Uncle, important: take pics showing the relative wealth of the kamis...

Someone walks to the bank and withdraws the small amount of cash necessary for a single loan. Much less predictable and hazardous than periodic payroll withdrawals, which they cope with.

Or,

for example, the bicycle dealer can be paid directly by HI, so the loan recipient never has to deal with cash.

[This message has been edited by Howard Wallace (edited 02-18-2000).]
 
I like this idea for several reasons. First, as Jim said it is not charity. I've quoted the old saying that you here around here: Don't give a fish, give line and pole. It is something that will stay put and hopefully grow.

Second, it is privately run and avoids the hands that might pilfer funds.

I will speak to Pala and Gelbu about this and see what comes of it. A little goes a long ways here. Example: For 10,000 rupia (today exchange rate is about 68 per dollar) we financed a semester of college for the son of Sgt. Karka Ram Bahadur -- $150 for a semester of college! The kid, Ramasore, hugged me and wanted to kiss my hands for the help we gave. He has helped in the shop and his dad is one of our top hands -- an expediter who can get things done. Money extremely well spent.

When Ram (my nickname for him) asked me how me might repay us I told him when he was 40 and established to help some kid go to college and that was the repayment.

We will pursue this when I get back next week. Many thanks for interest here. Very good karma for everybody involved.

Blessings from all of us here in Nepal.



------------------
Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 

Vampire hunting is not the profitable buisness, but I'm sure I could kick $50 Uncle's way. I really like this idea. It's just the kind of help that I think is best.
 
YES!! You guys are thinking along the right track.

This kind of stuff is being done right now, and it WORKS. The people with the most experience are called the Grameen Bank, and they are at

http://www.grameen-info.org/

The guy who started it was an economics professor in Bangladesh. He started investigating poverty in his family's village and met a woman who made a living by something not much better than the drudgery Bill is talking about. After talking to her for a while he realized that the item she needed to become self-sufficient (instead of buying her supplies from a one-day-at-a-time monopoly merchant) would cost 25 cents -- and for the lack of that sum, she had effectively become the slave of the guy who brought her supplies to town. (She herself couldn't go get them out of town because she couldn't take a day off, nor did she have the cash to buy anything in bulk.)

There's one other thing: if we are serious about this then we should think of some ideas to increase the market size for HI, or some parallel business. Uncle Bill: I know this isn't your preferred business model, but could one of the HI shops also produce a retail product? To me the obvious possibilities are

(1) kagas katnes as novelty knives (I'm not
kidding; a little while ago I saw a cigar cutter advertised in a cigar shop as being "as sharp as a Gurkha knife", with a picture of the edge of a khukuri on it -- wouldn't the customer rather use the real thing?)

(2) slightly smaller khukuris for backpacking or cutlery stores -- the best damn camp knife ever invented.

(3) how many *good* khukuris are sold in the UK and ex-British colonies where the concept is better-known than in the states?

Sorry, Uncle Bill, I'm sure you've thought of all this a thousand times -- but if a few more hands can get involved maybe one of these would work out.

[This message has been edited by johnniet (edited 02-20-2000).]
 
Johnniet, a couple of things:

HI's biggest need right now is to grow the cash flow to the point where they can afford proper support for Bill's distribution duties stateside, WITHOUT driving Bill to an early grave getting there.

Follow? It's a bit of a catch-22.

One part of the solution is to RAISE the average value of each blade. Why? Because Bill does just as much work prepping, selling and shipping a $60 Village model as he does a $300 silver-sheathed Kothimoda.

That doesn't mean abandoning the low end completely, because that's where new customers come from. But HI's repeat customer rate is so astonishingly high that the quality and average value per blade has some room to rise. I'm not talking about raising prices per se, I mean bringing in blades that are really worth more.

I'd like to see a new, extremely cool and higher end blade that would have big appeal beyond the Khukuri market. And that's all I'm allowed to say on THAT until...next week, Bill?
smile.gif


Pala figured out the same thing when he was here, and abandoned plans to bring in huge numbers of the better "rail commons" in the $40 - $50 range.

As to overseas sales...first problem, Britain, Japan, Australia and too many others are going so "weapons ban crazy" that Khukuri shipments become difficult bordering on brain-bending.

Canada is getting close.

Bill has been able to do some overseas business as is. One problem: since each piece is unique, Bill has to do a "value judgement" on each one. He's been extremely fair and honest about it, while avoiding putting Pala's interests on the back burner. But that's a delicate subjective balance; finding somebody else who can do it as well as Bill does will be difficult. The risk is that the new dealer could "undercut" Bill's operation, accidently or deliberately.

I think Bill would be happy becoming the "head of marketing" while employees in the states do shipping/prepping/order tracking in a modest modern office. Questions like "where's my order" get handled by a good employee, questions like "what's the best Khuk for my needs" is Bill's department. He'd get days off, vacations, all those neat things Rusty's been on his case about
smile.gif
.

Anyways...I hope this helps understand where HI is at and where we're hoping they go.

Jim
 
Hey Jim, If I wasn't on the other end of the country I would help Uncle bill out pro bono just to hear some of the stories that he could tell. It would be a lot like working for a guru.

------------------
"Clear a path for the Kukhri or it will clear one for itself"
 
Thanks for the perspective, Jim. I'm really looking forward to this new high-end project that you and Bill keep gloating over.
cool.gif


And I've got to agree with Rusty below.
wink.gif



[This message has been edited by johnniet (edited 02-19-2000).]
 
It might be better to talk of some of these things privately by email rather than on an open forum. No sense broadcasting salable ideas and strategy.

------------------
Horse sense is what a jackass ain't got.
 
Agreed, and it wouldn't also hurt to get the opinions of some successful businessmen/women with practical experience to give their thoughts on this.

Harry

------------------
L'audace, toujours l'audace!!!
 
I think HI's business model and layout is unique enough that there's no harm in anybody else seeing this stuff.

The relative profit on an expensive blade versus cheap will be obvious to anyone doing worldwide shipping. Bill's "distribution bottleneck" makes it even more of a factor.

Once Bill is back and settled, I've got a few ideas that may need to be a "private EMail thing only" with some of the regulars. But no rush, especially now that Bill is talking about having a helper to handle shipping and prep of incoming pieces.

Jim
 
Wow! I've been away from the forums for several days and I just got a chance to read this thread…fascinating stuff! These ideas seem like a great way to help a lot of folks in Nepal in the right way. Uncle Bill can definitely count on my support if this project comes together. I'll be very interested to see how this develops…

Jim
 
One possible interpretation of this intriguing idea is that it is a plot by amoral capitalists to increase their wealth by increasing the burden on the already downtrodden masses.

Granted, most of us don't share that interpretation. Nevertheless, it can be made. There is a possibility that the Nepalese administrators of such a scheme would be in great personal danger from political extremists.
 
Howard beat me to it. This is a real and present danger and one that needs some thinking before we act.

If our attempt to help would result in harm to any Nepali, especially Pala and Gelbu, I would never forgive myself. But, have heart. I have another idea which might possibly be better.

Stay tuned!

------------------
Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
Howard, you're half right. The reason Maoists would target any such system is that it puts a "good face on capitalism" in the eyes of the general populace, and therefore reduces affection for communism.

The Shining Path in Peru pulled the same crap. Local politicians who brought in aid and development money and started to turn their local economies around were immediately targeted. Eventually this cost them the support of the people, along with other bone-headed stuff but a lot of good people died first. Let's try and forstall that, especially now that we know they're using bombs...personal defensive guns don't do squat to stop a crazed bomber, unfortunately.

What I'm starting to think is, maybe the whole thing needs to be handled "underground". Pala, Gelbu or whoever goes and identifies good borrower candidates, talks to them privately, if it works out the borrower promises to keep the cash source secret even from family. That could work if all involved realize this could make people targets of the Maoists...if I was doing something that could piss off a terrorist, I'd make damn sure my family didn't know anything, for fear they could get tortured otherwise. And then the first round of borrowers could be used to recommend good new candidates back to Pala and company.

This has the added advantage of keeping the Nepalese government's bribe-sniffing nose the heck out of it. Cash transfers could be hidden in among BirGhorka payroll; so far BirGhorka has escaped Maoist attention.

There's one other possibility. Pala is ex-Ghurka, right? I assume he knows others? Is it possible to "get the word out on the street" that the Ghorka vets are staying non-political, but if BirGhorka or it's operations come under attack they're liable to re-think that policy en mass and go hunting commies?

Let me give a comparison: Martin Luther King's racial reforms by non-violent means worked in the US because the *alternative* was an orgy of violence, possibly even guerilla warfare. Follow? Huey Newton was the alternative. King "played this up" - his constant reminders in speeches to his followers to avoid violence had two effects: actually reducing violence, but also give the appearance that injustice could cause massive violence at any moment. BOTH effects were critical.

So...a message to the effect of "us Ghurkas are going to start helping our own people directly, we have almost as little respect for the Nepalese gov't as you Maoists, we'll stay clear of the argument but DON'T EVEN THINK about messing with us" might actually work?

Naturally, Bill and Pala will know more about the usefulness of this concept...I'm just kickin' ideas around.

Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim March (edited 02-22-2000).]
 
I don't post much, but this is an insiring idea and I wanted to take the time to let anyone interested know that I would be more than willing to make this type of a micro investment and will be on the lookout for anyway that I can help to facillitate the success of such a venture. Let us know what type of help you might need or what any of us forumites can do. Thanks
 
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