REMEMBERING WALT RATTERMAN: A SOLAR ENERGY HERO

by Mark Venzke

I hope readers will  give a brief prayer or meditation for the family, friends, colleagues and clients of Walt Ratterman, a solar energy development expert who traveled the world to install solar energy systems in developing countries.  Mr. Ratterman died in the earthquake that struck Haiti last month.  He had been working on solar electrification projects for health clinics there.

Mr. Ratterman like many people who work for many sustainable development organizations are doing development work rightly.  Those who are engaged in such work are bringing environmentally friendly infrastructure and technologies to people who are working to improve their humble lives.  Such infrastructures and technologies supplant the tremendously destructive conventional Western infrastructures and technologies that “international” (mostly U. S.) banks and their partners in crime, “international” (mostly U. S.) infrastructure and technology contractors, like Bectel and Halliburton, build after bribing, blackmailing or assassinating national leaders.  Thereafter, the developing countries–like Haiti–must pay huge principle and interest payments–that they usually can never hope to pay–while diverting money from critical domestic needs.

Men and women like Walt Ratterman are true heroes who, besides bringing improved qualities of life to people in developing nations, are striking at the “blood tubes” through which predatory capitalists and disaster capitalists “suck the blood” from developing nations.  They are attacking the transnational “beasts” that forcibly drain the wealth of vulnerable, developing nations and extend hegemony over them.
Please support sustainable development organizations like the following:

• SunEnergy Power International (SunEPI)
• Alternative Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG)
• Architecture For Humanity (AFH)
• Engineers Without Borders-USA
• The Solar Electric Light Fund
• Green Empowerment
• Border Green Energy Team
• Solar Energy International
• Light Up the World

I can not emphasize enough that such organizations are engaged in one of the most direct and effective means to free humanity of oppressive political and economic powers.

The organizations that I describe herein are not relief organizations.  They are sustainable development organizations.  As initial relief organizations progress in Haiti, development agencies can begin their work of rebuilding–better.

Following is a tribute to Mr. Ratterman that the renewable energy education institute, Solar Energy International, sent to the alumni and friends of that school.

The above organizations need many people for short and long term volunteer and paid positions.  What are you doing with your life?

Live like you are dying, and you are truly living.

A compassionate, interdependent and involved world is ours for the making!

Tribute to a Solar Hero Walt in Pakistan SEI is deeply saddened by the loss of Walt Ratterman, who perished in the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.  Walt was an instructor, alumni, supporter and friend of SEI.  He was also an incredibly dedicated one-of-a-kind individual who touched thousands of people’s lives around the world.  Walt was in Haiti working on solar projects for health clinics with the organization that he cofounded, SunEnergy Power International (SunEPI).  SunEPI works around the world to improve people’s quality of life with renewable energy technologies in remote, rural areas. Some of Walt’s work can be seen in Adrian Belic’s award winning film “Beyond the Call” which documents Knightsbridge International, a humanitarian and medical aid organization to which Walt belonged that worked in some of the most dangerous places in the world. Walt in the Ecuadoran Amazon Walt and his Knightsbridge buddies were described as a cross between Indiana Jones and Mother Theresa, and there is no better way to describe Walt.  Fear was not a word in his vocabulary, and he had a heart of gold.  And that is probably an understatement on both accounts.  Whether it was crossing the border into Burma in the middle of the night with solar equipment to train Burmese medical technicians, or wearing a burqa in Afghanistan under the Taliban to see what it was like to be a woman in that country, Walt’s quest for knowledge and his desire to help those in need was extraordinary.  If there were people in need, and Walt could help, it didn’t matter their geographic, political or religious affiliation, he would be there.  To Walt, humanitarian aid knew no boundaries. Walt brought solar training and humanitarian aid to Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Palestine, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Tibet, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the list goes on.  And the list of NGO’s he worked with is almost as long as the countries he worked in.  The Solar Electric Light Fund, Green Empowerment, the Border Green Energy Team, Solar Energy International, Engineers without Borders, Light Up the World, and many others all benefited from Walt’s incredible knowledge and dedication. SEI feels privileged to have known and worked with Walt over the years.  Although he is now gone from this Earth, his spirit lives on, in the many thousands of lives around the world that he has touched, and the remarkable work that people he has inspired will keep on doing. He was truly a solar hero.

Mark Venzke is a political activist who lives in Gainesville, Florida.  He is co-founder with Jerry Rose of Insights and Actions of Gainesville, a monthly series of public forums that will begin with a viewing and discussion of the film Rethinking Afghanistan on March 10, 2010  http://www.sunstateactivist.org/events.php He can be reached at:  advokitt@yahoo.com.