1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,465 *preroll music* 2 00:00:09,605 --> 00:00:13,191 Herald: Our next speaker is Tarek Loubani. 3 00:00:13,191 --> 00:00:14,729 He is an emergency physician, 4 00:00:14,729 --> 00:00:17,840 working in the Gaza Strip and in Canada 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,548 and he is developing medical hardware devices. 6 00:00:20,548 --> 00:00:25,808 And he is going to tell us about the Palestinian use of free hardware and software. 7 00:00:25,808 --> 00:00:29,515 So enjoy and give a warm welcome to Tarek. 8 00:00:29,515 --> 00:00:32,524 *applause* 9 00:00:32,524 --> 00:00:39,442 Tarek: ... (missing Audio) 10 00:00:39,442 --> 00:00:44,063 Thank you to CCC for inviting me to give this talk 11 00:00:44,063 --> 00:00:48,428 and to you for being here tonight. 12 00:00:48,428 --> 00:00:54,241 I want to start with just some very basic information here about myself. 13 00:00:54,241 --> 00:00:58,088 If we can get the video feed up. 14 00:01:05,272 --> 00:01:08,869 OK, so there we go. 15 00:01:08,869 --> 00:01:14,444 If you want to get a hold of me, you can find me, find this project on github, 16 00:01:14,444 --> 00:01:18,529 you can find our team on openmed at freenode, 17 00:01:18,529 --> 00:01:21,286 or you can always get a hold of me by e-mail, 18 00:01:21,286 --> 00:01:25,910 hopefully one of the easiest e-mails you'll ever have to remember. 19 00:01:25,910 --> 00:01:29,523 And I'll bring that information up at the end. 20 00:01:29,523 --> 00:01:33,732 I want to start then with a story: 21 00:01:33,732 --> 00:01:39,502 This is another story, because you heard so many about refugees. 22 00:01:39,502 --> 00:01:42,406 But this story is a personal one, 23 00:01:42,406 --> 00:01:44,930 because it is my story as a refugee. 24 00:01:44,930 --> 00:01:51,522 And about the time, that my father reminded me of who I was. 25 00:01:51,522 --> 00:01:55,573 He put this card in front of me, when I was 8 years old. 26 00:01:55,573 --> 00:01:59,429 This card was literally the only thing, 27 00:01:59,429 --> 00:02:05,348 that atested to my existence as a human being for the first 12 years of my life. 28 00:02:05,348 --> 00:02:11,752 It says: The director general affirms that Tarek Loubani is a palestinian. 29 00:02:11,752 --> 00:02:16,781 And as proof, I have given him this identity card. 30 00:02:16,781 --> 00:02:23,252 Not a lot to work, not a lot to own, not a lot to do anything. That was it. 31 00:02:23,252 --> 00:02:25,656 And so I sat in front of my father, 32 00:02:25,656 --> 00:02:29,606 I just got, I think it was a C on some meaningless subject 33 00:02:29,606 --> 00:02:33,780 as an 8 year old. Who cares? 34 00:02:33,780 --> 00:02:37,989 But he cared. He put that paper in front of me and he said: 35 00:02:37,989 --> 00:02:43,417 Son, this paper, it doesn't prove that you're somebody, 36 00:02:43,417 --> 00:02:46,710 it proves, that you're nobody, 37 00:02:46,710 --> 00:02:49,252 that you're nothing. 38 00:02:49,252 --> 00:02:54,791 And there we were, living in Kuwait with a nice appartment that we had rented 39 00:02:54,791 --> 00:02:57,230 A and a car outfront. And he said: 40 00:02:57,230 --> 00:03:01,661 all of these things didn't belong to us and could be taken in a moment. 41 00:03:01,661 --> 00:03:06,589 He had only one caveat to this nihilism. He said: 42 00:03:06,589 --> 00:03:11,960 There is only one thing you have, one thing that the wolfs can never take away from you. 43 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,836 One thing, that you can never be dispossessed of. 44 00:03:15,836 --> 00:03:20,048 And that's what you know, that's the information in your head. 45 00:03:20,048 --> 00:03:24,384 That's what's up in here. 46 00:03:24,384 --> 00:03:29,610 And so was thesapokalyptic warning would result in me and my family minus my father 47 00:03:29,610 --> 00:03:32,725 because he was trapped in Kuwait at the time driving through this: 48 00:03:32,725 --> 00:03:35,863 The highway of death as it would later be called. 49 00:03:35,863 --> 00:03:40,106 With my mother crying tears for weeks while she got us out, 50 00:03:40,106 --> 00:03:45,967 her 4 children until we finally made our way through, I think it was 4 or 5 different countries 51 00:03:45,967 --> 00:03:49,024 and into Canada. 52 00:03:49,024 --> 00:03:55,506 Mine is a microcosmic lesson of the lesson, that all Palestinian were given. 53 00:03:55,506 --> 00:04:00,941 Because all Palestinian have been dispossessed at some point or will be. 54 00:04:00,941 --> 00:04:06,013 What do you think the parents of these children will tell them 55 00:04:06,013 --> 00:04:09,060 about who they are and what they possess? 56 00:04:09,060 --> 00:04:14,371 What do you think is the meaning of their homes and physical possessions? 57 00:04:14,371 --> 00:04:19,507 What is it that they own or that they have? 58 00:04:19,507 --> 00:04:23,385 Their parents will tell them, what my parents told me: 59 00:04:23,385 --> 00:04:32,369 You have nothing and you are nothing. Only what's in here. 60 00:04:32,369 --> 00:04:43,052 And so, if they are in their predatory drones then we must be the prey. 61 00:04:43,052 --> 00:04:48,252 And that means, that we'll always live in the third world a different life 62 00:04:48,252 --> 00:04:52,262 from the life the people live in the developed world. 63 00:04:52,262 --> 00:05:00,060 You have to be on one of the two sides of that predator drone of that advanced missle, 64 00:05:00,060 --> 00:05:07,432 of that technology, that litigation of treaty. 65 00:05:07,432 --> 00:05:13,869 And we had seen the light of the first world from that those refugees camps. 66 00:05:13,869 --> 00:05:19,283 We saw it. And what we wanted was not the Playstation 4s and the iPhones 67 00:05:19,283 --> 00:05:22,763 though yes, of course. Great stuff. 68 00:05:22,763 --> 00:05:25,258 What we wanted was the CT scanners 69 00:05:25,258 --> 00:05:29,412 and the hospitals that were outfitted so that you could feel like you cold go in them 70 00:05:29,412 --> 00:05:33,921 and come a whole human being still just like you went in. 71 00:05:33,921 --> 00:05:39,871 That is the wealth that we wanted. That is the wealth that we saw and that is the wealth 72 00:05:39,871 --> 00:05:42,231 that they protected. 73 00:05:42,231 --> 00:05:46,716 Both metaphorically and literally 74 00:05:46,716 --> 00:05:54,090 through all manner of instruments of neoliberalism and colonialism. 75 00:05:54,090 --> 00:05:56,443 They do it 76 00:05:56,443 --> 00:06:04,643 because to them everything, everything they see, everything in the world around them 77 00:06:04,643 --> 00:06:07,662 is fish. 78 00:06:07,662 --> 00:06:09,535 They can't see the world any other way. 79 00:06:09,535 --> 00:06:16,285 And so they think, that if you catch a fish I can't have that same fish. 80 00:06:16,285 --> 00:06:21,386 And they don't realise, that we live in a different world, where not everything is fish. 81 00:06:21,386 --> 00:06:26,141 Where there is information and that information can go anywhere, 82 00:06:26,141 --> 00:06:32,517 and be anything and it can help everybody at the same time. 83 00:06:32,517 --> 00:06:34,962 It's not a new concept. 84 00:06:34,962 --> 00:06:41,388 It's a concept that was almost perfected by Magritte, 85 years ago 85 00:06:41,388 --> 00:06:43,743 represented here: 86 00:06:43,743 --> 00:06:46,609 That is not a pipe. 87 00:06:46,609 --> 00:06:50,217 It is the information to make a pipe. 88 00:06:50,217 --> 00:06:58,975 That is not an STL. Or that is not a reproduction, that is an STL. 89 00:07:01,055 --> 00:07:06,169 Let's put some economic terms on this, because the people, who we are working against, 90 00:07:06,169 --> 00:07:10,989 the people who promote the anti commons they put language on this stuff. 91 00:07:10,989 --> 00:07:13,219 This is the main language. 92 00:07:13,219 --> 00:07:18,511 We can divide it into two main axes: excludable and rivalrous. 93 00:07:18,511 --> 00:07:22,774 All items more or less fall into these categories. 94 00:07:22,774 --> 00:07:29,292 And so fish falls into this category. It is a non-excludable, largely commodity 95 00:07:29,292 --> 00:07:32,497 that is rivalrous. Indeed 96 00:07:32,497 --> 00:07:36,721 it is very hard to keep people from catching fish out in the harbour. 97 00:07:36,721 --> 00:07:43,852 But if one person catches one fish, then the next person can not. 98 00:07:46,232 --> 00:07:51,313 Where society wants us to be by and large is right here: 99 00:07:51,313 --> 00:07:56,696 Products that are non-rivalrous but excludable. 100 00:07:56,696 --> 00:08:05,349 Think for example of an mp3. An mp3 should be this: public good, it is not excludable, 101 00:08:05,349 --> 00:08:09,273 you can't keep people from it. It is non-rivalrous. 102 00:08:09,273 --> 00:08:15,750 You give somebody an mp3, you haven't taken away an mp3 from anybody else. 103 00:08:15,750 --> 00:08:21,259 And yet, what is desired, is for everything to be here: 104 00:08:21,259 --> 00:08:22,974 A club good. 105 00:08:22,974 --> 00:08:25,494 You need a membership. 106 00:08:25,494 --> 00:08:30,126 Be that the country you live in or the amount of money that you make. 107 00:08:30,126 --> 00:08:35,063 It is excludable. Because they have excluded you. 108 00:08:35,063 --> 00:08:39,021 Not because of any inaid or inherant reason. 109 00:08:39,021 --> 00:08:43,614 How can we turn things from club goods into public goods or 110 00:08:43,614 --> 00:08:49,709 another question: how have they turned things from public goods into club goods? 111 00:08:49,709 --> 00:08:54,848 Well, here two men who've led the charge: 112 00:08:54,848 --> 00:08:58,088 Birch Bayh and Bob Dole. 113 00:08:58,088 --> 00:09:03,541 They came up with this legislation, that ended up, basically making it so, that 114 00:09:03,541 --> 00:09:09,766 one thing that was available, non-excludable and non-rivalrous, that is 115 00:09:09,766 --> 00:09:16,086 all of the information coming out of universities and these sorts of charities and other little groups 116 00:09:16,086 --> 00:09:21,713 could now be patented. Patenting is the main weapon here. 117 00:09:21,713 --> 00:09:27,268 That's how you turn things from usable by everybody, available to everybody 118 00:09:27,268 --> 00:09:32,774 to usable by a few and available to few. 119 00:09:32,774 --> 00:09:38,272 Their policy was absolutely a success. 120 00:09:38,272 --> 00:09:47,820 Here you see the patents, starting from 1963 all the way to 2014. Total patents granted. 121 00:09:47,820 --> 00:09:53,859 1980 is highlighted in blue. Everything before that is basically since the time of a man 122 00:09:53,859 --> 00:09:57,472 named Vannevar Bush, who kind of floated the main idea, 123 00:09:57,472 --> 00:10:01,008 that information should kind of be out for folks. 124 00:10:01,008 --> 00:10:03,406 And as you can see, it's relatively stable. 125 00:10:03,406 --> 00:10:07,212 More or less minor deviations more or less the same. 126 00:10:07,212 --> 00:10:12,734 But from 1980 to 2014 it virtually looks exponential. 127 00:10:12,734 --> 00:10:15,617 So closer with the numbers. 128 00:10:15,617 --> 00:10:24,712 1980 66 thousend patents, in 2014 326033. 129 00:10:24,712 --> 00:10:31,493 And so these weapons, they've resulted in us not being able to take things from 130 00:10:31,493 --> 00:10:37,203 simple idea to something we can use, but instead we are loaded, 131 00:10:37,203 --> 00:10:42,834 we have to walk through these landmines. 132 00:10:42,834 --> 00:10:47,572 Now, this is a story that you all already know. 133 00:10:47,572 --> 00:10:49,599 Because it doesn't matter what country you live in. 134 00:10:49,599 --> 00:10:52,858 I'm guessing that everybody here lives in first world. 135 00:10:52,858 --> 00:10:58,509 These are issues, that innovators in the first world must content with. 136 00:10:58,509 --> 00:11:04,793 But by and large these are issues that stop people in the first world from becoming rich. 137 00:11:04,793 --> 00:11:08,676 In the third world these are issues, that can mean the difference between 138 00:11:08,676 --> 00:11:12,258 life and death. 139 00:11:12,258 --> 00:11:21,012 *applause* 140 00:11:21,012 --> 00:11:26,118 Here is an example from the late 90s early 2000s. 141 00:11:26,118 --> 00:11:32,304 Profiteering pharmaceutical companies versus South Africa. 142 00:11:32,304 --> 00:11:37,310 South Africa was in the middle of a absolutely terrible crisis, 143 00:11:37,310 --> 00:11:42,197 which arguable they have not exited with HIV AIDS 144 00:11:42,197 --> 00:11:46,280 and pharmaceutical companies using the weapon of patents 145 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:51,568 were saying: ehm, sorry, we can not give you this medication at the rate you can affort, 146 00:11:51,568 --> 00:11:58,382 we can not give this medication to everybody, because what protects our profits? 147 00:11:58,382 --> 00:12:04,414 Now, most people aren't that crass most of the time, there are not saying what protects our profits, 148 00:12:04,414 --> 00:12:08,215 because that's bad public relations. 149 00:12:08,215 --> 00:12:13,132 But they say: Oh, what about our research and development funds etc etc. 150 00:12:13,132 --> 00:12:17,301 Of course mostly done on the public dime. 151 00:12:17,301 --> 00:12:23,531 But in the end every once in a while, we happen to see, one of the type, who pops up, who speaks 152 00:12:23,531 --> 00:12:33,402 a little bit more from the heart, as we have seen recently. 153 00:12:33,402 --> 00:12:41,455 What my father told me initially, was what I've been taught for all the years of my life. 154 00:12:41,455 --> 00:12:42,814 *music* 155 00:12:42,814 --> 00:12:48,956 What he told me is that either you are one of the predators 156 00:12:48,956 --> 00:12:51,645 or one of the prey. 157 00:12:51,645 --> 00:12:58,713 It is an absolutely irrefutable truth. 158 00:12:58,713 --> 00:13:03,580 It's a natural order. 159 00:13:03,580 --> 00:13:06,729 It is absolut. God gave us this. 160 00:13:06,729 --> 00:13:09,372 You have to be on one side or the other. 161 00:13:09,372 --> 00:13:12,397 You just have to accept it. 162 00:13:13,897 --> 00:13:20,337 *music of video still playing* 163 00:14:25,214 --> 00:14:29,677 And so if you're born the caribou, you have to own that existence, 164 00:14:30,590 --> 00:14:32,420 and just accept it. 165 00:14:34,708 --> 00:14:43,737 Well, just before I got on my plane here. I was at work as a doctor. 166 00:14:43,737 --> 00:14:47,529 When I went to my shift, I did not go there, 167 00:14:47,529 --> 00:14:52,109 so that I would allow the natural order to take its course. 168 00:14:52,109 --> 00:14:57,203 I did not wake up today, so that the natural order would take its course. 169 00:14:58,706 --> 00:15:00,313 Fuck the natural order. 170 00:15:00,313 --> 00:15:03,081 And fuck the world's who are behind it. 171 00:15:03,081 --> 00:15:04,829 I don't want it. 172 00:15:04,829 --> 00:15:06,705 People in Palestine don't want it. 173 00:15:06,705 --> 00:15:08,894 My patience don't want it. 174 00:15:09,348 --> 00:15:10,743 None of us want it. 175 00:15:11,823 --> 00:15:14,230 So, why do we accept it? 176 00:15:17,602 --> 00:15:19,854 If we look at the world around us 177 00:15:19,929 --> 00:15:27,856 what we're seeing then, is this thing, that we want to just throw off that natural order. 178 00:15:27,916 --> 00:15:34,282 But the terms of our insurgency have to be 179 00:15:34,335 --> 00:15:36,642 careful. 180 00:15:36,682 --> 00:15:40,540 You can't as the caribou look at the wolf and say: 181 00:15:40,593 --> 00:15:43,313 ehm, well, I don't really care, you know, fuck you and fuck your natural order 182 00:15:43,416 --> 00:15:46,410 and I am not participating. 183 00:15:46,573 --> 00:15:49,162 You have to be careful, 184 00:15:49,162 --> 00:15:52,268 because they are potent, they are dangerous. 185 00:15:52,268 --> 00:15:57,720 In this particular case the main danger to us in the third world and developing nations 186 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,578 is treaties. 187 00:15:59,578 --> 00:16:05,785 These laws are applied on us by treaty and you can't just opt out. 188 00:16:05,785 --> 00:16:11,285 The Palestinian economic system is shut down by FIAT 189 00:16:11,285 --> 00:16:13,569 Medication can't arrive by FIAT. 190 00:16:13,569 --> 00:16:23,123 All of these things happen, because we are too weak. 191 00:16:23,123 --> 00:16:27,841 And so, how do you respond? 192 00:16:27,841 --> 00:16:31,269 What is the tool of resistance? 193 00:16:31,269 --> 00:16:33,059 We eluded to it earlier. 194 00:16:33,059 --> 00:16:35,624 My father even told it to me as a child. 195 00:16:35,624 --> 00:16:37,047 Knowledge 196 00:16:37,047 --> 00:16:39,272 and the Commons 197 00:16:39,272 --> 00:16:43,037 That is where a better future comes from. 198 00:16:43,037 --> 00:16:45,362 And that is where our examples live. 199 00:16:45,362 --> 00:16:49,355 So let's think about the free software movement. Let's look at some examples. 200 00:16:49,355 --> 00:16:54,561 Some of you are German. Munich is one such example. 201 00:16:54,561 --> 00:17:01,551 Munich has shifted allmost all of their city digital infrastructure into free and open source. 202 00:17:01,551 --> 00:17:04,102 They even have their own Linux distribution. 203 00:17:04,102 --> 00:17:06,342 That's pretty amazing actually. 204 00:17:06,342 --> 00:17:11,718 There are other examples, that are some minor cities here and there. 205 00:17:11,718 --> 00:17:13,626 There are some state wide examples. 206 00:17:13,626 --> 00:17:17,264 For example, such as Kerala in India. 207 00:17:17,264 --> 00:17:22,883 The chief minister basically like the prime, the highest person within Kerala at the time said: 208 00:17:22,883 --> 00:17:27,575 We believe that free and open-source software is an essential component in our drive to 209 00:17:27,575 --> 00:17:35,248 democratise information technology and bring its benefits to all sections of society. 210 00:17:38,398 --> 00:17:45,291 In additon to Kerala, Tamil Nadu has done something similar, also in India. 211 00:17:45,291 --> 00:17:50,090 And then there are some partial ministry level efforts, that have been happening, 212 00:17:50,090 --> 00:17:55,622 for example Italy, in their ministry of, I think it is, defense or interior, you know, had decided 213 00:17:55,622 --> 00:17:59,858 just a small move to go from Microsoft Office to Libre Office. 214 00:17:59,858 --> 00:18:03,621 Apperently small moves, but really meaningful to the people around us. 215 00:18:03,621 --> 00:18:08,838 We'll look at this from places like Palestine, like the Gaza Strip, where I work, 216 00:18:08,838 --> 00:18:12,371 and we think, why can't we do that? 217 00:18:12,371 --> 00:18:14,756 Why can't we participate in these commons? 218 00:18:14,756 --> 00:18:17,450 What is it, that we can do to contribute? 219 00:18:17,450 --> 00:18:20,903 At the national level, there are a couple of very potent examples. 220 00:18:20,903 --> 00:18:24,752 The two main examples, that I ran into, were Equador and Brazil. 221 00:18:24,752 --> 00:18:30,492 Equador, if you guys were at the talk yesterday is a very interesting and nuanced place. 222 00:18:30,492 --> 00:18:34,210 So there are some authoritarian tendencies. 223 00:18:34,210 --> 00:18:38,018 Bethany Horne, who I believe is in our audiency here, I won't point her out, 224 00:18:38,018 --> 00:18:43,537 is one person, who's been visited by the authoritarianism of the group. 225 00:18:43,537 --> 00:18:49,879 But notwithstanding, they are doing some very good things and one of those very good things 226 00:18:49,879 --> 00:18:54,094 is free software at the national level. That's actually quite incredible. 227 00:18:54,094 --> 00:18:57,059 Directed from the presidency. 228 00:18:57,059 --> 00:19:05,671 Brazil very similar. Brazil started their move almost the same time, maybe a little bit before. 229 00:19:05,671 --> 00:19:12,970 So, Palestine looks quite ripe. For exactly the same thing we've been seen, 230 00:19:12,970 --> 00:19:15,227 has a few characteristics: 231 00:19:15,227 --> 00:19:19,945 These are the literacy levels of a few different countries. 232 00:19:19,945 --> 00:19:23,741 United States and Germany, basically 1% who are illiterate. 233 00:19:23,741 --> 00:19:27,966 Brazil and Equador 90.4 and 91.6 234 00:19:27,966 --> 00:19:35,824 Palestine 95.3. That's the Westbank and the Gaza Strip. My best guess, if you would include 235 00:19:35,824 --> 00:19:39,212 the diaspora that number would go significantly up. 236 00:19:39,212 --> 00:19:41,362 Because the diaspora tends to be well educated. 237 00:19:41,362 --> 00:19:45,242 That means that this lesson that my father gave me is a lesson that 238 00:19:45,242 --> 00:19:50,446 clearly Palestinians have been receiving for years if not decades. 239 00:19:50,446 --> 00:19:54,252 They're intelligent people, they're well educated. 240 00:19:54,252 --> 00:20:00,242 They're living under occupation and they want to see a change. 241 00:20:00,242 --> 00:20:03,730 So, we've started all of the same things that you would expect. 242 00:20:03,730 --> 00:20:09,052 We started of course replacing all of our servers with Apache based 243 00:20:09,052 --> 00:20:11,041 if any of them were ever on Windows. 244 00:20:11,041 --> 00:20:16,000 We've started of course using backends for our contact management systems, like 245 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,918 Joomla and Drupal. 246 00:20:17,918 --> 00:20:20,532 Of course, we started doing those things. 247 00:20:20,532 --> 00:20:23,956 In terms of the infrastructure that's more or less the step where we are. 248 00:20:23,956 --> 00:20:29,597 We are at infrastructural components rather then desktops. 249 00:20:29,597 --> 00:20:34,619 We have a very nascent EMR, that will be coming up hopefully soon. 250 00:20:34,619 --> 00:20:43,827 And we expect that this EMR will leverage at the best of what we have and what we see. 251 00:20:43,827 --> 00:20:50,224 However there is something else that's interessing a response to the necessity we have in Palestine. 252 00:20:50,224 --> 00:20:55,833 We learned that lesson from people, decorating their shoes, submerging their computers 253 00:20:55,833 --> 00:21:03,066 from Novenas and homemade chicken CT scanners. 254 00:21:03,066 --> 00:21:09,215 And what we started doing is making our own hardware as well. 255 00:21:09,215 --> 00:21:16,448 I believe that the Gaza Strip is the first place that is trying a national level strategy for 256 00:21:16,448 --> 00:21:19,823 open source hardware and is pushing it hard. 257 00:21:19,823 --> 00:21:28,787 We saw 3D printers, we saw how they worked. We wanted our own and we got them. 258 00:21:28,787 --> 00:21:32,499 Leftmost is the very first 3D printer ever made in Gaza. 259 00:21:32,499 --> 00:21:38,025 In the middle and the next one are their children. Made entirely in Gaza. 260 00:21:38,025 --> 00:21:42,651 Some of the electronics have to come in, all of the motors are salvaged from garbage. 261 00:21:42,651 --> 00:21:47,404 We expect that within a year, we'll be able to make everything domestically. 262 00:21:47,404 --> 00:21:51,478 That's our hope and that's our dream and I think we can get there. 263 00:21:51,478 --> 00:21:55,225 Of course my own work has been to make medical devices. 264 00:21:55,225 --> 00:21:56,727 That's where I've been leveraging them. 265 00:21:56,727 --> 00:21:58,605 This is a stethoscope, a very early version. 266 00:21:58,605 --> 00:22:03,217 This is the final version as of 3 weeks ago approved by Health Canada. 267 00:22:03,217 --> 00:22:08,039 This is a first world medical device, that is available for pennies. 268 00:22:08,039 --> 00:22:17,970 *applause* 269 00:22:17,970 --> 00:22:21,277 2 Dollars and 50 Cents to replace a 300 Dollar stethoscope. 270 00:22:21,277 --> 00:22:25,321 It's not that people have 300 Dollar stethoscope running around, I said they had nothing. 271 00:22:25,321 --> 00:22:28,136 Now they have something. 272 00:22:28,136 --> 00:22:31,055 It's been with the help of Kliment, who you will recognise from around here and 273 00:22:31,055 --> 00:22:32,933 Jenn who you will recognise from here 274 00:22:32,933 --> 00:22:39,568 and some engineers, who I can't really show, because I fear for their safety. 275 00:22:39,568 --> 00:22:43,337 Our Palestinians, the heros, the real heros of this work. 276 00:22:43,337 --> 00:22:49,293 And as you can see here from a frequency-audio response curve, it's as good as anything out there. 277 00:22:49,293 --> 00:22:55,178 We're working next on a pulse oximeter with the help of really talented engineer Hanan Anis 278 00:22:55,178 --> 00:23:01,674 from University of Ottawa. And that should be ready by the middle of next year. 279 00:23:01,674 --> 00:23:06,229 Surgical tools will be forthcoming, because right now in Gaza we're washing everything 280 00:23:06,229 --> 00:23:08,110 with salt water. 281 00:23:08,110 --> 00:23:15,799 And prostetics are coming, we hope. Lots of issues there, but not technical. 282 00:23:15,799 --> 00:23:23,836 We have this origin story for the commons, as so the commons was something from the past. 283 00:23:23,836 --> 00:23:26,750 That was there and then now it's gone. 284 00:23:26,750 --> 00:23:30,023 But that origin story, I think, is a myth. 285 00:23:30,023 --> 00:23:34,440 And when we recognise, that the commons are actually an evolution of where we are 286 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:38,125 rather than somewhere that we were before, we trying to reclaim. 287 00:23:38,125 --> 00:23:43,451 Then I think the next step is trying to figure out, how to get back there. 288 00:23:43,451 --> 00:23:49,344 At that's what we are trying to do in Palestine. How do we get back there? 289 00:23:49,344 --> 00:23:55,625 The biggest way is to break down those borders and blockades and share information. 290 00:23:55,625 --> 00:24:03,950 And so, I want to invite you, all of you to come with me to Gaza 291 00:24:03,950 --> 00:24:11,814 In May for the first international Free and Open Source Health Conference. 292 00:24:11,814 --> 00:24:18,388 Where we will discuss these ideas and where we will try to move forward 293 00:24:18,388 --> 00:24:22,623 the commons. If the anti commons is generally funded by 294 00:24:22,623 --> 00:24:26,954 military industrial complex, as we see within Silicon Valley and so on, 295 00:24:26,954 --> 00:24:31,972 then maybe this commons can be funded by the ever green spending 296 00:24:31,972 --> 00:24:35,514 that we always have in health care. 297 00:24:35,514 --> 00:24:40,088 Health care is one of the biggest spends in the Gaza Strip. 298 00:24:40,088 --> 00:24:47,444 And if we direct it in the right places we can also use it to develop our national sovereignty. 299 00:24:47,444 --> 00:24:53,090 Join me, in whatever where you can. 300 00:24:53,090 --> 00:24:56,601 And let's make it more sovereign better place. 301 00:24:56,601 --> 00:24:59,370 For Gaza and for everywhere else. 302 00:24:59,370 --> 00:25:00,762 Thank you. 303 00:25:00,762 --> 00:25:12,117 *applause* 304 00:25:12,117 --> 00:25:18,874 Herald: Thank you for the talk. And we have about 5 min for questions. 305 00:25:18,874 --> 00:25:27,124 So please if you have any questions line up in front of one of the microphones. 306 00:25:31,866 --> 00:25:33,488 Please! 307 00:25:33,488 --> 00:25:40,838 Question: I would like to know, how did you distribute your open source instruments. 308 00:25:40,838 --> 00:25:47,886 Is it also possible for other countries that have the same problems as in Palestinian areas 309 00:25:47,886 --> 00:25:49,595 to get those? 310 00:25:49,595 --> 00:25:55,409 Tarek: Yes, absolutely. One thing we don't do is give medical devices. 311 00:25:55,409 --> 00:25:59,989 Anybody who's interested, and there have been few ministry to ministry contacts on this, 312 00:25:59,989 --> 00:26:05,219 is basically encouraged to start up their own fundamentally fab lab. 313 00:26:05,219 --> 00:26:11,713 So, what we do is, we go into a country, talk to their engineers, engineering departments and so on, 314 00:26:11,713 --> 00:26:17,341 and we try to get them up and running, so that they're manufacturing their own stuff. 315 00:26:17,341 --> 00:26:24,207 This means anybody who's tried to start an open source project or free and open source project 316 00:26:24,207 --> 00:26:26,735 will know that the more contributors the better. 317 00:26:26,735 --> 00:26:28,266 You don't want consumers. 318 00:26:28,266 --> 00:26:30,428 You want people, who are participating. 319 00:26:30,428 --> 00:26:35,675 And so anybody who wants to... it's under an open source licence. The open hardware licence. 320 00:26:35,675 --> 00:26:39,800 And actually it's also cross licenced to GPLv3. 321 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:45,390 Please take it. It would be my privilege to see it in the news everywhere else. It really would be. 322 00:26:45,390 --> 00:26:50,675 Everybody who's working on it, wants to see that. 323 00:26:55,515 --> 00:27:01,948 Herald: OK, thank you very much again and see you at the next talk, enjoy the rest of the conference. 324 00:27:01,948 --> 00:27:06,351 Oh, wait we have a question from the internet it seems. 325 00:27:06,351 --> 00:27:11,313 Question: What would be the solution to Palestine? 326 00:27:15,063 --> 00:27:20,411 Tarek: I don't think you need to worry about the occupation. I think that's the question. 327 00:27:20,411 --> 00:27:23,471 Don't worry about the occupation. 328 00:27:23,471 --> 00:27:26,891 The occupation is a little bit like a marathon. 329 00:27:26,891 --> 00:27:30,696 You have to keep working, we see the end though. 330 00:27:30,696 --> 00:27:33,874 The Palestinian will take care of their own freedom. 331 00:27:33,874 --> 00:27:35,569 You don't need to worry about that one. 332 00:27:35,569 --> 00:27:41,449 All you need to do as much as possible, is try to not participate within the occupation. 333 00:27:41,449 --> 00:27:47,291 Now, I travel through Israel and nobody, who travels through Israel is allowed to endorse 334 00:27:47,291 --> 00:27:52,928 the boycott divestment and sanctions campaign, because that would be illegal and would mean 335 00:27:52,928 --> 00:27:54,614 I could not travel through Israel. 336 00:27:54,614 --> 00:27:58,572 However some people consider it to be a nonviolent way of participating against 337 00:27:58,572 --> 00:28:01,736 the occupation. 338 00:28:01,736 --> 00:28:06,942 Now, what we do need to do is figure out what happens the day after occupation 339 00:28:06,942 --> 00:28:15,887 that's what worries me. For example there is a Coca Cola bottling company being built 340 00:28:15,887 --> 00:28:22,288 in the Gaza Strip. Why? It's going to use more water than the entire Gaza Strip has available to it. 341 00:28:22,288 --> 00:28:27,200 More concrete than in all of the construction projects. Why? 342 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,722 Because they are looking for the day after occupation. 343 00:28:30,722 --> 00:28:34,911 And what I don't want is for Palestine to turn into South Africa. 344 00:28:34,911 --> 00:28:41,923 Beautiful dreams, excellent vision and you loose the war the day after the occupation ends. 345 00:28:41,923 --> 00:28:45,510 That's why we have to encourage these democratic institutions. 346 00:28:45,510 --> 00:28:50,612 That's why we have to participate in these, I guess essentually like chaos based 347 00:28:50,612 --> 00:28:55,696 anarchist based collectives, that are going to move forward the democratic process there 348 00:28:55,696 --> 00:28:59,509 and everywhere else. 349 00:28:59,509 --> 00:29:05,409 *applause* 350 00:29:05,409 --> 00:29:11,149 Herald: So we have time for one final question. The microphone at the right please. 351 00:29:11,149 --> 00:29:16,374 Question: The big one. Can you say something about the interface between open medical devices 352 00:29:16,374 --> 00:29:23,090 and regulation? So in Europe most of the stuff is public or a lot of it is public, so you have two layers 353 00:29:23,090 --> 00:29:27,649 of regulation: one is what devices you're authorised to use and operating on the human body. 354 00:29:27,649 --> 00:29:31,848 The other one is how you're authorised to buy the stuff, 355 00:29:31,848 --> 00:29:35,617 so procurement regulation is very, very rigid in some European countries 356 00:29:35,617 --> 00:29:41,032 in term of medical devices. Most of the stuff would be illegal. 357 00:29:41,032 --> 00:29:46,169 Tarek: It was very important for us, the project wasn't, you know, people have made stethoscopes 358 00:29:46,169 --> 00:29:51,115 and actually a lot of people told me this. They said, your's isn't the first 3D printed stethoscope. 359 00:29:51,115 --> 00:29:53,622 I made one, we made one, whatever it is. 360 00:29:53,622 --> 00:29:57,460 And it is true, we are not nearly the first 3D printed stethoscope. 361 00:29:57,460 --> 00:30:05,282 We are the first validated and now Health Canada approved 3D printed stethoscope. 362 00:30:05,282 --> 00:30:13,183 I think that these regulations are actually a good thing, because the population is 363 00:30:13,183 --> 00:30:16,575 an incredibly vulnerable population on the other side. 364 00:30:16,575 --> 00:30:20,701 We see a lots of experiments being run on poor, disenfranchised people. 365 00:30:20,701 --> 00:30:23,154 It happens in the first world. Think Tuskegee and 366 00:30:23,154 --> 00:30:25,750 similar things are happening today. 367 00:30:25,750 --> 00:30:31,796 It happens in the third world, think Nestle and such projects. 368 00:30:31,796 --> 00:30:34,825 So I think the regulations are a good thing. 369 00:30:34,825 --> 00:30:39,363 The FDA, you know, probably not. It's very expensive, very hard to get through. 370 00:30:39,363 --> 00:30:44,907 But it's not taxing to get through reasonable regulatory bodies, like Health Canada. 371 00:30:44,907 --> 00:30:51,099 I myself don't object. What I see in the Gaza Strip is people there want to know 372 00:30:51,099 --> 00:30:55,513 that they're not receiving garbage. So they're asking for these regulatory approvals. 373 00:30:55,513 --> 00:31:01,961 The Gaza Strip will not use expired medical devices, that people, you know well-wishers and 374 00:31:01,961 --> 00:31:06,962 some hospital in the first world that decided I like rather throw this away in the Gaza Strip 375 00:31:06,962 --> 00:31:10,443 than throw this away in the garbage. No we don't want that. 376 00:31:10,443 --> 00:31:15,627 There is a dignity as well that has to be provided. And that dignity comes with the same standards 377 00:31:15,627 --> 00:31:20,786 being met in the third world as in the first world 378 00:31:20,786 --> 00:31:26,538 Herald: OK, thank you very much. Unfortunately we are out of time, but I hope you enjoy the 379 00:31:26,538 --> 00:31:29,565 rest of the congress and see you at the next talk. 380 00:31:29,565 --> 00:31:38,249 *postroll music*