs. Seldom do you see cows alone, but when they're together, I don't know what relation they are to each other. A cow came up to me as I was sitting down the other day, and I pet its nose and head, and it was very nice to me. It nudged me on the leg and then walked off. There are so many cows, too, and water buffalo. Their horns seem very scary, but they are peaceful animals. People feed them in the morning, but then they turn it away if it tries to come indoors. So it's good that the cow does not go into their home. People in the slums that I have visited, called Maruti Nagar, or (the name of one god) (place), have only two or three spaces in their home. Either a room and a kitchen, or a room, a hallway, and a kitchen. people sleep either in one large bed, which I believe is for the whole family, or on the floor on mats that can be rolled up. I'm started to see a whole different side of India that I didn't get to see when i was busy in the workshop. But I feel lucky that I've had that kind of experience, and I bet it's like working in a factory. It'll help me out if I apply to manufacturing positions.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
George Washington was one smart guy
Taken from Foreign Policy:
This year [for July 4th], I recommend you spend a few minutes reading George Washington's Farewell Address, originally published in September 1796. Read the whole thing. Our first president has many wise things to tell us today, but none is more telling than his trenchant advice on the conduct of foreign policy:
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it -- It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it?. . .
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment [towards Iraq], sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject [Our legislators getting swept up in the false WMD reports]; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another [Israel] produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation [Sharing "common" values], facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter [Iraq] without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges [Military and Nuclear Technology] denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained [Without which Israel would never have been able to invade so many countries and harm so many civilians], and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld [Iran]. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) [The Israel Lobby; AIPAC], facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country [A Decade of War in the Middle East], without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."
----
It makes perfect sense, and George Washington is a wise man.
This year [for July 4th], I recommend you spend a few minutes reading George Washington's Farewell Address, originally published in September 1796. Read the whole thing. Our first president has many wise things to tell us today, but none is more telling than his trenchant advice on the conduct of foreign policy:
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it -- It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it?. . .
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment [towards Iraq], sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject [Our legislators getting swept up in the false WMD reports]; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another [Israel] produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation [Sharing "common" values], facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter [Iraq] without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges [Military and Nuclear Technology] denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained [Without which Israel would never have been able to invade so many countries and harm so many civilians], and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld [Iran]. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) [The Israel Lobby; AIPAC], facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country [A Decade of War in the Middle East], without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."
----
It makes perfect sense, and George Washington is a wise man.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
What I've been up to.. but more importantly, what EVERYONE ELSE has been up to!
Hmm... What have I been doing? Well - living in India for one. That's the same ol'... I've also been making the same project over and over, mainly because I'm in the phase where I have to make 8 of the same thing over and over. And I have been seriously just flying through these things! I'm almost done with the entire pump device, with only 1 little element missing.. (plus I have to cut all the pieces of metal to length so that they custom fit the households that they'll be placed into, but I'll do that later, it's not a hard task)
Inner valves and bottom caps (which are also valves, mind you!)
Caps!
Faucets!
But that's enough about me. Do ya'll know what everyone else has been up to? Apparently the world has been falling apart since I've been in this part of the world. Maoist rebels/Communist Party Members (What's going on here? are the legitimate or what?) are gaining steam in India, becoming more and more violent. It wasn't too long ago that they ambushed a bunch of security officials, but now they are playing a game of spy vs spy, killing informants for the police and trying to collect intel on the locations of high-ranking security officials so they can assassinate them. That's India...
Pakistan is failing to uproot the Taliban from their mountainous regions, and the Taliban knows all too well how to simply avoid their would-be hunters. Their newest trick is to hide in densely populated areas where CIA drones wouldn't dare to drop bombs aimlessly (yet it doesn't seem to stop them from blowing up civilians houses in other regions)
And finally Afghanistan, where all the shit is blowing up. Not too long ago, an issue of Rolling Stone Magazine came out with a long article detailing the character of General Stanley McChrystal, our ex-commander in Afghanistan. He was one of the drafters of counter-insurgency strategy: "use the green berets as a kind of armed peace corp" or something like that, where troops live with the occupied populace and try to build up their government and infrastructure. But it isn't working; the military has a strict hierarchal order but civilians do not, and our diplomats in Afghanistan are all competing and vying for conflicting interests. I'm sure there's more than a few of those diplomats are career bullshitters too, just trying to stay in their job much like our domestic politicians. But apparently in the article in Rolling Stone, McChrystal was caught bad mouthing those diplomats for being annoying, and Obama sacked him. Now he's been replaced by his mentor Gen. Petraeus, and the notion of changing leadership mid-game is a little bit frightening.
And now let's go over to the Lebanon, a region that Israel had invaded in the not so distant past (maybe 40 years ago?) Hezbollah, the militant group that is fighting Israel right now, built an awesome theme park to indoctrinate young people into the struggle against the Israeli Oppressors. I don't think we can expect peace to come very soon if people already put their money down on a THEME PARK! haha
Well that's the news in brief. Dinner time now! Latahs
Inner valves and bottom caps (which are also valves, mind you!)
Caps!
Faucets!
But that's enough about me. Do ya'll know what everyone else has been up to? Apparently the world has been falling apart since I've been in this part of the world. Maoist rebels/Communist Party Members (What's going on here? are the legitimate or what?) are gaining steam in India, becoming more and more violent. It wasn't too long ago that they ambushed a bunch of security officials, but now they are playing a game of spy vs spy, killing informants for the police and trying to collect intel on the locations of high-ranking security officials so they can assassinate them. That's India...
Pakistan is failing to uproot the Taliban from their mountainous regions, and the Taliban knows all too well how to simply avoid their would-be hunters. Their newest trick is to hide in densely populated areas where CIA drones wouldn't dare to drop bombs aimlessly (yet it doesn't seem to stop them from blowing up civilians houses in other regions)
And finally Afghanistan, where all the shit is blowing up. Not too long ago, an issue of Rolling Stone Magazine came out with a long article detailing the character of General Stanley McChrystal, our ex-commander in Afghanistan. He was one of the drafters of counter-insurgency strategy: "use the green berets as a kind of armed peace corp" or something like that, where troops live with the occupied populace and try to build up their government and infrastructure. But it isn't working; the military has a strict hierarchal order but civilians do not, and our diplomats in Afghanistan are all competing and vying for conflicting interests. I'm sure there's more than a few of those diplomats are career bullshitters too, just trying to stay in their job much like our domestic politicians. But apparently in the article in Rolling Stone, McChrystal was caught bad mouthing those diplomats for being annoying, and Obama sacked him. Now he's been replaced by his mentor Gen. Petraeus, and the notion of changing leadership mid-game is a little bit frightening.
And now let's go over to the Lebanon, a region that Israel had invaded in the not so distant past (maybe 40 years ago?) Hezbollah, the militant group that is fighting Israel right now, built an awesome theme park to indoctrinate young people into the struggle against the Israeli Oppressors. I don't think we can expect peace to come very soon if people already put their money down on a THEME PARK! haha
Well that's the news in brief. Dinner time now! Latahs
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