Are You an Educated Consumer?
Demanding better products is our consumer right and job!
It amazes me how we have become accustomed to replacing that which is broken and non-operational with little thought. We fail to question whether it could have lasted longer had it been properly designed, if we had learned to use it in a certain way, or even learned to pick a better product. As long as it served the purpose for which we bought it, as long as we have the disposable cash to purchase the warranty plan or a replacement, we don't feel the need for further analysis. With our education and the amount of knowledge in this world of information and technology, it's surprising how we've come to be so passive about our own lives and the things in it.
“Where does this come from? What material is this? How long will this last?” are no longer questions that we ask ourselves when we pick an item from supermarket shelves and online stores, even when choosing more important products that may affect not just our health but also our physical safety. We have become dependent on the advertiser, the manufacturer, the “experts”, the government and a number of others to dictate and "guide" us to what we should consume.
A non-educated owner and consumer coupled with a lack of involvement makes for a deadly combination. Case in point... an owner living abroad buys a plot of land in his home town. This owner saves every penny he has to pay a construction expert to purchase building materials and build him a nice house. His primary concern is being charged for material that is not being used in his house and going over budget. That’s understandable. Fast forward to January 12, 2010…This owner's beautiful house, with the dome ceiling and roof skylight is now a pile of flattened rubble where only the roofs, ceilings and slabs are recognizable.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Rigaud
The devastation that happened in Haiti on that unfortunate day was not simply due to the cheer force of nature and magnitude of the 7.0 earthquake. Uninformed, uninvolved owners along with unscrupulous and incapable contractors are equally at fault. With unsupervised and unregulated construction practices and rampant corruption, building a house in Haiti is an easy process, but it is only now that the people of Haiti are finding out at what cost the apparent ease has been purchased.
Growing up in Haiti, I saw concrete batches and masonry blocks gradually go from a deep gray shade to a cream-ish color. When I went in January to help with the building assessment effort, it was surprising how even this cream-ish color had changed to sandy white.
At 8 years old, I never understood why the leftover blocks in our backyard were so heavy while the ones at my friend's house a block away could easily be picked up to build our makeshift store stands and puppy shelters. Ten years, thousands of deaths, and a degree in civil engineering later, I now know why. While houses on our old street sustained little to no damage, it is a different story for the surrounding neighborhood streets.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Rigaud
I spent five days in Haiti, primarily in the capital (Port-au-Prince) assessing various government and United Nations affiliated buildings with nine other engineers volunteering with the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) and the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG). Our mission was to identify building conditions for possible material retrieval, occupancy and continuation of operations such as medical and food distribution. Using the ATC-20 Rapid Assessment techniques, we visited 115 structures (homes, apartment and office buildings, warehouses etc…). Over that week, the reports from our teammates were the same each night when debriefing.
The difference between standing buildings and those collapsed (and the reason why they did) was unmistakable. Columns with non-existent steel bar reinforcement, poorly mixed concrete blocks that weigh less than half of their U.S. counterparts, and unidentifiable mortar between blocks, were the primary reasons for the death toll and infrastructure loss in Haiti. While I am happy that my childhood house and neighborhood are still standing, the same cannot be said for that of my old friend where only a few houses remain.
Did our neighbors care more about their life investment? Is that the reason why my uncle, with no construction experience, learned how to field test concrete blocks that he received and made sure to be an involved owner during construction? I don’t think that’s the case, but I am convinced that this is the reason why the house still stands. You may be reading this and thinking that this is a drastic or far fetch comparison but truth is, we tend to find complacence easily and don’t draw parallels until a disaster strikes. How long can we afford to rely entirely on government agencies to tell us what is safe? Will we continue to rely on the building expert to give us lasting, efficient and sustainable homes?
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Rigaud
Doing our own research, learning about what we can afford, the best we can afford and making the best possible decisions, are essential steps to a sustainable future. Industries rely on our ignorance and our fears of venturing into unknown territories to push us to buy products, buy warranties, buy the new “generation” etc… The minute that we start to demand more, is the minute that we will start to move towards a more sustainable world. I am hopeful that the people of Haiti will now on embrace this way of thinking and so should us all.
Will you be an educated and involved consumer?
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