Idea 494 of 500. Cluster 27: The north and the east
Mannar's wind and salt as businesses: the pans, the kites, the birds
The mechanism, from the book
The land, the lagoons and the savings of families abroad are waiting. What comes first is the small business.
Every idea in cluster 27 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Spend a windy weekend on the Mannar coast with 2 kites and a notebook. Ask the salt-pan workers whether visitors could walk the pans and buy salt direct, and ask the guesthouses whether their guests come for the birds. Then offer a half-day of salt pans, birds and kites to one guesthouse's guests at a set price. Paid bookings tell you which of the three sells.
- Who pays first
- A birdwatcher or kite flyer visiting Mannar who wants a local guide to the pans, the birds and the best wind, and pays for a half-day.
- What leaves today
- Mannar's wind, salt and birds go unsold to visitors, and the salt leaves as a bulk commodity with no story or name attached.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
Jaffna in what we have already built - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
A nurse who comes home with a credential and not only savings
More from cluster 27
- 486Palmyrah co-operatives owning the processing, the way the coconut list works for the south
- 487Jaffna heritage stays in the old Dutch and Jaffna houses, restored by the families abroad
- 488Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu farm co-operatives with a cold chain to Colombo
- 489Batticaloa lagoon tourism: the singing fish, the kayaks, the prawns, sold as a week
- 490Technical colleges in Jaffna and Batticaloa funded by families abroad, with the employers at the table
- 491Trincomalee's Dutch fort and Koneswaram as one managed site, with a shop and a guide service
Idea 494 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.