Condom Soccer Balls, Not Just For Hard Times
Posted on by Forest in General, Saving Money & Finances
He he, I hope you liked the title….. but this article isn’t all jokes (thank god, I am pretty awful at them!)
I was particularly touched this morning by the ingenuity displayed in the video below.
The kids wanted a soccer ball, so they used the materials to hand to get exactly what they wanted. And it wasn’t a half arsed soccer ball either. To my well trained English eye, it looked like it played pretty darn well.
I wasn’t touched because it surprised me that a poor African kid could think up clever ideas and make good use of what he had to hand, not at all. In fact I really think we should be looking to places where resources are thin to see how people in desperate situations get by. Muhammed Yunus says in his book “Banker to the Poor” (paraphrasing here) that the poor don’t need to be taught how to do things, they already know how. In many cases they may even be doing things better than us, out of pure necessity.
In the case of this condom soccer ball, the boy didn’t invent the idea of the ball but he did find a new way to make the same thing. On my recent visit to Garbage City in Cairo I learned how the poor here are creating new and exciting ways to recycle and reuse almost anything, these people are doing the jobs of highly paid executives out of pure need. Their ingenuity may well unmatched in this field! Thinking back to the rations during WWII, UK and USA housewives (and I am sure the rest of the world too) invented many many ways to create common meals using less and more common ingredients. They worked out replacements and just got the job done!
Due to the recent recession a wave of ingenuity, when it comes to saving money, has been spreading. This ties in well with the green movement and creating many money saving eco-friendly alternatives to commercially pushed solutions to all kinds of problems from things like cooking copycat restaurant meals at home to city roof top gardens and more.
We should be proud of what we can achieve in hard times, human ingenuity never ceases to amaze!
According to the markets, the media and many bloggers it looks like this recession may be on the way out. Soon we will all be relaxing again in comfortable well paid jobs, buying shoes, eating at pricey restaurants. The recent history may well be forgotten. When people prosper it could be argued that ingenuity wanes. We leave the advancements up to scientists and executive think tanks as consumerism and relying on being fed information (and believing it) becomes the norm again. Rich societies rarely have revolutions and strong widespread political movements (unless religion is the motivation!). I could foresee a possibility that the green movement would loose much of it’s grass roots and become a consumer lead only trend, if money is no longer tight!
So when this recession ends and money is no longer tight, how and why do we keep up our creativity and resourcefulness?
Firstly I think there has to be an attitude change. There is quite a split between financial and frugal bloggers and I hope you all chime into this conversation, but I really think consumerism is killing our soul and our beautiful planet. If we just use less resources (money and physical resources) then the times between economical collapses will be lengthened and the gap between rich and poor will be shrunk.
We need to pull back and start doing things ourselves, or amongst our communities, this applies to the rich and poor! For example, why buy a skirt for $300 from a designer store when you could buy the material and pay a tailor to create something original for much less? Small actions like this could help to fuel local economies and keep money and resources rotating in a more sustainable fashion. If everyone in the community specialised in one type of vegetable or fruit, then a veg swap could be arranged and many families would be fed for practically nothing. I know the farmers lose out in this deal, but other options such as farm to door, or self picking are available too. Buying fruit and veg from the supermarkets often yields tiny profit for farmers.
Many many schemes, ideas and solutions to money and resource problems are in place now because of the economic mishap, but we cannot let all these awesome advancements go to waste when dollars start flowing again…..
Ingenuity and resourcefulness must carry on even in prosperous times, it just makes sense!
What do you think?
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29 Responses to “Condom Soccer Balls, Not Just For Hard Times”
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Ryan Martin
28. Apr, 2010
Great post Forest. I agree there is something really really wrong going on.
I love what you said: “Firstly I think there has to be an attitude change. There is quite a split between financial and frugal bloggers and I hope you all chime into this conversation, but I really think consumerism is killing our soul and our beautiful planet.”
I have been reading many financial blogs recently and many times I ask myself how these people can be that ignorant.
My wife and I watched the movie Wall-E again this morning; I suggest everyone watch it, but when you do… assume everyone died.
There will be no big space cruise ship saving our asses.
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Forest
29. Apr, 2010
Thanks Ryan
… Sadly we may get a ship to save us then we can go screw up another planet 
People stop caring in affluent times and this needs changing…. I don’t see many people talking about saving gas these days as the price has dropped but we are still wrecking the resource and wells are drying up!
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Simple in France
29. Apr, 2010
A condom soccer ball sounds too bouncy–yet ingenious.
I love it when you put our current economic troubles in perspective. No matter what term we use (meltdown, crisis, depression) we certainly have a lot of options available to us, don’t we?
It will be interesting to see if the ideas gleaned during these hard times can stick with our generation once/if times get easier. I’ve heard people my grandparents’ age reminiscing about WWiI rationing or the great depression–the experiences seem to have stayed with them.
.-= Simple in France´s last blog ..College Education: more than an investment? =-.
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Forest
29. Apr, 2010
Sadly I don’t think that we will come out of this trouble the way people did from the depression…. being wired into credit cards and such things lessened the feeling of being in a depression…. back then there was nothing to bail you out so you just had to rough it!…. The next step for people now is recovering from the line of debt they have fallen into!
We have a ton of options to improve ourselves financially and frugally…. That’s why we all have to keep writing and sharing ideas and spreading this movement.
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Guy G.
30. Apr, 2010
Hey,
I have enough trouble keeping a regular soccer ball under control. I’d never thought of how people in less fortunate situations would do things more creatively than us in our ‘take it for granted’ society. I know that the creator of our universe has provided for us every need we could ever have, it’s up to us to go out and get them. In these people’s case, they’re taking what we might find as waste, or of singular purpose, and tuning it into something of value. Value being a perception of worth, based on demand.
Thanks for the great thought provoking post.
Cheers,
Guy
.-= Guy G.´s last blog ..How To Manage Money Tips has joined the Yakezie Challenge! =-.
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Forest
03. May, 2010
Ha ha, I think the double yarn actually adds more weight than it looks and when they are playing with the balls it looks like it’s pretty decent.
As for the creator putting everything there for us…. whether you believe in a god or not it’s amazing what we have done with it and sad we are abusing some important resources…. Just think almost all the insides of a computer are literally dug out of the ground!
No matter what background you have creativity can run wild inside you… We have to look everywhere for the best and brightest ideas to help our future!
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ConsciouslyFrugal
03. May, 2010
I love that you are so respectful of the poor–something I don’t often see. I also love that you see the ingenuity and possibility within the global economic “crisis” and how it provides us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves as something other than mindless consumers. Hope! You’re so right–there is so much hope and possibility now. We can leave the depressed state of work-consume-die behind!
I keep hearing economists talk about the “new normal.” They claim we won’t be able to go back to our usual, consume-at-all-costs ways. I hope they’re right. There are a thousand different ways in which we could live. I hope we learn from those who have created amazing things out of necessity. I hope we give more. I hope we lean on each other more. I hope we point and laugh at the notion of consuming for a “green” economy.
I think substantive change will happen in the usual fashion–from the bottom up, through grassroots movements and intimate conversations. What better time than now?
.-= ConsciouslyFrugal´s last blog ..Half-Assed UnPlugging =-.
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Forest
03. May, 2010
Sadly I do think the majority will return to drone like consumerism… In fact many never stopped during this depression and credit card companies loves this!
BUT…. if enough of us do rebel and push these ideals then maybe some headway and change can be made. I am in general an anti-capitalist but acept that I live and act within a capitalist society…. In fact i earn money blogging and much of that comes from capitalism, I was probably hit in the crisis due to an advertising shortage but didn’t really notice as I live on very little anyway!
Let’s lead this change and keep blogging, talking and sharing ideas
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Financial Samurai
04. May, 2010
That’s one big condom Forest! Human ingenuity is an amazing thing indeed. Simple pleasures!
Congrats on cracking the Top 100!
.-= Financial Samurai´s last blog ..Where Did All The Time Go? =-.
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Forest
04. May, 2010
Ha ha, thanks Sam.
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LeanLifeCoach
05. May, 2010
Another one passes 100! Rock on….
The soccer ball is great. Oddly enough I was studying for a project lately that revolves around the concept of functional fixedness. It’s where we can’t see the condom as anything but a condom. Yet others see a soccer ball? We have functional fixedness!
Personally, I don’t think all will be forgotten. Many will never again waste the kind of money that they have. However I believe that when good times roll we get lazy. We move slower and we move less. It is in our nature and I am not sure we can change that .
.-= LeanLifeCoach´s last blog ..Are You Married To A Gambler? =-.
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Forest
05. May, 2010
Hey Lean Life Coach…. Exactly! This is where creativity comes from, some people call it “thinking out of the box” but whatever it is it’s ingenuity.
I think our regression may be surprising! We did not seem to learn much from the big dip in the 80′s….. But I may be wrong, the net and this movement of bloggers may change all of that!
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FinEngr
05. May, 2010
On a humorous note…
We were taught to pack condoms in our survival gear – their ability to carry large capacities of liquid without breaking made them an incredibly portable and convenient, water container.
On a serious note…
You did a wonderful job with this post. Appreciated the Yunus quotes: In many cases they may even be doing things better than us, out of pure necessity. In the world of equivalent exchange, consumerism cannot occur without being at the expense of another.
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Does This iPhone Come With or Without Cancer? =-.
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Forest
05. May, 2010
Condoms have so many uses, I actually have a condom site so I should make a cool list about all their uses!
Thanks for the compliment, I need to get better at these styles of posts as I feel I babble a bit and often struggle coming up with a good conclusion….. but have to keep writing and interaction from you guys for or against what I say will better me as a writer and a person.
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AB
11. May, 2010
Thanks for this inspirational article! I think we could all learn something from this story…
“10 Things You Should Never Buy” http://blog.greensherpa.com/index.php/tips-and-tricks/10-things-you-should-never-buy/
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Forest
20. May, 2010
No problem AB thanks a million for commenting.
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Aury (Thunderdrake)
19. May, 2010
This kind of reminds me of when William built that turbine out of scraps to generate electricity for his home.
If there’s something truly impressive about the impoverished, is how amazingly resourceful they are.
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Forest
20. May, 2010
Who is William? Sounds like a cool thing and I would like to know more.
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Aury (Thunderdrake)
20. May, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba
The name’s William Kamkwamba. He’s been circulating in western media for this particular accomplishment.
I’m sure there are TONS of people in impoverished nations like the folks you and I are talking about here in the blogosphere. ^_^
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Penniless Parenting
26. May, 2010
Its been some time since I’ve been here, and I’ve begun to regret it! I love your blog and this is so inspirational. I totally agree with you that we should look to the impoverished for inspiration- necessity is the mother of invention and desperation is the mother of ingenuity. I especially love poor people recipes and have been hunting the internet for them, and recently wrote about people who are food snobs, who have issues with certain foods merely because they’re “poor people food”. Its a pity that there aren’t more people who appreciate what there is to learn from the impoverished of the world instead of looking at them with disdain.
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Forest
26. May, 2010
Wow thanks so much for the compliment! That really means a lot to me!
Yes you hit the nail on the head, I don’t aspire to be poor but i aspire to have the ingenuity and resourcefulness of many poor people, they get my utmost respect. Especially as many poor people have no way to climb out, the class system still holds many people down!
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Penniless Parenting
26. May, 2010
You’re welcome.
I totally agree with you about poor people having no way to climb out. Where I live, people receive apartments as wedding gifts, and the country isnt built for rentals. Renters like myself get screwed because we can’t save for a down payment because rent is so high, but weren’t given apartments as wedding gifts either, so we get stuck in a rut of money thrown out each month.
I was wondering- how do I join the yakezie challenge and join the carnival?
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Forest
26. May, 2010
An apartment is a pretty good gift!!! I owned an apartment in London may years ago and it became such a money trap that i actually feel financially better off renting, strange I know!
If you visit this post “http://www.financialsamurai.com/2010/01/20/creating-powerful-friends-the-alexa-ranking-challenge/” it gives details, just announce you are joining basically, you will get an invite for the google group and can start interacting with us on Twitter, it has helped me immensely!
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Penniless Parenting
26. May, 2010
An apartment is an amazing gift.
It can either be a money trap or a help, depending on how much rent costs versus a mortgage (my friend was paying half of what I was paying in rent on my old apartment, on her mortgage for the exact same apartment in the same location), and if your landlord when renting actually fixes things or if you end up paying out of pocket to fix things. Our old RENTED apartment was such a money trap- the landlord refused to fix a thing and we ended up spending too much money to fix our hot water, broken doorways, leaking walls, etc. I’m glad we left that money trap.
I’d read that post, i didn’t know that i’d announce in the comments that I wanted to join. Am I understanding you correctly?
What does Yakezie mean?
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Forest
27. May, 2010
I guess owning is better in some places and not others as you said. It’s aslo a responsibility thing for me, I like my freedom
, also my landlady arranges all fixing here.
I think you announce in comments you are joining, then you write a post on your blog announcing it and linking back to that post and I think that is it. Sam should contact you and get you involved in everything else.
I have no idea what yakezie means
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tumbleweed
04. Jun, 2010
that is a sad video. Americans think they have hard time…oh my a housewife has to use less ingredients….i would rather be able to give that young lad a soccer ball…share the wealth america…share the wealth we are wealthy compared to the rest of the world…and we bitch and moan we need more…
ingenuity comes from creativity. you dont have to be desperate to be creative….
and no one should have to go through starvation, and hustling on the streets when others feast…its greed…you have more than enough to share…even when you think you dont.
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Forest
06. Jun, 2010
Absolutely Tumbleweed…. NO ONE should have to endure in this world but we have greed…. Although ingenuity does not need to come from poverty it often does out of necessity (sadly).
We all have something to give.
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Khaleef @ KNS Financial
21. Sep, 2010
Very good points. I can remember when gas prices in the US rose by over 400% in some areas. People became very frugal and creative in the area of travel. Once the prices came down a little – only double the previous marks – people relaxed and forgot all of the great things they did to save money.
Even now with this rush toward minimalism and frugality, I believe that it will only last for as long as the media tells us we are in a terrible economy.
By the way, our economy is not improving in an absolute sense – it just looks better because we are comparing the numbers to 2008 and 2009!
Khaleef @ KNS Financial recently posted..Prize Giveaways Galore in September
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Forest
21. Sep, 2010
Hey Khaleef, thanks for stopping by as always.
I agree, people as a whole have a very short term memory! Mind you some of the people who went through the WW’s still keep their frugality.
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