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When you consider where the world was just a little over 100 years ago, before the first human voice was transmitted via radio waves... when you start from that point and work your way backward into human history... you can quickly accumulate piles and piles of data that, when compared to what has been accomplished on the other side of that first radio broadcast, makes it impossible to argue for "less technology," "less communication," or "less education."
Since the emergence of media technology, human consciousness has rapidly developed, if for no other reason than the ease with which we can share knowledge. A lesson learned by one woman can be shared with BILLIONS of people in less than 10 minutes. To save that many people the time it would have taken for them to learn that lesson themselves... frees them to do the same with their personal growth. The shared knowledge that is generated accumulates at a rate that humans have never seen and are presently unable to truly measure or fathom.
Human consciousness has outpaced Darwin.
We are now remote-controlling robots on Mars, looking at video images from the depths of the sea, educating students in classrooms thousands of miles from their teacher, and dissecting the human genome. "Survival of the fittest" is soon to be outmatched by "survival of the most well-connected."
Now take a breath and calm down, because behind every winning race-horse is a stable boy cleaning up quite a mess.
Get out your credit card, buy a plane ticket, and go to Haiti. Here you will see a corner of the planet that has fallen into the shadow of progress. As in any other place on the planet, the people of Haiti are born with an identical capacity to learn. They possess a hunger to learn, and when given the opportunity, they do learn.
While there are certainly many legitimate reasons for the apparent strangle-hold on Haitian progress, one can hardly help but notice the curious lack of communications technologies.
As things are in Haiti right now, you can find the most qualified expert, pinpoint the solution to a major Haitian problem, and then watch as nothing substantial happens. As it generally does, the life-saving information will bake into dust in the heat of the Caribbean sun.
The point is to say, even if you were able to pinpoint the root cause of Haiti's many problems, you would be hard-pressed to educate enough people at a speed that could actually outpace and eventually eradicate the problems.
Haiti desperately needs communications technologies. I haven't just cast my vote here... I have given up my life in the pursuit of this certainty. This isn't "cute" or a "fun diversion" from mundane philanthropy options. Laptops are essential. Clean water is only as valuable as your ability to pipe it somewhere. Knowledge... education... it all means nothing if it cannot be moved more quickly than the dismal tide.
Sustainable solutions and hungry minds have always been available in Haiti. The problem is, there is no pipeline... no conduit through which this information can be moved. Education can aggressively and finally attack the problems that Haiti faces if it can be given a way to flow.
Literally, I stake my life on it.
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