Since enrolling three years ago at Taylor University, I knew the opportunity to travel to Asia for an international business study tour would be available during January of my senior year. But a leisure vacation to Africa during Christmastime was an opportunity I could not forgo. Kenya is home to my friends Mark and Audrey Statler who teach and live at Rosslyn Academy, an international Christian school in Nairobi.
Although the purposes of my visits differed, both provided a glimpse of global business and economic diversity. The Kibera slum of Nairobi is the largest urban slum in Africa and sits within minutes of westernized malls, restaurants, and homes. It is no secret that this sort of economic divide is a global reality.
December 19, 2012, 10:01a.m., Nairobi: We went along the exterior of Kibera, Nairobi's slum. I felt scared, maybe terrified in this place. Was I fearful of poverty? Of instability? Of being the minority?
If answers exist to my questions, I know them not. The agony of the unknown produces fear. Economic insecurity is no exception. The lack of clean water, adequate shelter, and consistent income are realities I have never known. In the midst of that reality though, there are people living moral, ethical, and opportunistic lives. Perhaps they know this better than I.
Within days of visiting the third-world, developing-nation of Kenya, I took part in one of the fastest-growing economies of the world. The rapidly transitioning economy of China consists of economic diversity that seems to challenge communism's aim.
A visit to Janes Lock Company, which produces door locks for Brinks sold in Walmart, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot, gave me a glimpse of Chinese manufacturing. The facilities and infrastructure reminded me of the Industrial Revolution. The company employs 1,500 workers who live on site and are allowed to go home, often in rural China, one week per year during the Chinese New Year. Starting wages: USD $30 per month.
January 10, 2013, 2:30p.m. Doumen, China: Since workers are paid by piece production they are permitted to work whenever possible to increase productivity and thus increase wages. I know as an American consumer lower labor costs mean a lower final goods cost, but I have a deeper and more meaningful appreciation for products "Made in China." I have seen the hands and faces of thousands of human beings, people, with souls, producing goods.
Equipping people with the resources of business and the values of personhood demonstrated through the Church engenders the opportunity to develop communities. Humanness inspires a wealth of opportunity where economic circumstance would hinder development. The walls and chains of economic divide crumble under the weight of human potential. Resources benefit growth, but the Redeemer, through His people, changes lives both in malls and slums.
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