It's sounds like a fun idea, but is it really a breakthrough? It seems to me if pumping the water was so important at one location, people would find the manpower to pump. How does adding child labor into the equation make it so much better? Sure, they can save themselves some work, but surely they could have found other ways to pump, for example simply adults handling the pump? (Animals have also been used, for example).
Well here's an idea for the third world. It's absolutely outrageous, politically incorrect, and I'm not sure it will work. But it just might...
One of the problems with aid to the third world is that a large proportion of the funds end up in the wrong pockets due to bribes, "taxes", etc. Another problem is that once a school or windmill has been set up it needs constant repair and maintenance or it will quickly break. And very often this is exactly what happens.
Now we've all played Sim city. You buy powerstations, police stations, and other essentials and spend money keeping everything in working order. If you do it right your sims thrive.
What if you take the Sim city concept and transfer it to third world countries. You would have a map in your browser (google maps maybe?) and can zoom in and see the villages that are in the program. There will then be utilities that you can buy for the inhabitants of the village you have chosen such as windmills, water refineries, pumps, schools, etc. When you for instance pick a windmill for a village it has a price that corresponds to the real life price.You can then put money on it and it will be added to the pool of money dedicated to buying the windmill. When the full amount has been donated the windmill gets built. You now have a windmill in a third world country that has been paid partly by your money. You can then see the villagers thrive, and maybe you will want to build them a school next. And of course you will be disappointed if your windmill breaks so you will probably be inclined to pay for the repairs of it.
And of course you will know exactly where your money went.
I have no idea whether it will work, and there are probably all sorts of things I haven't thought of. But if it does work I think it would be really cool. So please steal this idea if you are so inclined.
Interesting; I've often wondered what running a business would be like if variables were presented in a, say, World of Warcraft II display type software with live feed of changes in variables ...
