Beyond Technology
Written and illustrated by Jacob Schiere
MCC Occasional Paper, No. 14
December 1991
MCC Occasional Papers are a publication of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). This series features manuscripts by MCC volunteers and staff on topics related to MCC programs and concerns. The papers do not necessarily reflect official MCC policy.
About the author
Jacob Schiere, a Dutch architect, directed the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Appropriate Technology Center in Santa Maria Cauque, Sacatepequez District, Guatemala, from 1983 to 1990. His areas of interest are sanitation, urbanization, energy, traditional health care and community.
Preface
My wife, a public health worker, filled a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) position in a health project with the Mennonite church in the slums of Guatemala City. I, an architect, accompanied her on a secondary assignment: "to evaluate the ailing Appropriate Technology (AT) project in the Guatemalan mountains." Terror and war had just devastated the area, inhabited mainly by Maya Qakchikel Indians. Now, almost eight years later, MCC has asked me to write about that AT journey, about AT for life, health and well-being for all creation.
Many times I was asked what AT stands for, and I learned to give a tandem answer:
- AT tries to ease domestic burdens with domestic means, and it is relevant for the affluent society as well as for the poor.
- AT discovers that domestic problems often do not have exclusively domestic causes. Socio-political and cultural reality can limit the access to and acceptance of domestic means, while reinforcing the burden of domestic life; poverty, premature death, lack of choice, etc.
Many examples of the first category are known to the MCC constituency; for example, dry composting latrines, rope pumps, improved cookstoves, etc., are reviewed in Appendix 2 and 3 of this paper. But the main purpose of this paper is to propose for discernment and dialogue the reality of the second category; the socio-political and cultural interdependency of the affluent and the poor.
In the Maya language I should title this paper "XIRIJ TA." This term is a poetic Maya way of saying "look beyond." As a matter of fact, "XIRIJ" is the literal and phonetic Maya pronunciation of my name. It means "beyond" in their language. "TA" is abbreviated Spanish for appropriate technology and it is a Maya word for exclamation;
XIRIJ TA! = LOOK BEYOND!
Acknowledgments
I owe this effort to my politically oppressed Maya friends in Guatemala who, in spite of our shared and adequate technical expertise, over and over again failed to overcome their misery. I owe the very honor of this report to my family (Annelies, Marcus and Nelleke) who have encouraged me to travel, inquire, ponder and doubt. Now I submit my journey in writing to the MCC constituency who has supported and encouraged me, both financially and morally.
