20170307 (ingenuity I)

Amy B. Smith, Senior Lecturer at MIT, head of D-Labs, and woman for the age*

Senior Lecturer at MIT, Amy B.

Smith stands out from the crowd

Of notable American engineers

And inventors as a leading advocate 

For appropriate technology, best

Described in the book Small is 

Beautiful by Ernst Friedrich 

Schumacher, an English economist

Who subtitled his work A Study 

Of Economics As If People Mattered.

Ms Smith is head of MIT’s D-Labs,

Which stands for Development

Through Discovery, Design, and

Dissemination. It might simply be

Easier to say that as the child of

An engineer in Lexington (MA) who

Took her with him to his Army

Assignments in India, she was

Exposed early on to the poor and

Their desperate living conditions.

As a youngster she put half of

Her earnings from baby sitting

Into a jar which, when full, she 

Sent off regularly to UNICEF.

She expanded her experience

Joining the Peace Corps and

Since has become famous for

Finding and developing low-tech

Solutions to third world problems.

Overcome by the smoke of 

Cooking fires in Haiti and seeing

The accompanying deforestation,

She set about development of 

A cleaner burning charcoal not 

Derived from precious increasingly

Scarce trees which also did not

Damage Haitian mothers’ and

Children’s ability to breathe.

She found the ideal answer in

Charcoal from waste corncobs.

Women in poor villages worldwide

Spent up to two hours grinding dried

Corn for meals. By inventing a grinder

Which could easily be fashioned from

Local materials by local craftsmen

She reduced corn meal grinding to

One-tenth the time and effort of

Hand grinding with mortar and 

Pestle. She and her students have

Made numerous contributions

To easing the life of the poor

Through technology applied at

Village levels. Unimpressed

By the profits she could have 

Made from her inventions,

She lets them spread freely to 

Benefit the poor everywhere:

"Living in India is something 

That stayed with me—I could 

Put faces on the kids who had 

So little money.” Prize money

Derived from her many awards

Is often used to underwrite her

Programs or pay for related

Capital expenses in the 

Countries affected.

c. J.S.Manista, 2017

*http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_smith_shares_simple_lifesaving_design#t-884038

20170304 (EPA)

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue
 it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” NRSV, Genesis 1:22

That was the second time 

The Lord told creatures of his

Recently made world to fill 

The earth by being fruitful and

Multiplying. He’d already told 

All the birds of the air and the

Fish in the sea and every creature

Who creept upon the earth. But

Since on the sixth he used the 

Whole day to make humankind

Who hadn’t been there for the

General instruction he made it 

A second time to be specific 

Since they were also to have 

Dominion over the whole shebang.

Could be this was one of those

Instances, like Sodom and

Gomorrah or just before the

Flood, where he should have

Been a tad more specific 

About how much multiplying

He thought optimum, for it’s 

Pretty clear in the twenty-

First century he didn’t want

Our multiplying to prevent

Their Multiplying--such as 

Our making air unbreathable,

Overfishing, deforestation, 

Poisoning the waters, or

Rendering whole swathes

Of Ukrainian countryside or 

Japanese shoreline toxic to

Life for generations from

Windspread radioactivity.

The original reading sounded

A great deal more balanced

Than, “Hey, you’re in charge

Now. Wreck anything you 

Want.” Even primitive peoples,

Like the native Americans,

(Who didn’t have the benefit

Of Judeo-Christian texts to

Cloud their minds) knew enough

Not to kill all the buffalo. They

Didn’t have the fable about

Geese laying golden eggs either.

Nevertheless many early societies

Still did themselves in ignoring

The limits of their island homes

As Jared Diamond illustrates

In Collapse about how the Norse 

Starved in Greenland and the 

Peoples of Easter Island, having

Destroyed all their crops, took 

To cannibalism leaving only

Those majestic, mysterious 

Faces staring vacantly out to sea. 

c. J.S.Manista, 2017

20170303 (bully)

Mobile North Korean ICBM on display in Pyongyang 2012 "It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack." Dump to Reuters the morning of his address to CPAC.

Since my grade school days

The insecure have had to be

Violent—at least potentially.

But to make the potential

Credible those insecure have

Had to actually wreak among

Their peers physical pain 

If not physical damage.

It’s no less true on schoolyards

Today, unless somewhere a

Progressive elementary exists

Where they’ve drugged the 

Youngsters’ subconsciouses

Into an Edenic somnambulance,

Where all activities are cooperative

Not competitive, where all win

Lest any hint of the glories of

Dominance threaten the calm.

To me, in the age of Dump, this

Is all vaguely masked Lord of the

Flies theory performing on the

World stage with alarming

Accuracy. The orange orangutan

Is as ready to rush to the fight

As Obama the Nobel Peace

Prize awardee proved early in

His first term. No sooner than

The laurels were placed did the

Young president disappoint his 

Champions by reading a speech

In defense of military actions.

Not at all what they’d hoped

When they thought to honor the

African-American who spoke

Courageously of peace to his

Muslim and Arab counterparts

At Cairo University in 2009. It was

A feint, a deceit commonplace

Among warring rivals, for he was

At the same time authorizing

Drone strikes in numerous

Countries with which the US

Had not declared war. He tried

To walk away from the venture

In Iraq on a technicality only 

To return in a year or so later—

This time with no “boots

On the ground,” only bombs

Temporarily overhead. Ah, the

Poetry of conflict: friendly fire,

Collateral damage, fog of war,

Surge. He has left to a man far

Less measured his promise to

Spend a trillion dollars over

The next ten years to upgrade

Our already planet-evaporating

Arsenal, to a man who confesses

His comprehensive ignorance by

Asking, “We have nukes. Why don’t 

We use them?” W relaxes in his 

La-Z-Boy, a little shaken by the 

Rash talk of an arms race and the

Risk of obliterating all humanity,

But comforted nonetheless that

He is no longer the dumbest 

American president.

c. J.S.Manista, 2017