Howard University Professor Dr John Trimble said Guyana needs to invest in appropriate technology as poor nations can benefit by using alternative home technologies.
Trimble told Stabroek News on Saturday that the term ‘appropriate technology’ began popping up in the 1960s. He said initially people thought it referred to small-scale technology but it is “technology that empowers the people.” The professor explained that the development of home-born technologies would create jobs and support the supply of basic needs like water and energy. Many people in the world, he said, still do not have access to energy, clean water and basic food supplies.
Trimble contended that countries and regions can promote the use of local materials, for example, using local stones for road building instead of the imported asphalt and he invited persons to submit papers on such technology.
Trimble said that too often larger companies focus on promoting overseas materials but with the appropriate technology, “the idea is all about empowering the people”. The problem, he said, is that poor countries are spending more money for consultants and higher price imported technology, which would be cheaper if the technologies are homegrown. For example, a university in Zimbabwe invented a machine to make barbed wire.
Conference on appropriate technology
Over the last two years, Howard University has co-sponsored an appropriate technology international conference in Rwanda. Another meeting is set for November 12-15, 2008 in Kigali, Rwanda, under the theme: “Promoting Research and Practice in Appropriate Technology: Energy Solutions in the Era of Climate Change.” According to information from the organizers, the theme was chosen to promote the collaboration of individuals, institutions and countries in identifying, assessing, tracking and developing appropriate technology research and action projects, through the use of knowledge management techniques. And, to focus on how to meet the increasing energy needs of the less developed world while minimizing negative global climate change.
Other organizers include the Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Rwanda. Rwandan universities supporting the conference are the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology Umatara Polytechnic University, for which Trimble is the Dean of Information Communication Technology, Universite Libre de Kigali and the National University of Rwanda.
The professor is calling on Caribbean and Guyanese nationals to submit papers from solar energy systems to indigenous medical technologies. There are 27 categories for which papers can be submitted and further information can be had from Dr Trimble at jtrimble@howard.edu or atconference2008@gmail.com
Trimble, who is on two years leave from Howard, left Guyana on Sunday.
