A bicycle made from cardboard?! Now this is amazing.
A $9 Cardboard Bike is hard to say no to. Think of all the possibilities we can do with that. If this were to be mass produced and sent to developing countries, imagine the difference it could make! No more walking an hour or two just for water! More time for education and other beneficial activities. I do know that this is a ‘if’ scenario, but hey just imagine it and make it happen is the way to think!
I haven’t really traveled outside of North America and everything I know about developing countries comes from the media. The media usually distorts the fact to cater to their audience and their goal. But from what I see on television, the distortion can’t be that huge. The fact is that water, clothes and shelter – many basic needs are missing in many people’s lives, but something insignificant to us, can easily change their lives for better. A bicycle will give them transportation; something that we take for granted in western society. (Can you imagine if you had to carry two jugs of milk for two hours everyday? Many of us would just rather not drink milk then. But what if that’s water? Then you will no choice like what these people are experiencing.)
Now that was just my little speech about improving social welfare, but there’s something else that gets me excited about this news. I think its really admirable that this man made this bicycle himself. I love building things from scratch as well. This project, however, is probably too difficult for me to come up with and build by myself. I would really love to one day build one myself. Nothing gives me more satisfaction to turn nothing into something useful.
I still remember that time when I tried to build a hot air balloon made from Popsicle sticks and a plastic bag. Of course that didn’t work out. My platform was to heavy and the bag melted every time. Never the less that was really fun to make.
Cheers!