854. 



% Rndncv \V Mu/w/s 



takes "a certain flair of real insight""— is to apply all of our knowledge to brin>^injj 

 such intermediate technology into visible, readily available forms that help people. 

 He is correct, although the cultists tollowin^j him are much less gifted than he in 

 doing what he urged. 



When considering needs in particular I, DCs, simplistic ideas about "small always 

 being beautiful"" tend to break down. Consider a few easy examples. More advanced 

 communication networks help to use scarce professional talent more efficiently, e.g., 

 linking an urban hospital's staff to rural paramedical teams. Modernized transpor 

 tation systems help to distribute food, establish markets for local industries, and 

 perhaps build the social dynamics for creating acceptable "new towns"' that will 

 reduce the migration towards existing urban centers. Satellite technology permits 

 entirely new access to previouslv unobtainable information about natural resources, 

 crop production, and environmental trends." 



Now consider a few examples that are only a lew steps beyond the laboratory. 

 Contemporary research is providing: (a) better materials for many products especially 

 useful in I.DCs (e.g., solar energv applications): (b) new techniques for inexpensively 

 preventing and treating infectious and parasitic diseases (e.g.. meningitis, malaria); 

 and (c) new ways to assemble and sort the information needed for making decisions 

 (e.g., minicomputers)— and these advances, the results ot sophisticated research, 

 provide greater performance at less cost in simplified technology. Such examples 

 could be extended for a long time.''' Can I. DC Ministers of Planning ignore these 

 opportunities? 



Among the other obvious hjnl rea/ilics \on seldom kept in mind is one we have 

 already mentioned: most technology is available at low cost Irom open sources, but it 

 must be sought with a sharp awareness of what is needed. Widely available technt)- 

 logical means can be used to assist almt)st everv l,DC"s high-priority social and 

 economic pr(>grams. The more quantitatively and specifically the goals are stated, the 

 more essential is social and economic analysis about when it is feasible to achieve 

 them through which of the accessible means.'' Yet this outkiok is usually torgotten 

 in the negotiations that wrongly tend to assume that most technology, it accessible at 

 all. is both expensive and t/>f major element ot reaching a social goal. Sometimes we 

 are also told the extreme opposite: that only "basic human needs must be met,"" as if 

 modern technical skills rarelv helped (or usually ruined) the eitorts to attain social 

 goals. 



A second realitv is that the "New International Economic Order"" has been 

 presented as a demand tor redistribution ot the industriali/ed nations" techno- 

 logically-based economic power and wealth. This proposition should not be blinked 

 away. But observers rarely think about the long r.inL;e and substantial stakes 

 associated with the demands of that new economic order. In particular, the recent 

 rhetoric at the UN General Assembly almost ne\er indicated who might gel less of 

 what and when. In the US and other DCs. organized labor and members of 

 parliaments are concerned. Some US leaders ha\e said that, in ettect, there is "no 

 greater threat to the US economv and its domestic job market than the dittusion of 

 US technology abroad." That this viewpoint is liotlv debated does not diminish its 

 political impact. 



Another obvious proposition of realitv is that rwn though the actual problems of 



