Could Ten Million Suitcase Stalls Sort Out Half the World’s Problems?
Or…
Will Street Entrepreneurs Succeed Where Governments Have Failed?
Do street sellers have to sell useless crap?
I feel bad watching decent people hawk scrap on the street. Couldn’t they sell something genuinely useful?
None of these guys know about the latest wave of grassroots innovation…
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India 2015
Imagine: A guy sets up a stand on a dusty street in Karachi.
What’s in The Suitcase?
You’re a young 3 month pregnant mother smoking on the sidewalk and you wonder if your next baby will die of diphtheria or cholera. Decision: Buy heart pills for your father or fish for Saturday night?
Look over there.
There’s a new stall. A lanky Sikh +his wife. Go closer.
What’s That?
He unzips the the black rectangle on the floor.
He sets up a sign:
WATER. FOOD. NUTRITION. MEDIA. LIGHT. ENERGY.
First things first:
WATER
On the left of the suitcase: Xylem water filters, Purification Sachets, Limestone Drip Filters.
All for less than a dollar or two.
You have no money left?
Pay 5 cents a liter, purify here. We run it through Xylem and Limestone while you watch. A pinch of Zeolite, 5 cents.
NUTRITION
Single packets of Liposomal Vitamin C, Magnesium Chloride. Cayenne
tincture for heart disease. Likewise, Hawthorn. Chromium tablets help
diabetes.
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I can’t afford a bottle.
No worries, buy one at a time. Buy one. 50 cents.
My brother is coughing all night.
Maybe try Liposomal Vitamin C or Detoxadine from America…
Can I buy a bottle to sell?
You can make it yourself, here’s a guide. 5 cents for the photocopy.
FOOD
Alfalfa seeds. (You can grow them in 3 days)
Half the mango harvest has rotted again. 60 kilos.
Try this: Solar Food Dehydrator: 20 dollars.
Too expensive.
Another information sheet Miss, make a dryer yourself from cans. 5 cents.
No space in the garden.
Low tech vertical farm, look…
ENERGY/LIGHT
Do you have Kerosene?
No. Look: 5 dollar hand cranked light. Works for 3 hours.
Our electricity was cut off again. No mobile charger.
You want a handcranked charger? 5 dollars. Solar? seven. Wind power
charger? Very cute.
No money.
No money? I saw you smoking yesterday.
OK, crank it yourself. 30 cents.
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MEDIA
30 different one sheets guides. How to purify water. How to make a solar dehydrator. how to make a pico wind turbine. Nutritional cures for heart disease. Local herbs and their uses.
Can I make a copy for people in my town?
Sure. You can sell it, no copyright.
What is it?
Just take a look.
*
MONEY
Can I borrow money to start?
No, sorry. But they have new ideas in the square. The cafe has a hook up
scheme with Paris. Every time they sell a mushroom burger in France,
someone gets a 25 cent meal here. The drink seller gives one water purification packet with every Pepsi. They call it *buy one give some*…
Plus, they start a local crowd investing collective every Wednesday in the town hall.
What about the police?
There’s nearly two thousand of us now.
Can I get money from the West?
And there are crowdinvesting classes to get you onto Kickstarter and Pozible,
What’s that?
I don’t know, Miss. I just sell this stuff.
JOBS
My brother needs a job, can he work with you?
No. But take this card. Go to the warehouse on Ag’than and 12th. Upstairs. They sell all this stuff.
I have no money to buy filters.
Well you start selling the paper Miss. You buy twenty sheets for a dollar. Plus they let you sell sale or return if you leave a deposit, and don’t sell more than 100 meters from the warehouse. Once they trust you…
One more question…
No more questions, Miss. Come back another time.
PRESSURE
One guy, or girl, with a suitcase could go a long way to solving dirty water problems. Lack of information. Food shortages and rotting harvests. Kerosene and gas overuse. Hopelessness. Joblessness.
DO YOU REALLY THINK ONE GUY…
No, but you solve scarcity problems mg by mg, liter by liter, kilo by kilo, link by link.
!
