Commonwealth Journal; Solar Power, the Commonwealth's Hispanic Community

Hello everyone this is Bill mock the. Welcome to the award winning Commonwealth Journal a weekly magazine a feature a news and information brought to you as a public service. All the University of Massachusetts at Boston on WM be on today's program need fill callable international program coordinator interests old Somerville Massachusetts will be discussing solar power in the Persian Gulf was an incident which of course brings it to the public's awareness. But basically the individuals who have been pro solar all along are still pro solar and that movement has has has really continued also Romona border haze for the Latino community development and Public Policy Program Latinos are undeniably a very important source of labor. If any plans are to be made as to how are we going to be blam failing again to make

institutions heard over. We are going to miss is Charlie tapping to Latinos as an important source of labor. You'll hear that today on this program of Commonwealth Journal. On this edition of Commonwealth journal it's a pleasure to welcome a gentleman who is the international program coordinator of interest all Phil kobold from Somerville Massachusetts and we're going to talk about solar power. First of all I've got to ask you did you get here by a solar

powered vehicle or not. Well no I got here by my bicycle which is a run off the power that I generate from my own legs which of course is it ultimately comes from the sun. So therefore you still are energy efficient. We're not talking about something here is really funny because of the fact we're talking about serious business tell me a little bit of the background if you will fill about enters all in how you guys get started. Well in us all is a nonprofit based in Somerville which basically exists to make this technology solar electricity available to rural residents of developing countries in Latin America. And we started it about seven years ago. And just recognizing that there is a tremendous need in these countries for electricity and this isn't something that that we've decided something that they themselves have recognized and. This is an opportunity for people in rural areas who don't who don't have access to electricity whatsoever besides batteries to get a little bit of

power. And in a way that's ecologically benign. Now obviously they did not roll out of bed one morning and say I'm going to start on this project how did you get started on it. Well actually I should say that the director of enter Saul and the founder rich Hansen really got me involved in it. He didn't either roll out of bed either to do it but he was an engineer at Westinghouse. And so he had an interest in energy and yet an interest in Latin America and he wanted to see whether renewable energies could play a role in the energy mix. Of the world really concentrated on Latin America because it also has an interest and went down to the Dominican Republic carried a small module under his arm through the airport and set it up in a village there as a demonstration system and it wasn't long before people got a chance to see that and say wow you know this is makes a little bit of electricity available

and it's something that it was very attractive to people and so that since then we've been more or less responding to the ideas and the inputs of local Dominik ins and now recently other countries in Central America and Latin America. Does solar energy take on a life of its own and perhaps almost become reborn every time we have one of these outbreaks where the oil supplies are cut off. They obviously the last Persian Gulf mess and so what do you guys sort of peak for a moment then everybody's or returns to normal again and they say gee that was a heck of a good idea we got to do something about that sometime. Well certainly a lot of people have. I reacted very strongly to the Gulf War and recognizing that it really is to a large extent a war over oil. And so there is kind of a renewed interest but I wouldn't say that that really translate into a whole

lot of people actually going out and and installing solar electric systems although that I have heard of people who are who have done that sense or at least taken a very strong interest since then on the whole I would say that it keeps a pretty even keel and that the Persian Gulf was an incident which of course brings it to the public's awareness. But basically the individuals who have been pro solar all along are still process. And that movement has has really continued so I don't see it as a really large effect but. Certainly important 1950 for Ford Motor Company announced that they were going to build battery powered cars to cut back on gasoline they were going to be available in the next 10 years. Yeah you know I'm not sure where you went to school but I count almost 40 years ago we were waiting for a battery powered cars and we're

still sort of waiting for a battery powered cars. Yeah that's something that it's unfortunate. I don't know as you say unfortunate but there was a hype about solar electricity earlier on. And the unfortunate part of that is that since that didn't live up to people's great hopes it. Some people have have taken on that attitude and become somewhat disillusioned but I have to say that even though it's been more than 10 years. My guest today and Phil Cavell who's the international program coordinator ice and ice title. So a lot of energy there. We had to think of something of it. It's not really we're talking about solar power. So when you take a look at it you talked about the Dominican Republic you talk about Latin America and so forth. Obviously we're talking about poorer nations being involved in this process right. Yet is that counterbalanced by a very high reliance on cost factors to install programs like this major I mean is there not a

contradiction here somewhere along the line. It was a contradiction to me I couldn't understand when I first heard about this project when it was still about a year on the ground. And you know how it is that a poor country like the Dominican Republic or Guatemala Bally's can afford to purchase technology which for the most part in the United States we don't use because of the cost. And. What I didn't realize at that time was that we're not really comparing the price to the utility type of power which which we get here because it's basically everyone even in the most almost the most remote parts of the nation excepting areas of certain areas of Vermont or whatnot that still don't have access to the power it costs them about $10000 a mile or more to get those lines there. And so here in the Dominican Republic 70 percent of the rule areas and in other areas of Latin America it's higher do not have any

access to to those lines and it would cost millions of dollars really billions to to just extend the lines and that says nothing about burning the oil or the coal or or damming up the rivers in order to provide the power and that of course comes later. Well indeed we do compared to is kerosene because that's what the people are using you know disposable batteries. And some people I'd say about 5 percent of the population carries a an automobile battery on a mule or some other public transportation up to 10 miles into the nearest town that bettery charge. And then they bring it back to watch a little bit of television. And these people are going a long way and do a lot of trouble and a lot of expense to get a very small amount of power. And clearly this is an area where. Where it's economical right now. One of the things that has intrigued me to get out about it. You mentioned Vermont I used to be in Vermont work at a station I know where solar power has worked very well because of the wide expanse of

opening land up on the high mountains and so forth and exposure to the sun unable to generate that power and so with that picture for me if you will that I am your friendly airy homeowner and I'm sitting there and I've got solar panels up there in my in my attic and I'm sort of heating water and doing all these other wonderful things. How reliable is it given the climatic changes the obscure ends of the sun and the relative bad weather we go through here in New England and so forth bring it back to local terms. Yeah in local terms certainly we have less sun then than there is in the Caribbean for example and there is in in Arizona the Southwest United States. And that's a disadvantage clearly. And there's not much a way around it other than Still the technology works and it costs more per unit of energy because of these these things that you mention. But if people make it a priority for example here in New England we get most of our power from either nuclear war

or oil coal. A great portion of it is nuclear and that is to some people that's unacceptable. And there are people who would spend $10000 to remodel their kitchen for example and what's the economic payback of that. You know it's a priority. And so at this point in in this area there it is economical over the very long term. But most people don't and don't look at the long term. In other words there are no ties your house over 30 years but something is going to benefit them. Exactly the blinders maybe three or four years. Yeah. Do you see a marriage here between wind power and solar power in these regions where we have these climactic problems and so for those are some accommodation in the technology that's there in the crossover use of the two forms of natural power that we could utilize. You know there are hybrid systems and it's been done. I I don't really see it as a great mix any more than

solar and and nuclear So I say call it basically two different ways to produce power. Hundred years from now in the brief time that we have remaining You and I sitting here doing this interview. Powered with solar generators for the transmitters and equipment and so forth. It's possible certainly that the price is coming down. New technologies are on the horizon really. Solar electricity is in a state of flux. They're still making progress and people are laboratories are still working on it and that's having an effect and it's having an effect in terms of the commercial price that you have to pay to to get it. So and then as more of these events like the Gulf War happen and shortages occur or prices go up I don't think it'll be long before prices do converge and and we'll see a very natural process of very

natural. Conversion in the time that is remaining If someone would like to have some more information would like to contact you would like to find out more about solar energy. How may they do so. Well they can give me a call. Good and we are at area code 6 1 7 6 2 8 3 5 5 0 and its center cell Associates a nonprofit organization based in Somerville. Very good now they can call you on the cellular phone or regular phone you'll still answer the call. It doesn't matter in fact there's an answering machine there so 24 hours a day they get some information. It's great a really fascinating enjoyed talking to you and wish you well with all the events upcoming in the things that are going on and maybe your power can come back and tell us a couple of new things. Six or eight months down the road let us know what's happening. All right well thank you Bill thank you for inviting me hey welcome it was great to have you on the show and we enjoyed it. OK. My guest today has been the international program coordinator of enters all Philco bell from Somerville Massachusetts we've had the pleasure of talking about the advances the changes and the implementations of solar power on today's Commonwealth

Journal. On this edition of Commonwealth journal it's a pleasure to welcome aboard has the guest on Institute for Latino community development and public policy here at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and I hope first of all I did your name correctly you're pretty close to a high school Spanish little bit rusty in the old days. Welcome. Thank you very much for just giving me the chance to address and talk about some of the issues that are affecting the Latino community today and that I will continue affecting the Latino community. And I believe the next 10 years. They just don't you see dude was fun. It was found there.

In December of nineteen eighty nine. Came as part of the efforts of a group of Latino activists and scholars and professors in the area concerned with their with the general welfare and situation of the Latino community in the state. You see dude is name after an important activities which was also a professor at the College of planning community service said UMass Boston Modise Augusten Who was he was central the family a great number of Latino organizations and Latino organizations in the area of Jamaica Plain Roxbury and so forth. How long was the development of the institute in process how long it gave he was known it was brewing in the brain of a number of people for quite some time a number of things I believe triggered the sort of the final push to concretize that they instituted one

that the commission and they spent the commission the legislative commission Hispanic affairs which had been quite active in. Doing a number of projects and in analyzing the situation of Latinos for a number of years was basically the salt. But I asked that part of the process that the commissioner left in place a number of very important stepping stones like for example it was never the case that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health would collect health statistics with racial ethnic categories. I got to stop you there. Why. It was just the way it was done. Pretty sad excuse when I think about it just the way it was just the way it was but he was so we never knew how many Latinos were born in this day and how many will die or what. Why were they dying and so forth so it for the first time in

1985. They are and they can racial identify not only for Latinos but a whole range of other groups in the population. Their numbers have started to come out and will be going to see that it's paying off because we now have the capability to assess. Sure much better was happening to you know any you know number of health issues. That was an important issue also he left a very good relationship between a number of Latino leaders and some members of the legislature. And further down the line the election of Nelson was sent to the legislature. I think also it was an important stepping stone because he gave us a very good friend into the legislative arena certainly a strong voice when his strong voice who is heard and listened to yes so also I think that the issue of Latinos was becoming a ripe issue so to speak in the state for a number of reasons. First we had the fastest growing group in the population not only messages about in the state. I mean in the nation yes we are the youngest group

and we are the poorest. So the presence of Latinos was becomingly. Well it was becoming increasingly more and more more more sort of palpable to the leaders of this state and to its legislature in some towns 19 or so percent up to 50 percent of the population. However there are no elected officials which are Latino or of Latino descent. Let's take the case of Lawrence or in the case of Lowell what the community is substantially smaller but that he distributions at least between a good 20 percent of the population of the city and if you go down the line the Holyoke is another case. Leni is another case as a matter of fact only 10 percent of the Latino population is concentrated the city of Boston. Interesting and I would imagine many of our listeners would be surprised. So Also most of the Latino population is concentrated in other enclaves

including Worcester Springfield Holyoke Lawrence Lowell Chelsea which although he's part of Boston I mean really or administratively at least sort of separate entities so to speak. So there are Fall River and you're beginning to see Latinos increasingly in towns which you never thought you would see Latino communities growing like Hunt and Lexington. Concord. So the presence of Latinos hese it's important in those areas. Ramon what what part do you see the institute playing is this population base continues to expand and infiltrate throughout the state I mean when I take a look at it and I and I think of the Latino population I see contrary to what a lot of other people say highly industrialized highly dedicated people. We've always said we must have loyal Americans I think they're probably among the most loyal

so-called Americans that we have obviously as this base continues to to increase and expand and be a part of Vital Signs of our life. How does the institute play such a role. We basically want to first. Serve a number of audiences good meaning basically that we do want to keep inform policymakers about the issues that are really affecting the Latino community so there could be at least some space in there to make informed decisions especially during the time in age in which informed decisions are translating into the existence or nonexistence or of particular programs which directly impinge upon the long term health and welfare of a Latino community or of all communities in general. Because nowadays not only that you know issues that are being said of the beta but also all the issues having to the welfare. So I think that's one one all the ins we want to really address. We also have an academic audience that has to deal mostly with

with the with the role that they see to it has empathy using material which is suited for academic discussion and debate and that is very important because the issues of Latino Affairs have made it into the into the economic area. They will increasingly remain in there for quite some time. And third we have we want to have sort of speak to more of you which popular audience. More community a lot of us have mainly I get m e s have been formed. Together with with our community development experiences and have Inform Wess activists before they were academics and so forth. So it is very important to keep in touch with the vase and we as much as we try and try to balance that sort of that makes between any of them make policy

makers and or at least influencing policy makers and keeping in touch with the community. We're not a service delivery agency but that doesn't mean that we need to keep in close contact with those that use these that do community service delivery which is what represents most of the sort of speaking for structure from from speaking from the Latino community. When you take a look at it. My guest today is Roman borders of the Gaston Institute for Latino community development and public policy. As you look into the future because we all I think are getting close to this millennium of the year 2000 How do you see the involvement only the Institute but the Latino community into the growth and development of Massachusetts and these pockets of population that are continuing to expand the contributions that they will make to the area. Latinos are on the NAB Lee a very important source of of labor. If any plans are to be made as to how are

we going to revamp the failing economy institutions or we are going to unnecessarily tap into Latinos as an important source of labor rights as they exist today and as Latinos and as we exist today. We do not have the education almight neither We do have the opportunities so much that we can really put to see be viable such participation and I think that industry is aware of then that the state is aware of that and that we are aware of that. So I believe that role of the U.S. to role of a number of organizations in the future will be to come up with the with the guidelines and. And. And the steps that would allow us to rethink the foundations of war economic development easy to sions meaning basically how we are going to how are we going to relate to

each other. Because he seems to be that as we were relating before was not working. In the moments that we have remaining we do from time to time get requests for additional instrument information and so forth and I'm delighted to tell you that we do get a cross-section of all population that exists in the Commonwealth. How can someone who is interested in working with you learning more information being a part of the Institute being a part of this exciting challenge I find it exciting Anyhow that's coming down. How can they contact you and what is the best way for them to do so. The best way to do so is to write us or call us our addresses. And most of us don't east of a community development public policy which is tense floor Healy library. University of Massachusetts Boston Globe 2 1 2 5 dash 3 3 9 3. True and you or you you we shouldn't call us the phone number 2 8 7 6 1 7 2 8 7 5 7

9 0. And that's our main number and you'll be happy to send them information and I will be happy to sell them you know brochures. We have a brochure of things to do. There are some papers that are available for sale that I have to deal with previews. Conference previews come from that they seem to have an education and so forth so we we will be able to the extent we can at least to send information and so forth. So we'll be happy to answer any other requests. Great to have you on the program. And as the challenges of the year 2000 take more and more hold of our lives we will expect as you will expect of all the rest of the community great things to come forward for all of us and I thank you for spending the time telling us about it today. Our guest today has been Ramon but he's of the Gastown Institute for Latino community development and Public Policy University of Massachusetts at Boston. And again let me give you that phone number if you'd like additional information at 6 1 7 2 8 7

5 7 9 0. And the Ramon has been our guest today on Commonwealth Journal. You've been listening to the award winning Commonwealth Journal a weekly magazine of feature news and information brought to you as a public service. The University of Massachusetts at Boston BFM this program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Executive producer Tom Callahan producer Kevin du Rocher your letters are important to us. Commonwealth Journal the radio University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts 0 2 1 2 5 3 3 9 3. Thank you for joining us. This is the speaking. On this week's award winning Commonwealth Journal program the topic is solar power with Phil

Coble international program coordinator of enter Seoul and also from the Latino community development and public policy. Ramon Borges join us for Commonwealth Journal. I'm Bill McVeigh.