I’m surprised at how many times people suggest that I go get money from the Gates. They have created a benevolent image so convincing that people think it’s just a matter of giving them a call. “Hey Bill, can I hit you up for some cash?”
Their new interactive exhibition space across from the Space Needle has created stir. Of course it’s beautiful and dutifully digital. There are some weighted buckets that help you imagine what it’s like to carry your daily water from the well. Statistics are mounted big-size so the impacts are more dramatic.
The irony for me is that no amount of statistics or interactive lessons are going make the problems of development hit home while walking through a gorgeous Seattle exhibition space. They put photos of world toilets on the stalls, but they could have gone the whole mile with squat toilets, no toilet paper and mosquitoes. Instead of all that environmentally sustainable polished wood, they could have made a wall of slivers or simply named the video room, “The Room of Guilt”. OK, but that’s just being me.
