Design is in

Today we are covering something that many may feel does not relate directly to design, but design can learn lessons from the small and peaceful country of Costa Rica, a country in Central America, and the first in the world to abolish its standing army.

One person’s intention can change the way thousands of others live. In 1948, after just five weeks of civil war, the leader, Jose Figueres, announced, “'The Regular Army of Costa Rica today gives the key to its military base to the schools ... The Government hereby declares the National Army officially abolished.” As a result, the nation’s resources were transferred into more worthy causes; namely, the improvement of healthcare and education. The country’s military bases became schools. Figueres also banned the Communist Party, gave women the right to vote, granted black immigrants full citizenship, and established a presidential term limit. Figueres nationalized the banks in order to promote economic diversity and eliminate coffee grower's control over the banking system. For decades, the elite coffee growers had dominated Costa Rican society and economy. Figueres also created The Supreme Electoral Tribunal. 

Today Costa Rica has the highest standard of living in Central and South America. There is ‘cradle to the grave’ healthcare for all Costa Ricans, with special services for women, children and seniors. Costa Rica has the second highest literacy rate of 96%, in Latin and South America, and an average life expectancy of more than 75 years. Costa Rica has no enemies or terrorism, and the last elections saw a voter turnout of 90%, a lot more than what most countries can boast of. 

Costa Rica’s neighbours are struggling with civil war, military repression and poverty. Dr. Oscar  Arias Sanchez, who was President of Costa Rica from 1986-1990, and 2006 to present, advocates education and vehemently believes too many countries sacrifice education to fund armies. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his work to establish peace and democracy in the region.

Costa Rica translates as ‘rich coast’, and the nation lives up to its name. It is near the top in the Human Developmental Index, the Environmental Performance Index, the Happy Planet Index, and is also the greenest country in the world. Former President Rodrigo Carazo Odio comments that, "Costa Ricans have cultivated a civilized spirit, a spirit opposed to militarization and violence. Armed with this spirit, the people are capable of seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts and respecting the rights of others." He states that this respect has survived and flourished because "education has fostered such an attitude and because in the absence of [military] weapons with which to impose an idea, the only weapon left is reason."

Why are we covering the country of Costa Rica today, on a site called ‘design is in’? Well, because in some ways the ‘design’ of countries, institutes, states and systems, are of prime importance. Innovation in leadership is the need of the hour. Creativity, change, and innovation is most needed in governance. Design is creating holistic solutions, not short term arrangements that create a new problem in place of the old one. Design is also about having the vision to take a bold step, even if it means doing something no one has done before, trading immediate economic gain, and power domination for more meaningful benefits, for countless future generations. 

Hats off to you Costa Rica, hope there are more courageous enough to go your way.

By Armeen Kapadia

'Amore' ring made from cubic zirconia diamonds

Mining of diamonds has a considerable harmful impact on the land, and the people of the area. DIAZ Fine Jewelry is a company dedicated to producing ‘green’ diamonds, which are made entirely in a lab, with no devastating effects on communities in resource-rich countries. 

Diamonds have a long history. Since their discovery in around the 9th century BC, till the mid eighteenth century, they were found only in alluvial deposits in southern India, the most famous being the Golconda mines of Hyderabad, which produced a steady stream of some of the world’s most famous diamonds. After 1870 diamonds started being mined in Australia, South Africa, the Congo, and Russia, among other countries. 

In the Congo, and countries like Sierra Leone, diamond mining has become dangerous, and controversial, as the social and environmental impact is huge. Mining destroys the vegetation leaving gaping pits, the erosion then runs into rivers and the water supply. The mining companies rarely bother to reforest or cover the mine back, and the local communities remain in a cycle of poverty because of their dangerous occupation. Revolutionary, armed groups have taken over the mining in these areas and major diamond trading organizations continue to do business with these groups. Diamonds from this trade are called blood diamonds, or conflict diamonds. Sierra Leone is a country destroyed from the diamond-fueled civil war, and ruthless diamond mining. 

Diaz Fine Jewelry, based in Hong Kong, had a desire to create an ecologically and ethically correct jewelry brand. Salina Khan Fuchigami, who co-founded the company with her husband Takashi, explains, “There's an undeniable link between the degradation of our global environment and consumer culture. The trouble is that these days, things are so nicely packaged, presented and displayed that we hardly ever question how the raw materials used to produce the goods are extracted and processed. We rarely think of how it all affects the environment and humankind. It's impossible to assess exactly how much devastation one single diamond could have caused before it was cut, polished, set and sold at a high-end retailer. It's hard to imagine what a diamond mine looks like by looking at the "stunning sparklers" that are neatly displayed in shop windows. Somewhere along the way it became irrelevant to question the true cost of the stones.”

Diaz Fine Jewelry creates cubic zirconia diamonds, which are made in a lab, not a mine. They also provide customers with an info-leaflet, and donate proceeds from sales to grassroots organizations that run mine-reclamation projects promoting organic farming and biodiversity in mining towns in Sierra Leone. The pieces of jewelry are beautifully designed, mounted on sterling silver, and look exactly like the real thing. 

As they say on their site, ‘the stones are unassociated with violence, war and geologic devastation.’ At DIAZ, they ‘believe in promoting socially responsible business practices that respect human beings and the environment.’ 

By Armeen Kapadia

The refuse from discarded electronic products, e-waste, end up in landfills or incinerators. In today’s ‘use and throw’ philosophy, the amount of e-waste is constantly increasing to alarming levels. It’s easier to buy a new computer, than upgrade your old one, or so most people think. Alex Lin, at age 13, started a progamme in his community to reduce e-waste by refurbishing discarded computers and providing them to families unable to afford electronic equipment. 

Alex, from Westerly, Rhode Island, USA, formed Westerly Innovations Network (WIN)  in 2002. He explains in the video how improper waste encompasses a lot of things, like burning, burying, and exporting. In the average computer monitor, there is 4 to 8 pounds of lead, there is also mercury, cadmium, and the plastic cases themselves, all causing severe health defects. Earlier, all the residents of Westerly were dumping their e-waste in the landfill. With a few phone calls, and some effort, they set up a receptacle at a certain point, where people could dump their computers, protecting the crops, water and environment. 

The WIN team then meets once in a week in Alex’s basement to refurbish the computers. Alex feels that recycling is much more efficient than buying new pieces. They get donations from corporations and banks, and sometimes have to replace hard drives, RAMs etc. After refurbishing, the computers are usually given to people in Westerly who don’t have computers. They also sent computers to Sri Lanka after the tsunami, where they were used in an education centre. 

Later the WIN team also made a presentation to the State Legislation, and because of their efforts today improper disposal of e-waste in Rhode Island is illegal. You can see Alex’s speech at the Youth Brower Awards, 2007. Today the WIN team works with people in Sri Lanka, Cameroon and Mexico. They effectively created a system that deals with several problems, those of e-waste, environmental damage, and increased access to computers for poorer sections of society. As Alex says, this is a small step in changing the way the country, and even the world deals with waste. 

By Armeen Kapadia

Mahmoud Mujahed at work

One of the main difficulties faced by disabled people is while using public transport. The transportation system and often people too, are not sensitive to the problems faced by them. A disabled Palestinian man, fed up with having to wait for taxis, built his own electric car. 

Mahmoud Mujahed, 64, has had severe knee injuries, and can only walk with the help of crutches. His disability forced him to give up work. Unable to afford taxis, he built his own electric car. It took him two weeks to build the car, which works on a 12 volt battery, and the help of a computer system. It can reach speeds of up to 80 miles an hour, and has 20 horsepower. Mujahed says, "Because I don’t work, I don’t have money to pay for transport. I thought I would make a car with three wheels.” The first car he built was too slow, but a friend, Abdul Sultan, suggested he make the car in this style, and it worked. “This is different to any other car and I don't think anybody has done anything like that before. Firstly we can say it's environmentally friendly because it operates on batteries". 

Necessity is the mother of invention. Faced with difficulties, people are known to do the seemingly impossible, or very difficult, to overcome their problems. The human creative power knows no limits, as Mahmoud Mujahed proves. It probably goes back to the early days of humankind, when people created the first tools to help them in their work. From making the first spade, to building a car, it is this unique ability of humans that separates us from the animal kingdom. Although some animals have highly evolved problem solving and tool-making capabilities, in humans this ability has developed to a very great degree. 

Mahmoud Mujahed hopes the Palestinian government, or an organization, will help take this invention to many others like him, as it can benefit millions of people worldwide.  

By Armeen Kapadia

Education needs experiments. In India, especially, we need something entirely different. Digital StudyHall (DSH) is on an experimental trail. They describe their approach as an education equivalent of Netflix + YouTube + Kazaa.

Live classes by the best grassroots teachers are recorded on video and then stored on computer discs, which are distributed to rural schools. Education experts are working in tandem with computer scientists to explore pedagogic approaches in the rural context. 

Firstly, DSH is focusing on creating a video database of everything. (usually in the local language) Going a step ahead, they have structured the sequencing of these videos to fit into the current state board curriculums so that any school can use it. Some of the best teachers have recorded their discourses. What they have done here is go beyond the flash-ware and slide-ware kind of modules. This approach believes that teachers are still a prime agent in the learning environment. Although the output is aligned to the syllabus, the teachers have re-interpreted the syllabus in terms of interactivity.

Secondly, DSH adopts a decentralized network. Although content is produced and disseminated for local use, it is shared with the other towns and cities. The videos are recorded in the contextual learning environment instead of recording it in schools in cities. The relevance of content is key in creating this database.

Thirdly, the school needs a tv, dvd player and an inverter. They know that children can't learn by just watching videos. They have adopted mediation-based pedagogy. It means that there is a mediator, usually a teacher, between the students and the TV. The mediator pauses the video and engages children in activities, games, even a q&a session.

Lastly, the web2.0 application that they have developed doesn't require physcial infrastructure. The computer discs are transported by the postal system.

Digital StudyHall works best in the Indian context. It is striving to break new ground in schools across India.

By Sanjay Basavaraju

www.beyondgoodintentions.com

Often, a large amount of international aid is available, but yet does not benefit communities that need it the most. Beyond Good Intentions is a movement focusing on discovering more innovative and effective approaches to international aid.

The movement includes a series of ten short films, which cover the travels of Tori Hogan as she travels around the world, investigating how international aid can be made more effective. Tori herself spent several years working in international aid projects worldwide. She realized that sometimes, even initiatives with the best intentions were not creating the difference they ideally should. This is a first of its kind film series, which focuses on positive change in the aid industry. It also asks some questions that haven’t been raised till now, but definitely need to be answered.

You can read about Beyond Good Intentions on their blog Tall Orders. You can join the dialogue where many interesting issues are being discussed such as can international volunteers make a positive difference abroad?

You can share your own story of volunteering or providing aid, and read about others’ experiences as well. The site is also a resource base to learn more about international aid. And most significantly, there are five simple steps to be the change. 

As discussed in the first film, foreign aid workers cannot have the kind of insights that the local workers in the community will. Communities themselves know what they really need, and may need technical assistance, or legal advice, but not an entire transplant of western methodologies. Episode 5, shot in India, discusses how aid is not just about dumping money, but also about seeing it through proper implementation.

Ultimately, international aid is the catalyst for bigger change; change that cannot be ‘imported’ blindly into communities, but change that has to come from within communities. The best way to help people is to empower them to help themselves.

By Armeen Kapadia and Sanjay Basavaraju

British firefighters sporting newly designed suits

Firefighters battle all kinds of circumstances, from extreme fire and flood to rescuing kittens from the drain. Since they are meant to protect civilians during disasters, how can they safeguard their own lives? The only savior is their uniform. The firefighters in Britain can be soon seen sporting a brand new uniform, which is much more efficient than the old one.

Firebuy Limited was established in 2006 to deliver English Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) procurement at a national level. It is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) and after the thorough evaluation of bids submitted by companies world-wide, Bristol Uniforms Ltd was selected as the service provider.

Although the design brief was clear, the design had to have a fine balance in function. These points influenced the design:

Protection (from heat and flame)
Lightweight (for carrying someone)
Supple (to move away from falling debris)
Trust (for the public to accept)

The end result had to find a fine balance between advanced technology and common sense. Two biggest challenges were to make the uniform efficient, and to make the firefighters more easily identifiable by the public. Another challenge was to coordinate the suit with the clothing worn beneath it.

For the first time women firefighters get to wear suits that are custom designed for them. As of now the suits come in 28 different sizes. Many a time, women firefighters were encouraged to discontinue from the service since the smallest of the gloves or footwear were too big and reduced their efficiency at work. Although women in service only account to just more than 3% of the total firefighters in Britain, the fact that a suit has been designed for pregnant firefighters, it is a major step in encouraging women to join the service.

Minority groups are also to benefit from the new design. Extras such as turbans and hijabs have been designed. In an official press release, Fire minister Sadiq Khan said: “The uniform now available shows that cultural beliefs are being recognized, as we seek to increase the representation of ethnic minorities within service.”

The challenge was also to bring in consistency of style. At present, firefighter uniforms vary across Britain. This adds to the confusion. The new design would create a national uniform of red and gray station clothing, and muted gold fire suits.

It is believed that firefighters spend only 10% of their time dealing with emergencies. The other 90% of the time they are gaining public trust. The new suit surely does help when dealing with emergencies, and with time it may also become a national identity that the public would be proud of.

The design, we feel, is the step towards addressing issues such as equality and diversity in work environments.

By Armeen Kapadia and Sanjay Basavaraju