December 15, 2003

 

Self Determination for the Kitcisakik Community: A by-the-Bootstrap Approach

 

Introduction

 

The Algonquin people welcomed the newcomers to this forbidding land many centuries ago. They shared their food with them; they taught them how to live in this tough cold climate; they showed them herbal medicines that worked.

 

But do you really mean it, Paul?

 

Here we see Paul Martin being cleansed by Elder Elmer Courchene before being sworn as the newest Canadian Prime Minister (Globe and Mail December 13, 2003) with (yet another) promise to improve the quality of life for ‘native people’ on his lips.

 

In my experience, God helps those that help themselves and the people of the Community of Kitcisakik should rely on themselves to make a better life for themselves and their future generations. This is not to say that others cannot help, they can. But the control of the process needs to be in the hands of the people of Kitcisakik.

 

When I met with Douglas Cardinal to discuss these matters, I was relieved to hear that the people of Kitcisakik wanted to build a new, Greenfield community. I believe in that approach; I always have. And I knew that this approach was consistent with the cultural beliefs of the Algonquin people—inhabit a place for a period of time as a guest of Mother Earth, then move and let Mother heal herself.

 

This is a sustainable way of life. Beavers do the same thing; they know intuitively that if they stay in the same lodge forever, disease will prevail. There is no such thing as zero environmental impacts for living things. All animals pollute the environment; they are part of the natural cycle.

 

How might the people of Kitcisakik prevail in their struggle to move beyond the horrors of their current situation? Let’s look at the preconditions for economic take-off (you can see more on this in Attachment A below) as developed by Walt Rostow in the 1960s and Hernando de Soto in the 1990s and by me:

Preconditions for Economic Takeoff

  1. education
  2. health
  3. supply of and private ownership of housing (safe, affordable, privately owned)
  4. clear title to housing and accurate addressing and surveying
  5. mixed use and tolerance of and legalization of cottage industries
  6. effective legal system, respect for the rule of law
  7. moderate levels of taxation and avoidance of confiscatory levels of taxation
  8. re-integration of black and grey markets (deeding of lands and title in squatter settlements )
  9. active capital markets (borrowing circles and financial recycling of savings and investment, home mortgage availability)
  10. culture of and support for entrepreneurship and innovation
  11. wide spread Internet access and effective communications system
  12. sound public infrastructure
  13. extensive private ownership of economy
  14. respect for human rights
  15. protection of private property rights
  16. good, honest and transparent government
  17. social peace and harmony
  18. strong civic institutions
  19. civil defense.

I added in point # 10 above—the need for a culture of and support for entrepreneurship and innovation. I have become convinced that this is an important ingredient to unlocking development potential not only in LDCs but first world countries as well.

From this list, one might immediately notice some elements that are particularly relevant to the struggles of the Kitcisakik community; like, for example, the need to have clear title to their Land. De Soto couldn’t have been any clearer in his work—clear title to one’s Lands is one of the most fundamental requirements to a better life. Imagine if the Algonquin had title to La Vérendrye Park, which was just one part of the Lands granted to them by Treaty, a Treaty which was discarded like so many others. The resources of the Park are being harvested alright, but not for the benefit of the Algonquin and not in a way that is guaranteed to be there for the next generation and the one after that and so on to the 7th generation. It is both a tragedy and a disgrace.

Please note the name of the website that the picture shown below is from: http://www.travelsinparadise.com/canada/: “Travels In Paradise”, hmm, whose ‘paradise’ and for how long if the resources (trees and minerals) are ripped out in a single generation instead of being harvested in a sustainable way by the people who live there, care about it and will preserve it?

La Vérendrye Sunset

Maybe the Algonquin should have said ‘no’ to the sharing of their Lands in the beginning but that wasn’t their way.

Just say “No” (From the G+M December 2003)

That is too late but surely self determination can only lead to an improved life for the Algonquin people, it could hardly be worse than it is now. I have found that people who feel part of something bigger than themselves are motivated people who find meaning in their lives. People with meaningful lives, don’t take drugs, drink alcohol, commit crimes, fight with their neighbors and families, have fewer health problems, less absenteeism, a brighter outlook on life and have more energy and more to give to others.

Role of Entrepreneurship

The fundamental ethical principal behind entrepreneurship is that one’s first duty to society is to not become a burden on your fellow human. Most people think of entrepreneurs as grasping, money-hungry individuals out-for-a-buck. But in my research I find that entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs not because they can make more money or be their own boss or retire early but because they believe they can create more interesting work for themselves than others can create for them.

Entrepreneurs are taking more responsibility for themselves. In Attachment A, I give an example from a Village in Kalmandhai, India. Written by Luke Harding of the Guardian News Service (February 10, 2003), this struck me as an example of the power of entrepreneurship—in this village, devastated by poverty and disease, three women created thriving fertilizer, herb garden and banking businesses from a $900 USD WaterAid grant to set up a latrine for Village residents and passing truckers. It is an amazing story of what people can do with a minimum of resources.

I strongly believe in the power of micro capital. I set up a networking organization in Ottawa with over 400 members (www.Exploriem.org) to help only those entrepreneurs that want to help themselves. “Entrepreneurs” with gobs of Venture Capital money need not apply; they aren’t Exploriem.org entrepreneurs—they are really big companies, they just don’t have any revenues, which, in my view, make most of them poseurs.

I have seen people with Government jobs laid off after 24 years of service. They have done nothing but post-project reviews or something equally useless and they have no currency in the private sector and are simply thrown on the scrap heap.

Many large companies place almost no value on the history of their companies and the value that elder employees bring to the table; they too get thrown out and replaced by younger and cheaper employees. Such management is short sighted but incredibly prevalent today. Send our elders packing from their jobs and, oh by the way, stack them in vertical warehouses (AKA retirement homes) too.

This is a long way of saying that I believe that everyone needs a PB4L, a Personal Business for Life. It is a pet project of mine and I am helping my five children create one for each of them. So far, we have three— www.StreetPaddleTennis.com  for Matthew started at Age 13, Smarty Pants Games for Jessica (check out: http://www.dramatispersonae.org/bananas.swf), started at Age 12 and www.GradeAStudent.com.au started by Andrew at Age 27. Two more to go, one for Miriam and one for Rachel.

The thought is that these are PB4L that belong to you and you alone, you don’t share this with anyone and if everything else in your life goes down the toilet, well you can fall back on this. (You can read more on this in Attachment B.) These PB4L are not supposed to necessarily be humongous businesses but they might be. The key is that they are yours.

Action Plan

Well, here are my thoughts for the Kitcisakik Community, ways in which I may be able to help. First, here are my biases:

    1. I believe in action not talk.
    2. I believe in action not study.
    3. There have been enough studies done on the condition of the Native Peoples in Canada to stuff a dozen museums, a lot of good that has done.
    4. Entrepreneurs believe in doing first.

So here are some suggestions for consideration that follow the Rostow/De Soto/Firestone model for economic takeoff:

      1. Education—let’s build a school, right now. Let’s add to it a place for tourists to come to learn from the people of Kitcisakik too.
      2. Health and Other Community Jobs—let’s take back community jobs like fire fighting, policing, judgeship, emergency preparedness, teaching, paramedics, and so forth; stop exporting jobs to other communities and get people in those jobs who are committed to making things work in Kitcisakik.
      3. Housing Supply—let’s build the new Community with Algonquin workers.
      4. Cottage Industry—let’s find a nucleus of 20 Community leaders who will each develop a PB4L.
      5. Networking—let’s get some of my entrepreneurs involved with the Kitcisakik Community starting with the engineers at www.GradeAStudent.com. They could teach and train members of the Kitcisakik Community to be technicians for computer repair. This has been a phenomenal success in Ottawa and elsewhere. The people of Kitcisakik can export their new-found skills to surrounding communities.
      6. Entrepreneurship and Teaching—let’s set up an Internet Café at Kitcisakik. Let’s make this a gathering place for the entire community.
      7. Communication—let’s transcribe the wisdom of the elders on their own Personal Web Sites—by video, by audio, by text, by pictures. Let’s get another of our Exploriem.org members like www.EnvisionOnline.ca onside to teach this skill so that again the Community can communicate with the Universe of Internet Users and disintermediate everyone else—no one can speak for Kitcisakik people other than the Kitcisakik people.
      8. Mentoring—let’s hook up each PB4L with a mentor to guide them to success and pair Kitcisakik entrepreneurs with Exploriem.org ones.
      9. Tourism—let’s build a place for tourists to come and learn from the Community and participate, as appropriate, in activities, herbal lore and medicines and more.
      10. Infrastructure—let’s get the Village off the grid (or mostly off the grid) using wind power. Let’s find the windiest place in the Park and harness wind power and export the surplus to Hydro Québec.
      11. Finance—let’s start a micro capital loan fund based on a lending circle of three. Business startups are funded with up to (say) $5,000 in capital with each of three separate entrepreneurs co-guaranteeing the loans in a peer arrangement.
      12. Design—lets’ review the urban design for the new town and democratize commercial services so that the design provides for PB4L in every home, commercial services distributed in the community
      13. Land Title—let’s re-assert title to the Algonquin lands so they can be managed according to the wisdom of the people for the benefit of the Algonquin Nation and others to share.

The longest journey is the one where you don’t take the first step. The entrepreneurial approach to an intractable problem is to do everything at once—in parallel. It is not only faster, it works. I learned a term from the former Attorney General of the Unites States (Elliott Richardson): ‘to intricate’. To ‘intricate’ someone is to get people, government, businesses, stakeholders involved in something before they even realize they are. They are integrated into a process by an under-the-waterline, stealthy approach. Is it right? Well, every other approach hasn’t worked worth a darn, so let’s use Elliott’s idea. Let’s just do it.

Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, Ottawa, Canada. December 2003.

Budget

www.SaragassoCity.com

 

www.DramatisPersonae.org

 

www.Exploriem.org

 

February 10, 2003                               Attachment A

 

Development Economics and Entrepreneurship

 

Walt Rostow’s work of the 1950s and 1960s and recent work by Hernando De Soto and others suggest that what is needed for economic take-off in LDCs today includes:

Preconditions for Economic Takeoff

 

  1. education
  2. health
  3. supply of and private ownership of housing (safe, affordable, privately owned)
  4. clear title to housing and accurate addressing and surveying
  5. mixed use and tolerance of and legalization of cottage industries
  6. effective legal system, respect for the rule of law
  7. moderate levels of taxation and avoidance of confiscatory levels of taxation
  8. re-integration of black and grey markets (deeding of lands and title in squatter settlements )
  9. active capital markets (borrowing circles and financial recycling of savings and investment, home mortgage availability)
  10. culture of and support for entrepreneurship and innovation
  11. wide spread Internet access and effective communications system
  12. sound public infrastructure
  13. extensive private ownership of economy
  14. respect for human rights
  15. protection of private property rights
  16. good, honest and transparent government
  17. social peace and harmony
  18. strong civic institutions
  19. civil defense

 

I added in point # 10 above—the need for a culture of and support for entrepreneurship and innovation. I have become convinced that this is an important ingredient to unlocking development potential not only in LDCs but first world countries as well.

 

One day in the mid 1990s, I was walking around the Carleton University Campus in Ottawa, Canada and I ‘discovered’ a train tunnel running under Dow’s Lake, which is adjacent to the Campus. Curiosity got the better of me and I scrambled down the embankment. The foundation stone circa 1960 was impressive to read.

 

Later on, a few minutes of research uncovered an interesting story—Canadian National Railways had needed a new cross-Ottawa line and the only way that the then Chair of the National Capital Commission (NCC) would agree to it was if the CNR would bury it under the lake. The NCC apparently wanted to protect views in the National Capital Region. Now I realize this is kind of frivolous when compared with the enormous challenges that LDCs are facing but I was struck by the courage it took on the part of the NCC to take this position. This got me to thinking about an earlier trip to Calgary, Alberta and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

 

If you have ever looked at the Rockies from the eastern side and thought about the idea of running a rail line over those mountains as Van Horne did beginning in January 1882 and completing the crossing just three years later in 1885… what courage these people had.

 

William Van Horne, 1843-1915

 

While it is true that Government concessions helped Van Horne, it was heroic efforts on his part that made this possible:

 

“Van Horne worked himself harder than his crews, arranging steamship service to distribute materials and supplies, seeing to the opening of stone quarries and three dynamite factories, which supported the building of the transcontinental. … He managed to continue the building of the railway when there was no money left for payment. He himself went without pay for months. Directors used their personal fortunes, businessmen advanced credit and supplies and construction forces went without pay,” North America
Railway Hall of Fame. 

 

Courage and leadership. These are the things that governments can do as well as or even better than the private sector. They may not be as good as the private sector at the doing of a thing but they can provide the right conditions or environment for it to be accomplished. To my mind, this is the true mission of government—providing for the right conditions to allow the private sector to achieve desired social, economic and environmental goals.

 

Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ is still the most fundamental motivator for human behaviour based on motivated self-interest. Smith realized that the basic morality of his position was that a citizen’s first duty to his or her society was to not become a burden on it. Private ownership of a ‘thing’ can be viewed as private stewardship of that thing.

 

As a former owner of a National Hockey league franchise, I never felt like I owned it and, frankly, I was always uncomfortable with the notion that hockey players under contract to the team were like indentured workers, albeit, highly paid ones, that could be traded like pork bellies. I always felt that I held the franchise in trust for the fans and the City.

 

When watching Star Trek, TNG, I was always struck by Captain Picard’s view of the Ferengi* as something of a sub species because of their clearly established commercial avarice. Starfleet and the Federation no longer felt the need to be guided by the individual pursuit of personal enrichment—I guess they are something like Commune-ists.

The Invisible Hand of the Ferengis

______________________________________________________________________________

* “I read your piece about commune-ism and Starfleet’s view about the Ferengis in ST - interesting, especially knowing how they ended up on Deep Space Nine, the spin-off series.  Quark was a regular Ferengi character there, so they explored the culture more. It ended up that Quark's brother, a kind, caring (socialist) person was initiated as "Grand Nagus", leader of Ferenginar.  Apparently the writers felt the need to show that even this pro-capitalism society was wrong and needed some socialism too - a weak way out that undermines the culture, in my opinion. Another thing about the Ferengis is that, originally, the powers that be planned for them to be the new nemesis of the Federation. With that in mind, it's interesting to note how capitalist they are. Of course, they flopped completely as an enemy, leaving the other big new threat, the (money-agnostic) Borg, to take that position,” Ryan North, Computer Scientist, February 2003. ______________________________________________________________________________

 

As someone who has lived in communes, I can tell you that communes are organized in a hierarchical manner, no matter what they may say. As Orwell said: “Everyone is equal, except some are more equal than others.”

 

What worries me is how to decide who is more equal than others without using the scorecard of dollars and achievement—after all, dollars are democrats. Are we better off with a benevolent dictatorship like Starfleet making decisions on who gets what rather than using money, which does not discriminate and is blind to gender, race, religion or any other form of segregating humans except merit? Perhaps it is the worst system, except for all the others.

 

I read today an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (by Luke Harding of the Guardian News Service, February 10, 2003) about micro entrepreneurship in Kalmandhai, India.

 

There, slum dwellers erected two latrines—one for men and one for women and a third for children only. Charging just one cent per use, they built a profitable business using just $900 USD in capital advanced to them by UK based WaterAid.

 

We Can Do Better Than This

 

Who would have thought that you could make a successful business out of a latrine but this is apparently what the women of this village did. I was intrigued so I sat down and did a spreadsheet on it this morning and here is what I conjectured:

 

10-Feb-03

 

 

Development Economics and Entrepreneurship-- Sanitation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Village of Kalmandhai, India with assistance from WaterAid, UK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of Construction of New Latrine

Men’s

 

$450

USD

 

 

 

 

Women’s

 

$450

 

 

 

 

 

Children

 

$0

 

 

 

 

 

Total

 

$900

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenues

 

 

 

Per Use

 

$0.01

USD

 

 

 

 

Daily Use

Men

300

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women

375

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children

400

free

 

 

 

 

Total Use

 

1,075

 

 

 

 

 

Total Paid Use

 

675

 

 

 

 

 

Total Daily Revenue

$6.75

USD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Revenue

 

$2,463.75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maintenance

10%

$90

 

 

 

 

 

Night Watchman

$450

$450

 

 

 

 

 

Cleaning Staff

3

$1,350

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net Revenues

 

$573.75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return on Investment

 

 

 

64%

p.a.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Revenue Sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herb Garden with Gourds

 

 

Use of excrement as fertilizer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Shower Block

 

 

 

6 cents USD per use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purchase of red worms from State of Kerala

Making Compost for sale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Money Lending to women in Neighboring Communities

Other revenue generating Latrines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DesignEconomics\HernandoDesoto\DevelopmentEconomicsLatrineConstruction

 

 

Wow, a (possible) 64% p.a. rate of return on this investment is impressive. Just as importantly, there are huge health benefits that accrue to these people from proper disposal of human wastes. Plus they have generated additional activity including:

 

  1. the construction of a shower block (and more fees);
  2. the use of their ‘product’ in their herb garden (for self use and third party sales);
  3. startup of a composting business;
  4. money lending to women in other villages to start similar enterprises.

 

Think about the number of jobs they have also created—from a latrine! Give a human a fishing rod, not a fish.

 

Copyright. Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, Ottawa, Canada. February 10, 2003.

 

Other Writings by Dr. Firestone on related subjects:

 

Teamwork in the Tenth Millennia B.C.

Livable Cities

Interview with Hernando De Soto

Affordable Housing in Africa

Entreprenurialist Culture—How to Bootstrap Yourself to Success in the 21st Century

Ottawa—a Focus on Self Reliance

Address to the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce—the Way Ahead

Ontario Mayors Overlook Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis

Livable Cities and Neo-Urbanist Design

 

________________________________________________________________________

www.SaragassoCity.com

www.DramatisPersonae.org

www.Exploriem.org

 

 

 

 

 

PersonalBusinessesThoughtExperiment

 

February 13, 2003                       Attachment B

 

Should Every Man, Woman and Child on the Planet

Have a Personal Business for Life?

 

Putting Your Stamp on Something

 

For the last few months, I have become increasingly certain that people in the 21st Century are going to need what I can only call a Personal Business. It seems to me that there are so many changes in the local, national and global economy going on and so many things can and do go wrong, that it might not be a bad idea after all to have a fallback position.

 

You know that I have been stressing to you how important it is to have a Personal Web Site for life—a place where you can collect your personal IP over your lifetime and career and one day, maybe, you can find a way to make money from it too—while you are lying on a beach.

 

But something else has struck me recently—just how many people have little sideline hobbies, gadgets, gizmos ... micro businesses really that make a bit of money. It also struck me that this could be a highly useful thing to have.

 

Let me give you an example. I recently met with Richard Rukowski who is a candidate to replace the retiring Alex Munter on Ottawa City Council. Richard is a former Kanata Councilor who has a good chance at winning the election this November for Kanata’s seat on Ottawa Council.

 

Richard is an intriguing person—he is very su