ON PRICELESS DESIGN INNOVATIONS

CRYING NEED

It's not just about a $100 laptop that could change the developing world.  This New York Times article provides a glimpse into why not:

“A billion customers in the world,” Dr. Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, “are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house.”

The article goes on to explain:

"To that end, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 64-room mansion on Fifth Avenue and offers a $250 red chrome piggy bank in its gift shop, is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,” particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day.

Their creations, on display in the museum garden until Sept. 23, have a sort of forehead-thumping “Why didn’t someone think of that before?” quality."

A good example is this picture below.

"For example, one of the simplest and yet most elegant designs tackles a job that millions of women and girls spend many hours doing each year — fetching water.

Balancing heavy jerry cans on the head may lead to elegant posture, but it is backbreaking work and sometimes causes crippling injuries.

The Q-Drum, a circular jerry can, holds 20 gallons, and it rolls smoothly enough for a child to tow it on a rope."

I'm looking forward to showing this picture to my mom.   

As a young girl in a small village in India, she had to carry water daily, from the village well on her head, much like the young woman pictured here .

Better late than never, she'll likely reply.

I know she'll want to go and see the exhibition, on her next trip to New York.

I can't wait to take her.