File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9804, message 163


Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 18:51:23 -0400
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-I: Tecnica


Besides being devastated by a 1972 earthquake, a revolution, and a
guerrilla war, Nicaragua suffers from a dilemma endemic to the developing
world: a shortage of talented technicians. Enter TecNICA, an organization
founded in Berkeley, Calif., in 1983 to match North American volunteer
technicians to the country's needs.

In less than three years, TecNICA has sent more than 200 volunteers to
Nicaragua. All have paid for their own travel, room, and board for a
two-week stay. TecNICA volunteers have contributed more than $2 million
worth of technical assistance, says Michael Urmann, an economist who taught
at the University of Utah for eight years. He founded TecNlCA after
attending a conference on Third World economic development in Nicaragua’s
capital city of Managua. Now he works full-time running the organization.

In the last year, TecNICA has sent 10 delegations of computer experts,
electrical engineers, chemists, and architects to Nicaragua. About 15
percent of volunteers go on their own if they can’t get away from their
jobs during scheduled TecNICA projects. With an average age of 39 and an
average income of S35,000, these people don’t fit the typical image of
North Americans who volunteer to work in the Third World.

"We're talking about people who are already pretty well set in their
careers," says Lou Proyect, a systems analyst working with Goldman Sachs in
New York. He is TecNICA’s East Coast coordinator. "These are people who are
looking for a way to express their political beliefs. Generally, they’re
delighted to find they can make a difference."

Because hard currency is scarce, Nicaragua holds onto computers that have
long been considered outmoded in the United States. Many com-puters were
purchased from North American companies in the 1970s. Proyect spends a good
deal of time looking for technicians with experience on the IBM-34 series
computer from the late 1970s--a model common in Nicaraguan banks and
agencies. "It’s like fishing," he jokes, explaining that in 1985 he took
his "net" to an IBM-34 users’ fair in Louisville, Ky., where he conducted a
seminar on Third World development and the computer. In his audience he
found two of the five IBM-34 technicians TecNICA would send to Nicaragua
later that year.

Volunteers work mainly with development agencies and non-governmental
bodies such as universities. Gary Benenson, an electrical engineer from
Brooklyn, N.Y., spent two weeks in Managua in May 1985. He taught 20
workers at a government agency basic equipment maintenance. "I was able to
explain what a UART does or what op-amp does. I also gave them a bare-bones
view of microprocessors," he says. Later, when another group of TecNICA
volunteers went to the same agency, workers got a refresher course.

In September 1985, TecNICA volunteer Ed Geller taught graduate-level
seminars on fluid dynamics at the National Engineering Univer-sity. He also
advised on the design of a hydroturbine and the design of a power plant
that would use low heat. On the same trip, Dennis Stout worked at the
Ministry of Health on the mundane but essential task of repairing the large
laundry machinery in Managua hospitals.

Other TecNICA volunteers soften the impact of the U.S. trade embargo of
Nicaragua by repairing damaged equip-ment and stretching existing supplies.
"Our expertise keeps the old models working," says Proyect. He adds that it
keeps U.S. technology operating in the country should more peaceful
relations resume.

Though TecNICA acts counter to die U.S. government’s official Central
America policy, it has not broken any law. Nor has it violated the U.S.
economic embargo. The volunteers are not in-volved in commerce, and the aid
they provide is considered humanitarian.

Thus, while disapproving of TecNICA, the U.S. govern-ment doesn’t interfere
with it.
Says Greg Lagana, a State Department spokesman. "All of these projects are
seen by people as support for the (Sandinista] government. But they’re free
citizens. They can do whatever they what."

Nevertheless, TecNICA is sometimes caught in the middle of the quasi-war
between the United States and Nicaragua. John Leek, a TecNICA volunteer
from Boston University, spent January along the Nicaragua-Honduras border
helping to repair a hydroelectric generating station. Since the station had
been damaged by U.S.-backed contras, he was working against U.S. policy.
However, most TecNICA volunteers work in Managua rather than in war zones,
so most face little physical risk.

Urmann says TecNICA helps Nicaraguans see a difference between ordinary
Americans and the policies of the U.S. government. He says, "We're
basically working with our peer group--middle-class professionals. It helps
keep their morale up."

Like the Peace Corps, TecNICA hopes to expand to other developing
countries. And as with Peace Corps volunteers, those who go to Nicaragua
with TecNICA may find that what they receive is as valuable as what they
give. "In a sense TecNICA made me a better technician," says Benenson, who
also teaches electrical engineering at the City University of New York.
"More than half of my students are from other parts of the world, many from
the Caribbean and Latin America. Working in Nicaragua gave me insight into
their problems adjusting to life in another culture. It also taught me
there is something I can do to help other people. Now I’m looking for new
ways.

By Joel Mailman

(Appeared originally in the October 1986 Technology Review, published by MIT)




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