Here's a statistic to question your faith in humanity: The world's 85 richest people own more, than the 3 Billion poorest.
"It is staggering fact that in the 21st century, half of the world's population owns no more than a tiny elite whose numbers would fit comfortably in a single train carriage," said Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam Executive Director.
That statistic reinforces the point that we can easily bring the world's poorest into the 21st century by giving them PV solar electricity - if these 85 people (and many others) could refocus their vision'.
Further, there are the thousands of aid, relief and development agencies that could be doing a lot more. Regrettably, (they claim) with limited funds they don't see solar energy as the pillar (or a priority) on which overseas aid should stand. Yet, the one resource the countries in need have in abundance is sunshine. I am not suggesting that nothing is being done, but rather that not enough is being done.
So what are the aid agencies doing? With their high focus on health and hygiene, education and agriculture etc. it seems to me that they have got their priorities wrong. Electricity is where it all starts' but they seem to miss that point. Solar lighting and solar water pumping alone, by default would facilitate better health and hygiene, better education and better agriculture. It would immensely improve the quality of life, stimulate work and entrepreneurial initiatives - and creates income. But do they see this?
To-day's world runs on electricity; good lighting, computers, the internet communications etc. Two billion people have missed out on this and now without electricity, they are missing out on the way the world is moving; how it operates. PV Solar is a must have' basic need to change this!
Among others, one agency' prides itself on being solar only' focused. It sells' solar lighting in Africa, probably in the old belief that if you sell it "they" will look after it better'. In the case of solar this is simply not true.
In Africa, aid agencies traditionally excused themselves from donating diesel generators or machinery, on the grounds that the recipient would always be in their pocket' for maintenance, fuel and spare parts. When solar established itself in the nineties, it was thought that with no moving parts, no running costs and minimal maintenance, it would be a win-win' solution for any agency!
But fundamentally, little has changed!
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