Today's NYT has a great article about a design competition hosted by the Cooper Hewitt Museum of NY, to encourage designers to come up with elegant, inexpensive solutions to make the every day struggle of third world people to have food, water, and shelter, obtainable. And by poor, I mean people who live on less than $2 US per day.
And Boy - did they deliver!! From coolers powered by nothing more than wet sand, to rolling 20 gallon water containers that even children can maneuver, to potable water filtration systems, top designers put down their pens from creating wine labels and courtier, to try and improve the lot for the "other 90%" of the world.
If Bill Gates could put some foundation money behind this effort, the world would almost immediately be a much better place for all.
A really wonderful, noble, and long overdue effort.
