OPPORTUNITY CAFE

Miguel doesn’t have a dime in his pocket.  Not twenty pesos.  In Mexico, he figures, it takes at least 32 pesos a day to feed a family as big as his.   Fuhrat has five hundred thousand dinars-but it doesn’t mean much since it takes nearly that amount to buy a loaf of bread in Iraq.  That’s if you can find one in the local marketplace, which is most often closed due to threats of violence.  Hanna has a vision, but in Bulgaria, it takes more money than she has to make it real.  Or so she thinks.  All three of them are about to learn that in a global economy, there is a much larger market for what they can provide than they ever dreamed.  They will access opportunities and accomplish things that their parents could not have imagined.

Miguel… Miguel barely has enough to eat.  He fishes to survive.  Legs dangling off a broken wooden pier on the ourskirts of Progresso, he hopes for a fish big enough to feed his family for a few days, and dreams of the better life he could create if only he had more dinaro. Once in a while he gets a job cleaning the barnacles off of a boat owned by another fisherman in the small village.  The work is hard, and the seaweed is annoying, but it puts some bread on the table along with the fish.  Fish, dream, scrape.  What else can he do?

Fuhrat… Fuhrat was once the wealthiest man and the largest employer in the city.  Until it was ravaged by war.  His tile manafuacturing business was destroyed.   He had long ago found costly but manageable alternatives to the difficulties in importing needed supplies and materials, as a result of the United Nations embargo.  But in his violence torn city, the costs of transportation for his merchandise skyrocketed, along with the costs of bribes and corruption.  The costs of paying drivers to navigate the dangerous roads exceeded the income potential.  His employees lost their jobs.  “They didn’t really want to go to work anyway,”  he consoles himself.  “It’s too dangerous for them.”   Exhausted, depleted, emotional and financially, Fuhrat sees no future- no recovery.  Little does he know, he will re-emerge from nothing, re-gaining all and more right there in his homeland-and then one day, migrate with his family to the Unites States.

Hanna… Hanna has a dream.  It involves sewing.  She has always loved drama, ever since she went to the city and saw a great performance of Zmeyova Svatba (The Dragon’s Wedding) on stage at the Blagoevgrad Theater.  It was the most exciting event of her life.  The minute she saw the cascading mosaic of colors and song on the stage, she knew she could do it:  sew great beautiful, ornate costumes.  And she knew just how:  she would use gossamer materials and the finest threads, dying them with colors made from the local flowers.  And sequins- she would add fabulous shining sequins of cut colored glass.  The headdresses..

“Wake up!” Her mother-in-law shrieks.  Startled, Hanna emerges from the life she would have to the reality she does have and gathers her cutters to prune the palm fronds.  Her sewing machine long ago broke.  No wherewithall to have it fixed, she has been cast into a life of perpetual servitude at the beck of others if she wants supper.

All three of them will become fabulously wealthy.  Each will take a very different road to that end.   But achieve their dreams they will- without ever leaving their village.  They can do this, because it is a world of global opportunity.  They just don’t realize it yet.   With no money- nothing to start with- how will Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna earn money and create the life of their dreams?

Check back for the next post.   This article, will continue in segments, tracking the journey of Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna, three poor individuals in three different countries, as they discover and access economic opportunity

This continuing article is not designed to sell anything.  It is intended to broaden awareness of immediate opportunities and recognition of possibilities for people who erroneously think they are “stuck.”  In America, we call it “not seeing the forest for the trees.”   If one doesn’t know that  quinine can cure Malaria, that person may die on the eastern slopes of the Andes in a grove of cinchona trees.  (The bark of the cinchona tree is used to make quinine.  For a great article about that, click here:  “Malaria and Quinine.” )

Oh, what a little knowledge and creativity did for Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna!  Check back.

What’s your dream?