By name, you don’t likely know Tarek al-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi, “Basboosa” to his friends and family. He died of hunger. He was 26. But you’ll know of the young street vendor who set himself alight in front of the governor’s office in a small Tunisian town on December 17, 2010. That morning, police harassed the impoverished fruit seller struggling to feed his family on $140 a month.
The old notion that “when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold” is fading. U.S. businesses and consumers no longer rule the globe. And for smart investors everywhere, the message is clear: For solid profits, you must put some wealth to work in markets beyond U.S. borders.
I found Rebekah Opuni sitting on the tailgate of a truck with her younger sister. The air conditioner inside her small boutique hadn’t been installed yet and indoors without A/C isn’t always the coolest place to relax in Accra, Ghana…in midafternoon…in midsummer…just five degrees north of the equator.
The morning rush hour spreads through the central business district of Popayán, Colombia. But the rush of activity isn’t the relatively few cars and motorbikes slipping through the narrow lanes of this well-preserved colonial city. It’s the armada of street vendors for whom these lanes serve as a showroom floor.
I was about 11 or 12 years old, listening to my mom—a travel agent at the time—talking to a co-worker about finding a way to get a client to Minneapolis.