My $1 dream

It is unacceptable that problems wiping out over ten thousand people a day in Africa are a result of mis-management of disease and debt. It is criminal that the natural water resources in Ethipia feed the Nile and can sustain the civilization many times over, and yet tens of thousands have perished from water scarcity. It is unacceptable that the Bengal famine took place in midst of abundant food-grain. I am tired of sick, disease and famine-ridden children touching my feet every day, in the hope of getting a few rupees.

I am disillusioned with the notion of becoming personally rich and yet participate in an ecosystem which has 15 components (out of 24) that are being degraded at an alarming rate. What will my currency be worth if it can't buy anything and hasn't been backed by creation of national wealth?

I have but one dream - that the income of over one billion poorest people in the world be raised by $1 per day within the next five years.

That is over $365 billion per annum of fresh wealth created in the hands of you and me. That is over $365 billion worth of purchasing power in the hands of the poorest section of today's world. The odds are small that tomorrow's wealth, and booming markets, are going to be the creation of today's rich. The odds are large that a sustainable income in the hands of the poor will drive the creation of phenomenal wealth in society. One that has been created free of debt and disease.

This then, is my dream career - a social investor. One who invests private equity into social enterprises with very tangible economic returns. But not one at a small scale - one at a phenomenally large scale. And it shall be driven by my second (or third) love - technology. Low-cost, large-scale technology. Data transmission over optic beams that obviates the need for cabling, or high-powered mirrors that amplify the power of solar panels.

Hell ..... I never said I'm a big thinker, nor did I say I'm very bright.

But that is it - my $1 dream. You with me or you stepping aside?