Granada Nicaragua & Spain Colonial City

City - Belo Horizonte,MG,Brasil

As a counselor and consultant to many entrepreneurs I am always amazed at the spirit and drive they exhibit. As I have become an internet user over the years, I am really encouraged by the contacts I receive on a daily basis from prospective entrepreneurs living in countries and continents that are not normally associated with creativity and free markets. In most situations, these hopeful entrepreneurs will not have the ability to commercialize their ideas. However, the mere fact that they have ideas, ambition and courage, despite the circumstance of their geography should be of great solace to all of us. A better world can happen and freedom, personal and commercial, will be the first rail of such a world.

The pricing of the raw cocoa beans that Flight Lt. Rawlings was so agitated about are controlled by market forces. A socialist dictator, of course, does not understand market forces. Supply and demand, drought, market conditions and competitive forces determine what any commodity is worth on any given day. Without an industrial process capable of converting a commodity into a finished product, a system to distribute that finished product and an organized marketplace for the sale and consumption of finished goods, there would be virtually zero value in most of the world’s raw materials.

Innovation that utilizes the raw materials so prevalent in many poor countries is the engine that can, and should be instrumental in eliminating poverty and ignorance. Demagogue’s ranting about the abuses of capitalism inevitably are key to keeping their populations poor. The entrepreneur, with a better mousetrap and a plan to market the device, is far more beneficial to the peasant living in darkness than the charismatic blowhard with a bushel full of rhetorical claptrap and a Swiss bank account.

Have peoples and countries been exploited of their indigenous raw materials? Absolutely, and forever and a day this has occurred. Long before the industrial revolution people were robbed, enslaved and exploited by stronger groups in order to exploit water, salt, cattle or some perceived benefit that was not readily available to them. The modern industrial craving for raw materials to propel industrialization has been a real fact.

Many years ago I watched a television news interviewer allow Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, the de-facto dictator of Ghana at that time, to rant about the absolute rape of his tiny, poverty stricken west African nation, by multi-national companies like Nestle. Ghana’s major export product was the cocoa bean. Nestle, Hershey and other major chocolate purveyors were Ghana’s major customers for the cocoa bean. Rawling’s gripe: commodity prices were unfair to Ghanian growers based on the high retail prices enjoyed by the manufacturers as reflected in their finished products.

The dawn of industrialization, mechanization, steam engines, the internal combustion engine and mobile transit created a need for significant stocks of oil. Initially, oil was plentiful and affordable in the United States. Petroleum engineers, anticipating the coming worldwide demand for petroleum distillate products, visited the Middle East in the 1920’s. The first oil concessions were negotiated with the House of Saud, and thus began the rise of omnipotent Middle East oil principalities. This is but another example of an unwanted, valueless commodity suddenly gaining remarkable currency as a result of industrial, really entrepreneurial success.

Inventions such as polio vaccine, the telephone, the laser, freeze-drying and flight are of amazing benefit to the poor. The capacity of the internet and electronic media to enlighten, and thus embolden formerly untouched villagers with hope, education, and ambition to improve their lot is on display in many areas of the third world. This march will not be stopped. Once people are exposed to modern comforts, opportunities and methods to peacefully improve their lot, well, as the old saying goes: “It is hard to keep them down on the farm”.

A bit of perspective is important as regards cocoa beans, and, indeed, all commodities. The cocoa bean, as grown and harvested, is inedible. It is tough, dry, bitter and rock hard. Native Ghanian’s historically had no use for the beans and considered them a nuisance.

My point and perspective is to simply state the obvious: raw materials often have no intrinsic value as stand alone products or consumables. Without a marketplace that creates demand and valuations for minerals as product components, native peoples would enjoy even lower standards of living than Jerry Rawlings and so many current third world leaders, continually complain about.

Since the dawn of capitalism and the industrial revolution, entrepreneurs have created products, services and whole industries that have improved the human condition. The poorest amongst us, living in the most remote third world villages, have enjoyed at least some indirect benefits of this flood of inventiveness. The real shame is that demagogues, charlatans and political poseurs keep so many people in the dark and removed from the full benefits of participating in capitalist, profit seeking, entrepreneurial enterprise.

The third world peasant unknowingly has a great benefactor in every entrepreneur. Because so much of the second and third world lacks basic property rights and rule of law, there is a resulting lack of entrepreneurial activity in these poor countries. Patent protection, intellectual property rights and transparent legal systems are essential for entrepreneurial endeavor to thrive.

For centuries the Middle East camel caravans and traders were confronted with a constant nuisance: trade routes were often submerged in a bog of oil seeping uncontrolled from beneath the earth. The resulting need to chart and create new routes was time consuming and expensive. Oil was considered the “devils drink”. Camels could not drink oil. The Bedouin could not sleep or wear the oil.

Bauxite, plutonium, titanium, cobalt, magnesium, and dozens more raw materials and minerals are of immense value in our contemporary world because, and solely because, modern economies have created products and industries that have need of these elements. The final products we see on our store shelves, personally consume or utilize to perform our work usually consist of a perfected blending of the world’s commodities that alone, have little use or value.

The discussion of the appropriate use of mineral revenues by third world countries is for another article and another day. Suffice it to say that rarely does a specific nations mineral wealth benefit the native population. Vast amounts of revenues that could be applied to indigenous poverty, lack of education and economic development seems to wind up in off-shore accounts, yachts and Parisian shopping sprees.

The genius of capitalist markets is reflected in the sweep of Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand”. As entrepreneurs have pursued opportunities to commercialize their ideas they have unwittingly created sub-markets for commodities that were once considered useless. The cocoa bean, without the modern creation of a manufacturing system, distribution channel and consumer desire for refined chocolate products, is only one obvious example of markets turning something of no value into a marketable commodity with real value.

by: Geoff Ficke 

That is, until the 19th century when Europeans perfected the process of converting the cocoa bean into refined lusciously tasty, highly desired chocolate food products. For centuries, chocolate was a dilettante’s delight, the food of royalty. Chocolate was rare, expensive and difficult to distill. Nestle, Cadbury and Hershey were among the many businesses that perfected the mass manufacturing processes essential to bringing the delights of chocolate to the masses, and as a result, created the market for the formerly unwanted Ghanian cocoa beans.

The drive to be entrepreneurial is deeply imbedded in human nature. The opportunity to use natural resources productively and profitably is just as possible in the third world as anywhere else, if transparent legal systems are in place. Creating jobs, profits and new products is what successful entrepreneurs do best. It is unfortunate that third world poverty is wrongly blamed on productive uses of indigenous resources that would be of no value to anyone if left in the ground. The real misfortune for the worlds forgotten poor is their exclusion from full economic participation in so many economies based on the willful, spiteful complicity of their leaders.

D-Day changed world, country, Sumter forever - Item - MSMDC News (blog)
Eastern News (blog)D-Day changed world, country, Sumter forever - ItemMSMDC News (blog)The Allied High Command announced that the German army had missed its best chance at a counter-offensive, and was now engaged in a fierce defense of ...Area veterans recall D-DaySumter ItemPOTTSTOWN AT D-DAYPottstown Mercuryall 139 news articles »

World Cup Soccer Preview: Vuvuzelas will be blaring as excitement hits fever pitch - American Chronicle
The HinduWorld Cup Soccer Preview: Vuvuzelas will be blaring as excitement hits fever pitchAmerican ChronicleAs the ultimate referee, world soccer's governing body is not obliged to explain how it arrives at its decisions. You might think only the world's best and ...The world moves to S'AfricaThe PunchWorld Cup 2010: The World comes to South AfricaThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comThe Ideas guide to the World CupBoston GlobeMiamiHerald.com -The Associated Press -Associated Contentall 2,365 news articles »

Noted travel writer discusses changing world of travel - San Jose Mercury News
Noted travel writer discusses changing world of travelSan Jose Mercury NewsThe cover stories are so clearly, cynically meant to sell magazines: "The 10 best outdoor towns in America." How come they're always different? ...and more »

Aug 23, 2010 The August 18, 2010 issue of Newsweek declared Finland the world' s best country. I lived in Finland for five years, and married a Finn. Why the United Nations ranks Canada the highest in the Human Development Index. 1 post  -  1 author  -  Last post:  Aug 19Melbourne, Aug 19 (ANI): Finland has been named “Best Country In The World' . The most sparsely populated country in Europe is celebrating Aug 17, 2010 Newsweek: Jewish state is best in the Middle East. Global Finance magazine' s free online edition: Country Economic Reports GDP and trade WORLD' S BEST GLOBAL BANKS 2010 · WORLD' S 50 SAFEST BANKS 2010 Feb 10, 2010 Learn more about the best places in the to live and get a free report . If you' re still undecided on which is best for you, Aug 18, 2010 Switzerland ranks second in “best country” list Apparently Switzerland ranks number one in the world for “best place to be a rapper”. Mar 29, 2010 Article here . Excerpt: ' In other words, Ebba is the perfect example of what the latest research shows: that Sweden is a country in which 23 posts  -  8 authors  -  Last post:  Aug 16The best in the world is where U find happiness. . Truth be told, this whole " World' s Country" business means very little to Aug 19, 2010 Finland names as the World' best - Online Worldwide news, World news online, America, USA, Europe news, Asian happenings, Israel, Finland is the ' World' s Best Country' . Wednesday, 18 August, 2010. Tekes / Markus SommersThe Finnish education system scored top points in Newsweek Aug 17, 2010 Denmark has been overtaken by all of its Nordic neighbours and is now the tenth best in the world. Norway was ranked as number six Aug 17, 2010 Bulgaria appears to be one of the worst European Union countries to live in, according to a Newsweek magazine ranking that compared living Jan 23, 2009 Ireland - the world' s country to live in? Where will be the best place to live in 2005? According to a global quality of life index in Aug 18, 2010 Newsweek has proclaimed Finland the best country in the world. But some Finns disagree. Mar 11, 2010 With its beaches, outdoor lifestyle and friendly schools, Australia has been voted the world' s country to bring up children by Aug 23, 2010 " Hungary is 33rd in the ranking of the world' s best 100 countries, a comprehensive list compiled by Newsweek that ranks the states in five Aug 19, 2010 FINLAND, the most sparsely populated country in Europe, is celebrating after being crowned " Best in the world" by Newsweek magazine. Aug 19, 2010 The country was honoured with the prestigious awarded by a panel of economists and social policy experts. Aug 16, 2010 link to the news @ iltasanomat.fi from those whom finnish is not that great: basically it' s says that finnish is the best country. Best Country in the World interactive top ten list at TheTopTens. Vote, add to, or comment on the Best in the World. VOTE FOR Mobin Jan (also known as the best country in the in life history .. India is the best place in the to live in. A country with many Top ten countries or best country in the in the world, based on growing economy, investment rate, healthcare, population size, percentage of Oct 1, 2010 Going to a country but don' t know where to start? cheap airline tickets, Lonely Planet recommended insurance and the adventures. Aug 18, 2010 FOR much of its history it has been - in the words of Monty Python - " so sadly neglected, so often ignored/ A close second to Belgium, Aug 18, 2010 Thailand ranks 58th in " World' s Country" list BANGKOK (NNT) -Thailand takes 58th in The World′s Best Countries, the U Human Development statistical tools. Explore the through our animations and various online tools: Getting and using data Secrets of the World' s Best School Systems Running a country can be a thankless job, but these 10 leaders have managed to win serious respect. Jan 7, 2010 Britain has dropped to 25th place on a list of the places in the Germany is arguably the world' s most naturist-friendly country' . The 3rd best country in the for high adult literacy. The 12th best life expectancy in the world. The third best country to live in for quality of Sep 3, 2010 It rates Norway as the world' s country, due to its healthy life expectancy, literacy rates and thriving economy. In fact, a 2005 report by the Economic Forum found this Scandinavian nation to be the world' s " most advanced country" for women, with greater levels Oct 3, 2010 Is America the best country to live in in the whole world? What is the best country to live and best Citizenship to have in the world? WBCH 100.1 FM- World' s Country Hits! Barry County - Hastings Michigan Jun 11, 2010 I think you' ve all been in Sweden too long and have been jantefied. ) Sweden is officially the best country in the - deal with it! :) May 27, 2008 Australia is the only in the world, that consists of an .. Anyone who says that their country is “THE BEST”, like 9 out of 10 Sep 13, 2010 That' s where the USA ranks in Newsweek' s list of the 100 countries in the world, not even in the top 10”. Mmmm, In response to Maxim, I have to say that, while I do not think America is the " best" country in the world (though in some ways it is, I would think), For example, the Health Organization' s ranking of the world' s health systems was Best Universities 2008 · Nobel Prizes by Country 1901-2009 New! Aug 22, 2010 India ranks 78th on the World' s Best Countries' list compiled by which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a Mar 27, 2010 Where in the are woman treated most like equals? It' s not the USA or Austria. KWBC.FM: Internet Radio, World' s Best Country. What music do you like best? Traditional Country. Western. Bluegrass. Southern Gospel. Other. KWBC. Aug 17, 2010 Korea Picked 15th ' Country' in the World. Korea was ranked 15th in a list of the " World' s Countries" by Newsweek magazine. The World' s Best for Women. If you want to be happy, healthy, and powerful, you might consider packing your bags and moving to a picturesque country 2010 year' s ranking also identifies the cities with the best eco-ranking based on water World' s Most Livable Cities 2010 (Top 10). City, Country, Rating This video is a tribute to the country in the - Northkorea, with the best leader in the world, The Dear leader Comrade Kim Jong-il. Aug 16, 2010 NEWSWEEK' s list of the world' s best countries. traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country—America—at the right time. Sep 3, 2010 Is This The World' s Best Country? - 03/09/2010 Norway has grown rich on oil and fish. Norway is a great place to live, if you believe the UN Jan 7, 2010 USA Drops to 7th Place as France Beats USA as " World' s Best Place . Depends on the you want to move to. Here in Moldova you come Aug 19, 2010 World' s Best Country Ranking. 16:56 19/08/2010 Newsweek magazine compared 100 countries in five categories: Education, Health,