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Haiti Reconstruction, Technology, BoP Products and Services, Developing Country Seed Finance, Global Warming Adaptation, Design

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Haiti, Bop Tech, finding seed investment opportunities in developing countries

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• TEDCred score: +2310.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A reply on Talk: Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

  Sep 16 2012: I suppose you will stay adamant in your opinion. All I can say is we've had over 50 engineers come through to volunteer with us and have never had anybody question the value of the program. The training is based on work that has been done with masons in other parts of Latin America to great success. I personally think you are disconnected from the reality of how buildings go up in the informal construction sector and how far people are from compliance with best practices. In the US yes masons do exactly what they are told, but in Haiti they often do what they learned from foremen (note not from Engineers), that is a sad truth. And while I am praying for more code enforcement and engineering supervision I don't see that as coming through in the immediate term on the ground. People are rebuilding now, in an absence of engineering support, at least we can help them avoid some mistakes.
  
  You asked what we teach. Here is the seminar handout: http://www.aidg.org/documents/CM-Handout%20MASTER%20v3%2010-7-10.pdf
  
  I am sure you will find numerous faults to it.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

  Sep 11 2012: Chantal,
  
  Thank you for your comments. Just to clarify, AIDG in the mason training program has been a volunteer placement organization, bringing structural engineers, largely from our partner KPFF, and masons from the US into Haiti to work with Haitian masons in training courses that were developed in partnership with KPFF. I am never personally doing engineering and by no means meant to portray myself as an engineer. I am an administrator, and while my job is worthwhile I would not go so far as to call this a lucrative career. I gave up a much more lucrative career to do this work, and I did that years before the earthquake. I was lucky to get the TED opportunity and I felt this issue of poor construction was important enough to try to bring to a global stage.
  
  As to the question of code versus training. I would by no means try to say that code and enforcement are not important. But to be frank many of the guys who are out there building houses need basic education. Even when qualified architects and engineers work on a project there are often mistakes at the level of the construction worker that are not caught. There are buildings going up in Haiti right now that are vulnerable because of mistakes made by masons. The training we offered could be done directly by construction firms and for many big firms it now is. But there are many informal sector construction projects going on with smaller local builders where the type of training we provide is an important addition.
  
  If you find that I did a poor job explaining the importance of direct training for masons you might want to look into a similar organization like Build Change. You might find Elizabeth Hausler more convincing. This is an important global issue affecting millions of people worldwide. My hope is that you as an engineer will appreciate that much.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 16 2011: Robotics is definitely where computers were in the 70s. We are under 10 years away from seeing a profound revolution in home and work robotics. The advances in military robotics in the past ten years are pushing the DIY community and young robotics companies into places that were science fiction in the 90s.
  
  www.ted.com/talks/pw_singer_on_robots_of_war.html
  
  3-D printing and home fab is also an area that is going to start pushing boundries but not as fast as people think. Deposit based incremental manufacturing setups are pushing to the price point of laser printers in the 80s but the lack of final assembly is going to hold things back.
  
  I think the DIY fab industry will at first help small local shops or cottage industries that can do some light assembly and combination with "unfabable" components before it breaks into the home. There are still just too many components you can't fab yourself.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

  Nov 9 2010: For those interested in keeping up to date with the project please visit:
  
  http://www.aidg.org/confinedmasonry
  
  Thank you all for the interest. Please keep up the discussion. This is an important issue.

• A reply on Talk: Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

  Nov 9 2010: Miguel,
  
  I am sorry it did not show well on the video but I tried to give full and proper attribution for the drawings on the slides on the bottom according to the original publication guidelines. In all of our booklets we state very clearly:
  
  This document is adapted from part of the original document, “Construction and Maintenance of Masonry Houses,” edited by Marcial Blondet. Changes have been made to represent concrete block construction. © Marcial Blondet © Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú © SENCICO.
  
  But if you look at our booklet in Creole you will see this is not just a translation. To get this knowledge out there takes more than a translation.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

  Nov 9 2010: Melissa, poverty is a huge factor in this and clearly I did not intend to downplay that. But the truth is there are many changes in building technique that can have a big impact that don't need to cost more. I'll be posting a link to the page on our site that has the training booklet.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks

  Jul 19 2010: Question is still what impact it has on policies and actions? If Manning gets thrown in a Military prison for being a whistle blower where does that leave us? Cases such as United States v. Keenan set clear precedent for the combatant's duties, but what about the soldier who brings to light the actions of combatants? United States v. Manning is going to make or break this initiative for transparency. (for the charges against Manning check out the post by Xeni Jardin at boingboing : http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/06/us-will-press-crimin.html )
• +5

  A reply on Talk: Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all

  Jan 7 2010: Andre and Runbin, please keep in mind she's on a stage under lights trying to give a crafted memorized narrative to an audience for the first time public. It's a hard environment for an honest and true dialogue. I can tell you that we do feel, pretty deeply and painfully, we've seen some fundamentally messed up things, have had really bad stuff happen to friends and family, there are times we get totally broken down and paralyzed by this work, lots of times every year where it is almost too much to keep the doors open. Where a nice paying job in a cubicle sounds pretty good. And sometimes you get inured to it, you close off a bit to another hungry kid with scabies on the street because what can you do when the misery is everywhere, but you don't not feel. I don't know how to honestly bring that on stage: the death, the disease, the lies, the assaults, the murder, the rape, the day to day survival that would make most 9-5 folks shudder. Take us for what you will but we're just people.
• +7

  A reply on Talk: Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all

  Jan 7 2010: Andre and Runbin, please keep in mind she's on a stage under lights trying to give a crafted memorized narrative to an audience for the first time public. It's a hard environment for an honest and true dialogue. I can tell you that we do feel, pretty deeply and painfully, we've seen some fundamentally messed up things, have had really bad stuff happen to friends and family, there are times we get totally broken down and paralyzed by this work, lots of times every year where it is almost too much to keep the doors open. Where a nice paying job in a cubicle sounds pretty good. And sometimes you get inured to it, you close off a bit to another hungry kid with scabies on the street because what can you do when the misery is everywhere, but you don't not feel. I don't know how to honestly bring that on stage: the death, the disease, the lies, the assaults, the murder, the rape, the day to day survival that would make most 9-5 folks shudder. Take us for what you will but we're just people.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all

  Dec 30 2009: Theodore,
  
  I think it is the mixed set of crises, basic infrastructure, education, employment, perceived security risks, environmental degradation, centralization, a need for modernization in government services (just to name a few), that make the challenges in Haiti so persistent. I've been a lot of places and I feel pretty confident in saying Haiti is facing challenges that are among the more extreme in the world. But as anybody who has been there can tell you Haiti is a diamond in the rough.
  
  There is a tremendous amount of potential within Haiti for social and economic development. Ultimately it is going to take the right mix of foreign investment and government cooperation to start creating the employment opportunities and basic services that will propel the country forward. But I've seen highways get built and power plants commissioned in short order when there has been the right alignment.