WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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This highly automated assembly line
in Ontario is that the leading edge

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of modern industry. We have the
specialists and the affluence

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to make it possible and practical but for most
countries in the world that are just emerging

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from an agrarian economy,
an industry like this

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would be grotesquely out of place. We
in the rich countries often think that

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our way is best and should be a model
for the poor countries to imitate

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but in the time of heightened social and environmental
awareness, we should all be asking ourselves

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can there be too much technology and
what is appropriate each society?

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[music]

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Ghana, the first African
country to gain independence

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that was back in 1957, at that
time, the world believed that

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big industry and high technology were the solution
to development but over the years as Ghana

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and other emerging nations discovered
this was not the direction to go.

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[music]

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Industrialized or not,

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transportation is the lifeline of
any country but a tropical climate

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is hard on roads and money to import
vehicles from abroad is scarce.

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However, Ghanaian have proved resourceful,

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a huge informal economy
has sprung up around

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the repair and maintenance
of automobiles and trucks.

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This is Suame Magazine,

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one of the biggest unplanned industrial
areas in the world. Ironically,

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here in the open air amidst the seeming chaos
lies the hub of Ghana\'s industrial revolution.

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The 40,000 artisans

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and traders who specialize in
servicing cars and trucks (buy)

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a brisk trade year.

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But the backbone of Ghana\'s economy
is cocoa, the old colonial crop.

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Even after decades of independence,
Ghana\'s economy still rises

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and falls with the price of cocoa beans.

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[sil.]

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Everywhere you go, the markets
are piled high with farm tools.

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The Ghanaian farmer basic technology
is still the cutlass and the hole

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and there\'s a great demand for them.

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Forging agricultural implement,

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it\'s an ancient skill that\'s been known
to local blacksmiths in villages

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for hundreds of years, all that\'s
been added is a drilled press,

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from hand to mechanical tools, one
step up the technological ladder.

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[sil.]

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This trailer manufacture
operation is a far cry

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from the Detroit assembly plan but
the introduction of a welding set

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as basic as it is, is the small
movement toward industrialization.

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Ingenuity and enterprise flourish,
what\'s needed is a technology that fits.

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John Powell. Now any engineer will tell you

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that all his designs and inventions are appropriate
but they\'re appropriate to the setting

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in which the design is undertaken and when
the technology becomes inappropriate,

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it\'s due to the fact that it\'s moved from an environment in which it was
designed and developed to an environment for which it wasn\'t designed

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and developed and it\'s inappropriate in that environment.
So what we mean by appropriate technology is,

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a technology which is appropriate to a
third world situation and will help

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the third world nation to move on from
its traditional level of technology

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towards that advanced level of technology
that all of the world desires to have.

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John Powell was director of Ghana\'s
Technology Consultancy Center

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throughout the 1970s. It became clear
at that time that high tech equipment

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imported from industrialized countries
had limited use in a developing country.

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Technology like milling machines
and lathes at the grassroots level

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was more appropriate. As familiarity
with the tools spread, it would make

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an enormous difference
in many people\'s lives.

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[sil.]

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Forging an industrial revolution for years,

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local blacksmiths have been turning out
nuts and bolts by hand, their customers,

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the vehicle fitters of Suame Magazine,
these seemingly insignificant components

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are the basic materials of an
engineering and manufacturing industry.

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[sil.]

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Every bold is individually hammered

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into its familiar hexagonal shape.

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[sil.]

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It\'s companion nut is also made by hand and
later, both nut and bolt will be threaded

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manually with the tap and die.

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[sil.]

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It\'s a skill to be admired

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but there are limitations, the work is labor
intensive and the product rather crude.

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No two sets of nuts and bolts are
exactly the same. Precision engineering

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could never run on products from this
forge. This is where a need can be met

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with appropriate technology.

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[sil.]

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John Powell. The manufacturer of steel bolts and nuts is
fundamental to the development of an engineering industry.

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Almost everything we can think of that is
manufactured it incorporates some bolts

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and nuts in its construction.

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And when we came to Suame first in 1971, we
talked to those craftsmen who were building

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wooden truck bodies on the
cocoa trucks and mammy wagons

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and they told us that they had two sources of
supply of the steel bolts and nuts they were using.

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One was from overseas but they
regarded these as rather too expensive

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for their purposes. The other was made by a
local blacksmith but they regarded the quality

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as being rather poor. So here was a very good example
of a situation in which an intermediate technology

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could meet the needs of the people and so we
introduced the manufacture of bolts and nuts

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to a much higher quality than could be made
by hand methods and in quite large quantities

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by using capstan lathes or
turret lathes for producing

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the bolts and threading them.
This was the turning point.

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The capstan lathe caught on.
It\'s a basic machine,

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simple to operate and easy to learn how.
In the hands of a traditional blacksmith

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it produces long runs of identical
components and increases both the quality

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and quantity of its output. It also means a
better life for the blacksmith and his family.

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[sil.]

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Today, 40% of Ghana\'s nuts and bolts

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are produced in operations like this one.

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[sil.]

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There are no Cuisinarts in (inaudible).
As with most rural villages

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in developing countries, domestic
life has few labor saving devices.

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In this part of the world,

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infant malnutrition is high.
Traditional foods

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lack some of the proteins that small children need
for healthy growth. So the women of (inaudible)

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have learned to prepare weaning mix, a
high protein cereal made from corn,

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chick peas and peanuts.

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It\'s an ideal transitional food

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from breastmilk and has had an enormous
impact on the survival rate of children

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under the age of five.

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Once again, appropriate technology
came to the rescue. A corn meal

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at the local women\'s co-op has freed the mothers
of (inaudible) from hours of endless work.

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In fact, if it weren\'t for the corn mill,
few women would have either the time

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or energy to make weaning mix. It\'s
a success story on many levels,

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no longer an expensive imported
item, the corn meal is manufactured

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by a local engineering firm. Solomon (inaudible)
Lolo is owner of the SIS Engineering.

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Initially, a lot of people were
looking for these corn mills

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and the corn mills were trying to be
important. So to get it was a problem,

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financially it was a problem. But when we stated
producing the corn mills, people came in right

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from the villages and the rural areas to buy the corn
mills. Now they no longer have to go to (inaudible)

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and wait. So it has rather
increase the output.

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The cost of it is half the (inaudible).

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The corn mill produced by SIS Engineering

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is made with available
materials and available tools.

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An ordinary lathe turns the shaft
of the mill and the shaft itself

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is made from a salvaged truck axle. A developing
country needs no lessons in recycling.

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[sil.]

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If we look

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at the products that we are making now,

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if we don\'t have these small
scale industries coming up here,

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it will mean that all these
machines were have to be imported.

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And because we are producing them here, people
right in the rural areas, in the remoter

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parts of the villages can get access
to these things and they are using it.

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The development of the
light engineering industry

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enables a lot of products
to be manufactured

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and sold in the economy which weren\'t
available previously or were only available

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from outside of the country.
Most of the materials

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used in manufacturing this plant and equipment is in fact
scrap material which is being recycled within the economy.

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Any vehicle is a good
source of scrap material.

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Old engine blocks, crank
cases, gear casings,

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all you need is a smelter and the scraps
can be transformed into tools and machines

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that are useful to people.

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Iron technology is not new to Ghana.

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From the second century onward there was
a flourishing industry all but destroyed

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by British colonialism in the early 1900.
So an iron industry

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had to be reintroduced. The first step was
to bring in a small smelter from England.

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[music]

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Now cast iron parts for
corn mills, food presses

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and other machines the rural industries require
can be made in small foundries like this one.

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When a country can manufacture
its own machine tools,

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it\'s on the road to industrialization.
It can create goods and the tools

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to make those goods.

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Grinding plates for a corner
mill, the molds are prepared

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in a foundry (sound) to hold the shape when
(inaudible). It\'s a technique that used

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worldwide for small scale production.

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Small workshops like this
one with few employees

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were common in England during the industrial
revolution. In fact, this is a familiar scene

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in any country in the early
stages of industrialization.

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[sil.]

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An old Volkswagen crankshaft may
be in its liquid state of course

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is poured into the waiting molds.

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[sil.]

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After the castings are cooled, the
finishing touches are applied.

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[sil.]

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The local manufacture of machines
creates thousands of new jobs.

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It also saves foreign exchange
that would have been spent

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on importing these machines.

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Since much of the food gathering

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and processing in Ghana is done by women,
it\'s essential that appropriate technology

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get into their hands too.

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Palm nuts produce an edible oil.
Extracting the oil used to be hard work

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and inefficient until a palm oil press was
introduced into some of the village co-ops.

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[sil.]

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The boiled nuts are dumped into a crusher
replacing what used to involve hours of pounding.

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[sil.]

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The oil is squeezed out by means of
a hydraulic press, locally made.

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[sil.]

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Everyone gets into the act

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as the residue of the first pressing is
sorted through by hand and the large pieces

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are squashed again using a screw jack. The
new technology has meant that co-op members

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have started making money. In the past
it wouldn\'t have been worth the time

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to even gather the palm nuts.

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[sil.]

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Timber, the number two export
crop after cocoa but much of it

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is not of export the grade. They off
cuts that come from the saw mills

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have in the past been discarded only
to be used for firewood. That is

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until the introduction of the
circular saw bench, locally made.

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[sil.]

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Solomon (inaudible) Lolo.

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See in the past, there are lot of
off cuts (inaudible) saw mills

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and when we introduced
these circular saw bench,

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people can now go and collect
the off cuts, bring them here

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and then instead of axing people
or (inaudible) to use the saw,

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the hand saw to saw which is very
tedious, this machine has replace that.

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So actually it has taken that load

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of the worker. So the worker can
now use time to do other work,

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to (inaudible) the product.

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You make the products, you produce
it faster at a faster rate.

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A circular saw bench

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or table saw, an ordinary tool most
Western carpenters take for granted.

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Who could have imagined the impact
it would have on Ghana\'s economy?

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The first table saws were imported

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but today they\'re locally manufactured
using a lathe, the same kind that produces

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the corn mill.

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If we (can back) about, say

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seven to eight years back,
virtually you have only,

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nobody in this land, except at the
street end where you have four

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imported circular saw benches and people have
to go there, queue for about three, four days

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before they get their woods sawing for them.
But when we started producing the saw benches,

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they no longer go there to queue,
they get their work (inaudible)

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for them and that\'s increased
their production rate.

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Somebody who was making 200
crates, minimum crates per month

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is now producing 1000 crates for month
and it\'s just the old man next door

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to my workshop. When we bought the
circular saw benches, he has increased

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his production by five folds, so this
(inaudible) tell you the rate of production,

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it has changed them.

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Here in Anloga, the informal
woodworking district of Kumasi,

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a handful of carpenters once turned out
basic wooden furniture and fitting,

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today from the off cuts,
a multitude of product

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and a multitude of jobs as well. Some of
them said that the circular saw bench

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is to woodworking in Ghana led the cotton
(inaudible) to the textile industry in England.

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Within a few short years, Anloga
has grown beyond expectation.

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A labyrinth of workshops weaves
its way over a kilometer of land

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in the background from dawn until
dusk the sound of people at work.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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Whether in Anloga or here and it\'s
metallic counterpart, Suame Magazine

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nothing is wasted. Artisans
live by recycling.

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[music]

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John Powell.

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The recycling that has to go
on in the informal sector

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of a third world economy such as we have
here, of course is a matter of necessity.

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If you\'re going to have an engineering
industry here, it has to have

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raw material and by enlarge, the only
available raw material is the scrap

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which is left behind from imported products
that have reached the end of their useful life.

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Maybe the situation is becoming one
of necessity in the first world now

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as well because we are all told that the
earth\'s resources in terms of materials

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and energy are finite and it
eventually they can be exhausted

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and if we\'re not going to find
fresh iron ore in the ground

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then we\'re going to have to recycle the iron
products that previous generations have use

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just in the way that these artisans
of Suame Magazine recycling

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the vehicles that their fathers were
driving on the roads, maybe 20 years ago.

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Suame Magazine and its counterparts

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in the developing world like the sophistication
of what we associate with technology,

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it\'s clutter and noisy
but there\'s an ingenuity

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and resourcefulness there that used to be
common in North America before things grew

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beyond the human scale.

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[music]