Minority Community Resiliency
Something to consider:
Many of the country’s minorities rely on long, complex supply chains for what is their equivalent of daily bread and butter. (Primarily Asians, but also Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, to varying degrees.) These supply chains are endangered for many reasons – credit crunch, warfare – and could, quite abruptly, come to a crashing halt, leaving minorities without their everyday staples.
Fortunately, most of these communities have their own infrastructure (primarily religious, but also community centers) that can, in a lot of ways, be leveraged to supplant these uncertain supply chains. Many of these are fledging buildings that have plenty of land to expand. Intead of additional buildings, community leaders should consider utilizing the land to grow community-specific vegetables and fruit, in greenhouses if necessary.
With the right mix of volunteer labor and subscription farming mechanisms could result in a buffer to global system shocks, additional revenue to strengthen community infrastructure, and a more cohesive community identity. Networking these, along already existing religious or cultural edges, could increase yields exponentially. Most will take on secular connections for proximity and greater output for all connected parties rather than the limitations associated with a homogeneous ecosystem. For example, small population minorities could piggyback on larger populations with more resources in return for labor, etc.
Lots of ideas on this to be discussed with community leaders and architects. Boot up your own conversation!
-Shlok
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Jan 16, 2009
I can’t see the supply chains ceasing to exist. What I think might happen in a bad-case scenario is fufu or cassava or palm oil or whatever would be really expensive, which would obviously hurt poorer immigrant communities a lot more than others. Interesting business opportunity – use greenhouses to sell foreign-type veggies.
Jan 16, 2009
Re: Infrastructure, the Sikh community in Canada has a strong focus in the trucking industry. Bulk fuel and insurance rates negotiated thru Temple elders and savings passed on to members. Remittances go to the Temple to pay expenses & taxes then net pay distributed to the owner-operators. Fuel purchases are in the millions of litres per year — so hefty discounts make indendent trucking a more viable enterprise. High degree of trust in their church seems to keep it all working smoothly.
Jan 21, 2009
Adrian –
Supply chains die overnight if there’s no credit to keep them flowing.
It’d not only be fun but also a sustainable business. Something that matters more than wealth in uncertainty methinks.
Frank –
Bingo, harnessing the power of the collective by applying modernity to already existing structures. For many, that’s all they’ll have.