Blind Kids Singing

I was humbled on Slashdot for using analogies which some folks didn't get.  And I also saw people drawing conclusions about the RIP story which questioned environmentalism altogether, certainly not my point.

Some folks do see the beauty I see in Techs of Color, people in poor countries with nothing but their knowledge creating value from what someone else threw away.  Perhaps it comes down to a taste for bittersweet.  I like the video embedded below, from the Sibonile School for the Blind in Africa.



Some people will feel sad seeing so many blind kids, and will avert their eyes.  Some will appreciate people for what they can do, and not only for what they cannot do.

In the same way, recyclers and techs in poor countries are anxious to prove what they can do.  Las Chicas, Souley, Hamdy, Fang, Jinex, Mariano... all these peoplewere just born someplace poorer.  They have fewer assets to do some of the most difficult work, and you don't want to put them in a position to manage expensive toxic stuff (like CRT glass) which they cannot say no to.  But if they can create enough value out of other things, and given the right incentives, there can be harmony in the e-waste trade.

They ability we must give our trading partners is the ability to say "no".  That was what was telling in the attachments to the Sacramento Bee Finds Guys story... the exporter (Gordon) trying to negotiate improvement in reuseable percentages.

But I know there are smart people who cannot think. 

But he's the guy pointed to as the bad guy.