Don't give to the poor!!!

Well it is hard to believe and I couldn't swallow  the phrase "Don't give to the poor" when I read it first....But later  after reading the story followed by the phrase, it's quite convincing and should be given a thought by everyone.....well here is the story that I came across.......

A number of years ago a humanitarian organization went to Africa intending to alleviate pain and suffering. The group came upon a village that suffered from an atrocious lack of sanitation services. There was no clean drinking water or sewage disposal. Children played freely in the stream of sewage that ran through the center of the village. Infectious disease claimed the lives of many villagers each month. Clearly, the people of this village needed help.

The humanitarian group, in accordance with their mission, set to rectify the situation. They paid many thousands of dollars to contractors to come to the village and build a modern water purification and waste disposal system. The contractors came, did their work, and within a few weeks the village was given a solution to their problems. The people had clean water, any trace of sewage disappeared, and the rate of disease decreased dramatically.

The humanitarian group commended themselves on a job well done (or so they believed), and left to give charity elsewhere while the villagers lived on happily ever after.

But the story does not end here. For while the humanitarians had given the villagers a great gift, they had not solved their problems.

Several months later, another humanitarian group came upon the village. They had heard about the great gift bestowed by the previous group, and wanted to see the effects of charity first hand. Much to their surprise, they found the village more squalid than ever. Once more children wallowed in sewage. Once more disease plagued the people. As before there was no clean water or sanitation to be found.

But how could this be true? The modern sanitation and water purification systems installed should have lasted for decades. Yet, in only a few months they had fallen into disrepair. The water stations were filthy and misused. A great act of charity had been for nothing!

The humanitarians, puzzled by the situation, sought the chief of the village, and asked him why his people had wasted such a gift. This was his reply.

“How can you blame us? We are simple people who know nothing of modern machinery. The others came and bestowed it upon us, and it was a great relief. But after they left, things began to break down. We do not possess the knowledge to repair these problems, and the result is before you.”

That may be true, said the humanitarians, but what about the water stations? They have clearly been abused. Have you not the common sense to protect your own assets?

At this the chief looked at them cockeyed and replied.

“And what did you expect? These people had been many years without clean water. Then you gave it to them for free in abundance. They took all they could use and more. The people did not work for those water stations. They do not own them, and they could not be persuaded to maintain them.”

The humanitarians were silent. The chief had spoken truth. The great gift alone had not been enough and the reasons could be clearly observed. Perhaps, it is human nature to abuse a gift. The humanitarians returned to their camp and thought long and hard about how they could help the villagers.

The next day the humanitarians returned, determined to rebuild the water and sanitation systems with the following conditions.
The villagers would have to pay for water and sanitation. Not more than they could afford, but there would be no gift giving this time.
A group of villagers would work with the contractors to build the system and would be taught how to repair every aspect of it. These villagers would in turn train others so the system would never fall into disrepair.

With these new conditions in place, the water and sanitation systems were stored. This time the people had respect for the systems because they owned them. This time they were able to repair the system when it broke down. To this day the villagers have plenty of clean water and live free of filth and disease.

Well we should always recall the very important saying whenever we help the poor-

Never give to the poor. Help the poor.

 

The Sixth Sense - An Incredible Technology

This is amazing and incredible.....The digital world interacting with the physical world....They called it the sixth sense....Long back I looked at Microsoft touching interface and was really fascinated at its mutiple touch features.....But this time the TED folks has gone a step ahead and invented this wonderful tool that connects the physical world into the world of data.....This device could recognize three kinds of gestures-multi-touch, free hand and iconic gestures.....Just imagine drawing a circle on your wrist gives you time....Imagine you meeting a person and can get information about him PROJECTED ON HIM within seconds.....Imagine a photo gesture actually captures a picture for you.....Yes this could be done by a wearable device that actually captures the physical world with its camera and then projects information about the object onto a plain surface right infront of us.....It is designed and developed by a MIT Genius Mr. Pranav Mistry.....

The genius talked about his ideas and concepts behind inventing this device-"I started working on the concept of merging the physical world and the digital world.....I think that I'm a very big fan of living in the physical world. I'm good with digital technology, but I start to miss the physical world. I miss riding my bike, talking to friends. Technology now separates us from the physical world more and more. Even social networking sites are taking us away from the physical world. 

At the lab, we like making things that we can touch, we can feel, we can take with us wherever we want to go, that we know how to interact with. The digital world has power because it has dynamic information, but it's important that we stay human instead of being another machine sitting in front of a machine."

He also said that one could use this system for people who have accessibility problems, blind and deaf people.... The camera can act as a third eye for the blind person, and tell them what it sees. It could be an ear for a deaf person.....

However I fear that this system will make us more and more dependent on technology as we become more biased to its information rather than our own rational thinking.....

Sweet Memory!!!

It's been weeks since I posted something on my blog...Well I am pretty much occupied with 
games and movies that I couldn't actually give attention to my blog.....Yeah! I know that 
it's sounding odd that I am occupied with movies and games....well it's recession time 
folks....There is nothing much better that I found doing other than movies and games to pass the time....But today I came across this touching story sent by my friend Anitha....I 
couldn't stop myself from posting it..... 

One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. 

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. 

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments. 

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on. 

Several years later, one of the students was killed in "Kargil" war and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never attended Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless . 

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Sanjay's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said: "Sanjay talked about you
a lot." 

After the funeral, most of Sanjay's former classmates were there. Sanjay's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket "They found this on Sanjay when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it." 

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's classmates had said about him. 

"Thank you so much for doing that," Sanjay's mother said. "As you can see, Sanjay treasured 
it." 

All of Sanjay's former classmates started to gather around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home." 

Prithwiraj's wife said, " Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our wedding album." 

"I have mine too," Rashmi said. "It's in my diary" 

Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Deepali said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists" 

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Sanjay and for all his friends who would never see him again. 

This story tells us how a small inspirational moment turns out to be a long lasting memory...This story reminded me all my teachers.....I would never forget my teachers because they are the ones who taught me morals in my life....They made me knew my highs and lows....I have learned the value of friendship, team work, healthy competition from them.....I have learned to understand people and their feelings.....They taught me to be patient during difficult times....They taught me to think rationally and see the other side of the coin.....They are the most influential people in my life other than my parents and friends....

I dedicate this post to all my teachers who are responsible for what I am today as a person......