Slashdot Mirror
LEDs Lighting Up the African Darkness
Peace Corps Online writes "In a non-electrified society, life is defined by the sun and little is accomplished once it sets around 6 pm. Only 19 percent of rural areas in Ghana have electricity. The rest use foul-smelling kerosene lamps to light their huts, which pollute, provide little light and are major fire hazards. But now Philips has partnered with KITE, a not-for-profit Ghanaian organization, to bring artificial light to villages that have no electricity. The new Philips products include a portable lantern which provides bright white light where it is needed, the Dynamo Multi LED self-powered (wind-up) flashlight that provides 17 minutes of light from two minutes hand winding, and the 'My Reading Light,' which is a solar-powered reading light with built-in rechargeable battery. 'People can now do things in the evening,' says Harriette Amissah-Arthur, KITE's director. 'If you could only see the joy these products bring the villagers. You look at their faces; you have to see it to believe it.'"
lightbulbs to force their replacement with fluorescent tubes containing hazardous mercury (and which are ill-suited for many applications that require instant operation or even harness their heat), rather than leapfrogging directly to LEDs etc.
If god wanted them to see at night he wouldn't have made it dark!
So this is either against the will of god, or, hmm no, no other alternative.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
but I am at this moment in Africa and it is true that such light (or modern technology) in a tent for example, can indeed attract freelancing bandits.
Oh ffs. You are currently in 'Africa' are you? Do you realise that Africa is of a comparable size to the EU, China, Alaska & contiguous US combined?
So... Where are you in relation to Ghana? Give us a quick breakdown of how crime in your area relates to crime in rural Ghana.
It is utterly typical africa==bandits US groupthink that got your "tech in Africa means you get robbed" got modded up.
My pics.