Mastering the Machine Revisited Poverty, Aid and Technology

About this book

This volume is about the connection between poverty, aid and technology. It is about a search that has been going on, officially in the developing world for over 40 years and less officially in most countries since the beginning of time. It is a search driven today by more hard core poverty than has ever been known and by a realization that the technologies applied to the problem have severe limitations. We have sent people safely to the moon but we cannot ensure that people will live safely on Earth - safe from war, disease and the crushing poverty that stifles ambition, hope and enterprise. The book is about development that gives meaning to people's lives, that is relevant to their resources and needs and to the hopes they have for their countries and their children. It is about how "appropriate technology" fits into the larger picture of aid and development and what it has accomplished in the fight against poverty. The book is about possibilities and limitations. It is about failure as well as success, arguing that too many aid failures have been ignored or hidden, condemning poor people to suffer the re-invention of too many wheels that never worked in the first place.

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