POWER IN TECHNOLOGY

Science, knowledge and technology are often confused. They have brought many blessings to the world, but they have also been abused and used to establish positions of destructive power. There is mystery in them because they can take on a life of their own, and because they charm and bewitch their practitioners. (Ref 1)

Once I visited with some Mayas one of their ancient holy places, and climbing the enormous temple, higher than the crown of the surrounding jungle, we were impressed by the technological skills of these ancestors of thousands of years ago and felt some of their power. We imagined how authoritarian leaders probably once proved to be untouchable gods themselves, impressing the common people with the huge buildings, their artwork and understanding of cosmology. Maya science indeed reached a great height as it, for example, predicted solar eclipses almost to the second, long before they actually occurred.

We imagined what it could have been like: One year (12 moons) before such a predicted eclipse, the intellectual elite called the common and ignorant people together and announced a sequence of ceremonies, culminating in "a high priestly command for the sun to disappear." Before every ceremony turkeys, corn and berries had to be sacrificed, and the people had to labor extra days in preparation for the big event. Finally, after a year of increasing ceremonial activity, people gathered and saw the high priest climb the stairs of the huge temple to perform a ceremony of sacrifice. Then he raised his hands against the sun and said: "Now sun, disappear!" At the calculated moment the sun indeed disappeared and it was night for awhile. The people trembled in fear. Their priest was really the god's own representative, and for centuries to come they told stories about those priests of power! In fact the science of the elite served to reinforce that same elite group's almost divine political power!

Let's forget this metaphor, because there is no evidence that it really happened that way! We should turn to something that is really happening in our time, like for instance, the call for the conquest of space. For centuries to come people will probably talk about the historic last half of the 20th century, the beginning of the space industry. Critics will be ignored if they talk about "turkeys and work days" which were diverted from the real needs of the common people in the name of progress and for the fame of the powerful.

SERVICE IN TECHNOLOGY

Technology (science, etc.) has as I said, also brought many blessings to the world. Some people make earthen pots for carrying life-giving water, others make music for the delight of us all, others make telephone systems, basic surgical equipment, etc. However, disproportionate attention is paid to technological innovation, at the expense of careful discernment of the less obvious side effects. Exploring those side effects is a great service to our present and future community. We need to understand service as a more integral concept than what we are used to; it is more than only administering aid to the poor of today, we need to define service as an inquiring attitude toward a "healthier environment" for everyone, today and tomorrow. (Ref 2)

I began to understand that aspect of service when our AT project grew in five years from a one-person operation to a team of 15 people. The related problems of focus, administration, personnel and communication grew proportionally. A major difficulty was that some saw the project as a "service" and others saw it as a "business." The first aimed at compassionate sharing with the poor, the second aimed at efficiently providing jobs to generate income. These two, service and business, should not be seen as opposing but rather as complimentary.

Every business which pays appropriate attention to the balanced needs of owner, worker, client and environment becomes in my definition a service institute. Service then is more (not less) than just doing business. It is more than only wanting to earn money or doing what we are trained to do. Service is making ourselves available to others, just like we want others to be available for us. Many constituents indeed are frustrated by feeling that they can "only do service" if they go abroad with MCC or a mission board, instead of seeing that a different focus in attention to the customer at home is probably the most direct service we all can do for the Lord. Not everybody is equipped to do service abroad, just like not everybody is equipped to stay home and be a farmer or teacher.

Service (sharing power as opposed to imposing power) is a characteristic of AT. It is appropriate to do domestic and professional tasks anywhere in the world with that in mind!

PRIORITY LEVELS IN TECHNOLOGY

Technocrats are expected to make "things." Politicians, businesspeople and consumers are supposed to determine what is to be made. But in reality the picture is more complex. Producers convince consumers that they need certain goods and politicians make regulations. Advertising, regulation and need/market assessment is a technology in itself (though not a concrete product), and technocrats not only make products, they also design procedures (ways of doing). In the same way, AT is beyond, (xirij) simply a "useful thing for people in need." AT implies knowing how to make things and also how to do first things first, in the right place and time and with the right people. AT is justice oriented. Quite a variety of disciplines and human experiences can contribute to AT. (see appendix 1)

At an international seminar I asked the participants what they considered their most vital tool. Two African participants said immediately, "our hands," and "our heads." The U.S. participants noted things like a pocket knife, eyeglasses, cars, etc. The first and most versatile tool ever used was human skill. With that skill everything else was made. AT emphasizes the creative potential in people and in the natural environment. It encourages critical thinking as one of humans' most unique skills, and it questions the commercial drift towards standardization and uniformity. Critical thinking should not be separated from another virtue--the visionary dream of a mutually caring society.

I thus acknowledge human skill, accumulated experience and the living environment as very potent but often ignored natural resources. I am now ready to elaborate on the various levels of technology.

Technology interfaces with society at four major levels:

1. Technology and Artifacts (Hardware) -- A well designed fuel saving wood stove can save up to 50 percent fuel, and do a better job of cooking beans and other food. A lid on the pan is an additional useful artifact which keeps heat and aroma inside. A pressure cooker is in fact an improved lid on the pan, and as such an extremely useful artifact. (see Appendix 5 C) for detail on cookstove)

2. Process and Behavior (Software) -- In AT, the way we use our skills is as important as the artifact. Some people cook less efficiently with an improved cookstove than other people do without. Proper arranging, drying and cutting of the firewood, or soaking the beans ahead of time can make an open fire superior to an improved cookstove. Thawing frozen food by getting it out of the freezer ahead of time can save the energy of thawing it in the microwave.

Another example of process technology is found in techniques like acupuncture, acupressure, etc., representing health technology which requires the least of material hardware and the most of human software. I have come to see those gifts and practices to be as sophisticated as any modern medical equipment. This aspect of human quality makes me think of Jesus' multiplication of the bread and fishes, when he first asks: "What do you have?" (Ref 3)

3. Legal and Social Environment -- Often no pure "technological" solution (hardware or software) accounts for the fact that people are too poor to buy good beans and dry firewood. Good beans require at least 50 percent less firewood and dry firewood can make a fire 30 percent more efficient, but many of the poor cannot afford to buy good beans and dry firewood. This sociopolitical environment requires disproportionately more attention of AT workers who find themselves placed for service in situations of extreme poverty and injustice. Also in the United States we see how, for instance, legislation on liability changes the face of society and cost of life and health care. Through the 1970s the number of Caesareans increased by 300 percent, not because mothers were not able to give birth the natural way, but because of legal and commercial policy. (Ref 4)

4. Passive Technology (also "Zero Technology") -- Though of a different character, it needs to be stressed that much useful technology is available free of charge, but is not promoted as useful because no commercial enterprise can make any profit by promoting it. Wood ashes can help combat certain fungi in potatoes, or trees can cool a house. (see chapter 6 "che cotz'ij") No company, however, will make money telling people that they can use their own wood ashes, or have their own tree growing by itself. By the same token, we note that it is not of commercial interest (thus not promoted with commercial power) to have consumers use less of something or to use something more carefully.

Others mention the important three elements of design, AT designers give well balanced attention to "the desired effect, the expected effect, the unexpected effect!" Production of high quality goods as opposed to disposable convenience is also a focus of AT.

Sharing technology, whether it is designing a hand pump, building a house or organizing a health or reconciliation project, brings people together. AT invites people to meet in informal ways; it encourages people's creativity, and is thus an excellent tool for making community.

HISTORY OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY

In the Maya setting where I worked, pots are still made like people made them thousands of years ago. But at the same time, people are adjusting to the reality of aluminum pots, plastic containers and diesel-powered corn mills. Being part of that reality provided me with the oppor- tunity to make the following observations.

Mahatma Gandhi (60 years ago) is seen as one of the most prominent modern thinkers on AT. The term AT is relatively new, since E.T. Schumacher (20 to 30 years ago) brought it to the world's attention; he spoke of intermediate technology. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (Ref 5) was published at the same time in which the "Club of Rome" (Ref 6) and the first major "oil crisis" made the need for a different lifestyle apparent. Many, also in the aftermath of flower power, confused the concept of intermediate technology with the idea of a "simple" lifestyle. Gandhi's understanding of "vow and attitude" is much more than "simple lifestyle;" it involves a completely different understanding of political reality. I am not sure if Schumacher really meant for emphasis on lifestyle to become popular, nor if he really addresses political- economic injustice as a root of poverty.

Schumacher sees "intermediate technology" more as a niche in the market between small and big; many have interpreted that niche as an intermediate step from the awkward poverty of backward people towards active participation in the modern Western scheme of advanced humanity. Justice-related poverty and ecological crisis give urgency to Schumacher's unique call to awareness.

TERMINOLOGY

Before focusing on my understanding of AT as a concept for health, I need to mention some AT related terms.

• "Sustainable development" (confused with renewable) can only be seen in the long term, and it is probably only a thinkable option for the rich, that is to say "those who still have some ecological reserve to experiment creatively with lifestyle." The poor face a more difficult job as they need to switch from nearly subsistence survival in often destroyed ecosystems toward sustainable outlook.

• The terms "renewable" and "recycled" are often misused and misunderstood. (For example, firewood is not renewable once it has burned!) To grow another tree new nutrients, soil nutrients and planting energy are needed, just as for corn or potatoes. The recycled paper on which I write has in its production caused negative side effects to the environment, or used energy which will never be recovered. No recycling is done without production of waste; no energy is renewed without losses! Natural resources are not necessarily a blessing (see chapter "Back to Nature"), and even human skill is often ignored, because it is most difficult to deal with. (See Appendix 4)

• "Holistic development" expresses more of an integral spiritual, physical and community approach, seeking to relate in a positive way to creation. We can not do mission without influencing the technological reality of the community. To the disappointment of some readers I'll not elaborate systematically on the relation between technology and theology because I don't feel qualified to do so, and the scope of this paper is too limited. However I am fully aware that AT cannot work with technology in isolation from religion.

AT is probably the earliest concept of technology. Most likely, since the day of the first clay pots, our technology has become less and less appropriate, as it became less aimed at satisfying direct needs than at promoting economic expansion. A man needed to cut firewood and looked for an appropriate flint stone to be used as an ax. A woman needed to scoop water from the river, so she shaped her pot from clay at the same river shore. As time passed it appeared inappropriate that everybody made his own ax or her own clay pot, so some talented people, who lived close to the flint- stones, started to make axes for others. Markets developed in the very early days of humankind, as an appropriate mechanism to balance surplusses against shortages. Flint stones, earthen pots, salt, gold, lime, peppers and even services (of healing and art) were exchanged. Specialization and commerce are thus not a specific virtue of capitalism! All these goods and services were very directly related to health and well-being. Let us look at a house as a condition for health; in a sense the roof provides the most effective protection against sun and rain, and is thus a basic element in physical health and well-being. The walls (if we would have adequate clothing and blankets) provide for intimacy which is more essential for our mental health. A good floor which can easily be kept clean and dry is also very essential for health.

The book From Saigon to Shalom (Ref 7) has been a key to my current understanding of Shalom as a central and all encompassing Biblical notion of health. A friend who owned a small farm said: "The church only addresses the periphery of my life, not to drink, not to beat, etc., but is not aware that I'm out in the field with the hoe most of my life."

Another friend said: "Shalom has three aspects: physical, spiritual and community!" It is appropriate to note that one Spanish Bible version translated "health" where another translates "salvation."

Whether in our Judeo/Christian tradition, or in the United Nation's Declaration for Human Rights, (Ref 8) the basic right and argument is health, the primary objective is more healing than economic growth! Growth is only a means; it can not be an objective by itself.

Health and healing is the focus of AT engineers, nurses, agricultural workers, educators, lawyers and bankers! It is the standard by which service is measured, whether in the United States, Netherlands or Guatemala.