Solar power makes tiny village beam

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/26/india.solar/index.html

In a village in India a population that had never seen lights before welcomed the solar lights:

"Ram, the man credited with the transformation, doesn't have a high school degree. But he did attend an institution about an hour away called Barefoot College, established 35 years ago with an emphasis on helping India's rural population find solutions for their problems among themselves."

It is great to hear that this development has evolved in the hands of the people. I think it is interesting that solar power was the solution, maybe the man responsible for this development has something to teach the US (biggest energy guzzler there is.)

As U.S. Rebuilds, Iraq Won’t Act on Finished Work

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/world/middleeast/28reconstruct.html?pagewanted=28&_r=1&ref=world

This article is so stereotypical of how the United States government plays a role in development. The United States has committed to certain reconstruction projects and the Iraqi government is refusing to comply with them. It seems that there has been a failure to communicate between the Iraqi people and the US government. The US government almost seems hurt, that Iraq would not graciously accept their "help." One of the suggestions made in the article is that there should be a clear pre-agreement to reconstruction, this seems so obvious to me but apparently it needs to be addressed. The New York Times seems to be more concerned however that are tax dollars are being wasted. I personally see a problem with the United States rebuilding Iraq in an effort towards homogenization and modernization.

"The United States often promotes the number of rebuilding projects, such as power plants and hospitals, that have been completed in Iraq, citing them as signs of progress in a nation otherwise fraught with violence and political stalemate. But closer examination by the inspector generals office, headed by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., has found that a number of individual projects are crumbling, abandoned or otherwise inoperative only months after the United States always intended to hand over projects to the Iraqi government when they were completed."

It is interesting to examine those who benefit from of all of the rebuilding projects, Halliburton, the US government, the US people? Corporations actually make more money being at war than they do not being at war.

Why doesn't the Iraqi people get the chance to decide how their country should be rebuilt?

Democracy in Hong Kong

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19733384/site/newsweek/

The article I read addresses democratic reform in Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong’s reform effort is both historic and potentially far-reaching. It constitutes the most comprehensive official attempt to implement meaningful local democracy on Chinese soil since Chairman Mao’s armies seized power and established the People’s Republic in 1949."

What I find interesting is how governments are mimicking each other in the quest for democracy. Personally I do not see this system as being the ultimate solution for representation of the people. If you take a look at the representation in our government it would never be considered equal. How many women representatives are there in comparison to the women population? What about minorities? People with disabilities? Homosexuals? Poor people? It seems frivolous for Hong Kong to switch to a democratic system, when clearly democracy is not the ultimate solution, unless it benefits the circle of elites in Hong Kong. What could be an alternative system that is worth fighting for? I think that democracy is deffinatly not the solution for every country.