I have found the solution to make poverty history

[Marat]

Education is certainly part of the issue. Something that has always mystified me is that Africa, where there should be extensive and efficient agricultural, actually never developed improved agricultural techniques that were already discovered in Europe during the Middle Ages. These had to be reintroduced with European colonization in the 19th century, and in many cases even today simple improvements in agricultural techniques have not been adopted.

 

I don't think that colonization can still be blamed for the Third World's problems half a century after most of them became independent. Even those which had the most minimal experience with colonialism, such as Thailand, Haiti, and Ethiopia, are no better off, and arguably even worse off, than areas which 'suffered' much more colonialism.

 

The real difficulty is what would happen to educational institutions once they were established in the Third World, given that the hundreds of billions of dollars which have been given in foreign aid to developing countries since World War II have been largely wasted. Richard Feynman noted while he was assisting in the educational development of Brazil that the students there simply lacked the talent to benefit from what they were learning about physics, since something in the culture induced them simply passively to memorize everything they studied rather than to think about it and develop it.

 

There is also a problem of a depressed local culture of poverty and defeat discouraging creative use of any resources which are provided. I saw a UN development project in St. Lucia which built an aqueduct for a village which allowed the people to receive water from the mountain springs in the valley below. They could then avoid the arduous task of having all the women in the village spend all day, every day climbing up and down the mountain to fetch water. The aqueduct required minimal maintenance by the villagers to keep working, having one or two people devote about an hour a day to keep it going, and they had received extensive training in keeping it operating. However, after a few months they ceased to maintain it, and so once again the water had to be carried manually down the mountainside. So education might be ineffective without first instilling a spirit of self-efficacy in the local population.

[Myuncle]

Giant space mirrors won't do much except piss people off when they hear how much they cost. Plus, who's going to maintain them? There's a bunch of debris flying around the earth at velocities enough to shatter steel, nevermind glass. And if we remove space mirrors?

 

It's not just the water but it's very difficult to work when there are incredibly hot temperatures. Even camels now refuse long walks in the desert because of the increasing heat, they have to replace camels with trucks in certain places now. Who's going to maintain the giant space mirrors? I am not an expert but I suppose if all the satellites in orbit don't have any problems with maintainance or debris I suppose the same should be for space mirrors. If nobody complains about satellites why should we complain about space mirrors?

[rktpro]

Education is certainly part of the issue. Something that has always mystified me is that Africa, where there should be extensive and efficient agricultural, actually never developed improved agricultural techniques that were already discovered in Europe during the Middle Ages. These had to be reintroduced with European colonization in the 19th century, and in many cases even today simple improvements in agricultural techniques have not been adopted.

 

I don't think that colonization can still be blamed for the Third World's problems half a century after most of them became independent. Even those which had the most minimal experience with colonialism, such as Thailand, Haiti, and Ethiopia, are no better off, and arguably even worse off, than areas which 'suffered' much more colonialism.

 

The real difficulty is what would happen to educational institutions once they were established in the Third World, given that the hundreds of billions of dollars which have been given in foreign aid to developing countries since World War II have been largely wasted. Richard Feynman noted while he was assisting in the educational development of Brazil that the students there simply lacked the talent to benefit from what they were learning about physics, since something in the culture induced them simply passively to memorize everything they studied rather than to think about it and develop it.

 

There is also a problem of a depressed local culture of poverty and defeat discouraging creative use of any resources which are provided. I saw a UN development project in St. Lucia which built an aqueduct for a village which allowed the people to receive water from the mountain springs in the valley below. They could then avoid the arduous task of having all the women in the village spend all day, every day climbing up and down the mountain to fetch water. The aqueduct required minimal maintenance by the villagers to keep working, having one or two people devote about an hour a day to keep it going, and they had received extensive training in keeping it operating. However, after a few months they ceased to maintain it, and so once again the water had to be carried manually down the mountainside. So education might be ineffective without first instilling a spirit of self-efficacy in the local population.

 

That would come with time. Education and human resource are linked together. Good educational intake by people means that human resource is well up. Also good human resource is educated. Africa, even rich in resources, hasn't utilized them or produced any technology which could utilize them because of the same fact. Lack of skilled human resource. There, they are all unskilled. This means that they could do hunting, fishing etc really well but couldn't do any technical work. IMO, some skilled people, say a 1000, should go to Africa like regions and educate people.

The local culture is, after all, the main cause of this all. If they could be more rational, they could have been well up.

[praty]

It's not just the water but it's very difficult to work when there are incredibly hot temperatures. Even camels now refuse long walks in the desert because of the increasing heat, they have to replace camels with trucks in certain places now. Who's going to maintain the giant space mirrors? I am not an expert but I suppose if all the satellites in orbit don't have any problems with maintainance or debris I suppose the same should be for space mirrors. If nobody complains about satellites why should we complain about space mirrors?

 

Satellites are small and light-weight. As for the mirrors, to cover greater areas, they would have to have greater areas which implies more mass.

Space mirrors would be an instant failure. Why? Solar winds. Mirrors will, after-all act as huge sails for these winds and get accelerated out of position almost immediately. If they sustain the wind, solar storms would definitely spell an end to the mirrors.

Edited July 3, 2011 by praty