Not a Movie Critique
The Island caught my attention when it first came out in theaters, but I am not avid movie-goer, thus I never made an effort to see it. However, with oodles of time to kill while on vacation, my brother and I watched the movie on Pay-per-view yesterday. I love action movies, so the fast paced, choppy cinematography captured my attention to the extent that I wouldn’t get up to go to the bathroom until my brother used the TiVo’s pause which I didn’t know that we had.
The Island, directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanssen, was much more than an action movie after I thought about some of the prominent quotes. It explored the ugliest and most beautiful aspects of humanity: Greed and Curiosity. (You thought that I would say Love, didn’t you?)
Greed manifested itself in the corporation which bred human clones in order to reap a huge profit and in the upper class who bought the human beings as their personal organ donors. While greed fueled the exploitation of these unique human beings, it also created, inadvertently, an amazing leap in the understanding of human behavior. When one of the scientists in the movie first discovers the development in McGregor’s character’s brain scans, he stutters for a moment and finally spits out, “It’s beautiful.” They recognize the complication as the development of human curiosity, which in the end destroys the entire operation and sets the truth free.
However, this post is not really about a discussion about the qualities of the movie. The Island and its exploration of the beauty of human curiosity served as my creative muse for an inspirational story of a young man in Africa. His name is William Kamkwamba and he lives in Malawi. This amazing 19 year old built a wind turbine (windmill) for his home and village using only a book on electricity, a 9th grade education, materials found dumped around the area, and his human curiosity. He can power electricity in his house and provide the village with electricity to charge various items.
I found the story of William Kamkwamba from the blog Heliotropic (a great blog about renewable electricity which I will most likely blog about in a different post as I feel it is a very important area of research and implementation). Carl Lenox, the creator of Heliotropic, wrote about the usefulness of Kamkwamba’s windmill.
“It is truly appropriate technology; if (when) the windmill breaks, he will readily be able to fix it, because he built it himself and the parts are readily available in his community. No need to parachute in expensive parts or specialists from Europe, the US, or even the capital city. . . It's the very definition of appropriate technology.”
I love the point which Lenox makes. Kamkwamba is not dependent on the major corporations and nations which exploit the people of smaller countries. (Notice a trend?) I hope that Kamkwamba continues on this same vein in his future exploits.
Elissa Baxter of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article spreading the news of Kamkwamba’s achievement. (I found the link to the article on Kamkwamba’s blog which he has had for about a month. Check him out here.) In it, Baxter speaks about the new generation which Kamkwamba is a part of:
“A fellow African blogger and new friend of Kamkwamba, Soyapi Mumba, described his first impression of Kamkwamba: ‘What I like about William is that he didn't join the multitude of people just blaming government or policy makers for his lack of education. Neither did he point fingers at statutory corporations for the lack of electricity in his home. He didn't just sit down and blame his parents for all this, either.’. . . Andrew Heavens, a journalist based in Khartoum, Sudan, says Kamkwamba belongs to the ‘cheetah’ generation of Africans who are not going to wait for government and aid organisations to do things for them.”
William Kamkwamba inspires me. Not to build a windmill outside of my house, but he inspires me to expand my curiosity and to care about the world around me. I already am looking into possible recycling programs to begin implementing at my university and I am currently learning the language Farsi and will start Japanese in the fall.
Whether my ambitions are inspirational or not, I encourage you to begin to expand your own curiosity with and care for the world around you. I want to be an American part of this new “cheetah” generation. Care to join?
The Island, directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanssen, was much more than an action movie after I thought about some of the prominent quotes. It explored the ugliest and most beautiful aspects of humanity: Greed and Curiosity. (You thought that I would say Love, didn’t you?)
Greed manifested itself in the corporation which bred human clones in order to reap a huge profit and in the upper class who bought the human beings as their personal organ donors. While greed fueled the exploitation of these unique human beings, it also created, inadvertently, an amazing leap in the understanding of human behavior. When one of the scientists in the movie first discovers the development in McGregor’s character’s brain scans, he stutters for a moment and finally spits out, “It’s beautiful.” They recognize the complication as the development of human curiosity, which in the end destroys the entire operation and sets the truth free.
However, this post is not really about a discussion about the qualities of the movie. The Island and its exploration of the beauty of human curiosity served as my creative muse for an inspirational story of a young man in Africa. His name is William Kamkwamba and he lives in Malawi. This amazing 19 year old built a wind turbine (windmill) for his home and village using only a book on electricity, a 9th grade education, materials found dumped around the area, and his human curiosity. He can power electricity in his house and provide the village with electricity to charge various items.
I found the story of William Kamkwamba from the blog Heliotropic (a great blog about renewable electricity which I will most likely blog about in a different post as I feel it is a very important area of research and implementation). Carl Lenox, the creator of Heliotropic, wrote about the usefulness of Kamkwamba’s windmill.
“It is truly appropriate technology; if (when) the windmill breaks, he will readily be able to fix it, because he built it himself and the parts are readily available in his community. No need to parachute in expensive parts or specialists from Europe, the US, or even the capital city. . . It's the very definition of appropriate technology.”
I love the point which Lenox makes. Kamkwamba is not dependent on the major corporations and nations which exploit the people of smaller countries. (Notice a trend?) I hope that Kamkwamba continues on this same vein in his future exploits.
Elissa Baxter of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article spreading the news of Kamkwamba’s achievement. (I found the link to the article on Kamkwamba’s blog which he has had for about a month. Check him out here.) In it, Baxter speaks about the new generation which Kamkwamba is a part of:
“A fellow African blogger and new friend of Kamkwamba, Soyapi Mumba, described his first impression of Kamkwamba: ‘What I like about William is that he didn't join the multitude of people just blaming government or policy makers for his lack of education. Neither did he point fingers at statutory corporations for the lack of electricity in his home. He didn't just sit down and blame his parents for all this, either.’. . . Andrew Heavens, a journalist based in Khartoum, Sudan, says Kamkwamba belongs to the ‘cheetah’ generation of Africans who are not going to wait for government and aid organisations to do things for them.”
William Kamkwamba inspires me. Not to build a windmill outside of my house, but he inspires me to expand my curiosity and to care about the world around me. I already am looking into possible recycling programs to begin implementing at my university and I am currently learning the language Farsi and will start Japanese in the fall.
Whether my ambitions are inspirational or not, I encourage you to begin to expand your own curiosity with and care for the world around you. I want to be an American part of this new “cheetah” generation. Care to join?
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Leave a comment...
posted by bellevoce | 4:10 PM
7 Comments:
That is impresive and awesome. Shoot, just from what little I know of electrical stuff, that guy must be crazy-genius. I hope he's able to get his hands on some more books, because it would be a waste for him to not keep teaching himself (and applying his knowledge).
Steven,
Check out his blog. It has SO much more details about his progress. His story is amazing and I think that the word should be spread about him across the globe!
* many more (not much more)
Just wanted to point out that William Kamkwamba is Malawian and he lives in Malawi.
He only went to Arusha, Tanzania to attend the TED Global Conference.
Like bellevoce said above, his blog has lots of details about him.
Soyapi,
I am SOOOO utterly sorry that I got that incorrect! I am going to change it in my post right now.
Also, I am honored that you visited my blog. Thank you.
I love the imagery of the Cheetah Generation: fast, powerful, and beautiful.
Elisabeth,
1. I watched the Island the other day. Its great, it makes me think. I feel like too few movies do that. In addition I think it poses many questions for the future. Like for example if human clones (for the sake of organ donors) becomes a reality will it be possible for someone to take out their creativity (souls, etc), would they still remain human? I hope humans are never cloned, people are supposed to live and then die. But away its a good movie and very thought provoking.
2. This story from Africa IS inspiring. That is so cool, it makes me feel like the possibilites are endless in terms of helping people rise up out of poverity. I too want to be part of the Cheetah generation.
-Mike
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