TechLahore

Family belongings are put out on the street after a home was foreclosed in Waco, Texas. Image courtesy: SF Sentinel.

This is a bit off the usual technology topics, but interesting nonetheless. As the economy continues to shrink in the US, jobs continue to be lost and homes continue to be foreclosed. Some people are forced into it and others are proactively taking the opportunity to rethink their lives, their needs and wants. One such story was posted on CNN today. Leah and Ed Wright, after many years in go-go L.A. have decided to sell their house, move into a 300 sq ft trailer and head to a rural farm. Ed recently lost his job, you see, and they figured there was no way he was going to find another one any time soon. Employed or not, it still costs an arm and a leg just to subsist in L.A.

On the Oregon farm, on the other hand, they find they can provide for most of their needs without much money. They are spending more time with each other, becoming closer as a family, and are peering into the bejewelled night sky, far, far away from the city lights.

This is not a unique story or an outlier by any means. Couples like the Wrights may be making intelligent decisions to cut down their expenses before the reposession squad throws them out of their house, but others are forced to ‘shift’ with deputies occupying the front yard. The consumerism that has taken deep hold of the American (and increasingly, the global) mindset, needs to be re-thought, perhaps. Isn’t that really what’s at the heart of this ecnomic crisis? Spending more than you have, leveraging everything and ending up a nation of defaulters?

From Beverly Hills style to Trailer life. Image courtesy CNN.com.

Much as the Wrights have re-thought their lifestyle, thoughts are running through my head too… Technology has made it easier for all of us to feel as ‘connected’ and well informed regardless of whether we are in a village or a huge metropolitan centre. Is the city, with it’s consumer driven, go-go life, really the way to go, then? In Pakistan, we are dealing with especially large urban centers, with Karachi exceeding 12 million people, and Lahore probably in the 8 million range. Is it not time we developed a sense of adventure, took a wind turbine, some solar panels and mobile phones and built an adobe hut 50, 100 or 200 miles away from the city? Water from the earth, food grown on an acre or so, sufficient for a small family, renewable power, thick adobe walls to keep the heat out and the occasional visit to the city for whatever else is needed. Sounds like the lifestyle of a rural farmer, but today, couldn’t it as easily be the lifestyle of a millionaire Web 2.0 entrepreneur?

If we took the plunge, what would life be like? Would being away from the loud, crowded city unclutter our minds and actually make us more productive? Would our cell phones, 3G modems, WiMAX and WLL devices make rural areas more habitable for us techies? Would spreading the ‘intellectual wealth’ – getting bright, educated, motivated people to move away from the few urban centres and fan out  across the rural parts of the country – change things for the better?

Something to think about…

Here is the CNN story: From Beverly Hills to shoveling manure on a farm

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