My Beauty Best Teacher

In The Atlantic excerpts from the Steve Daniels book Making Do:

Images by Steve Daniels

Leonard is one of millions of entrepreneurs who rely on informal mechanisms in Kenya, where the informal sector comprises a full three quarters of the non-agricultural economy and produces over 90 percent of new jobs annually. Under severe material constraints, they are forced to improvise solutions to everyday problems that, from time to time, result in game-changing innovations that better address local needs. Informal artisans who engage in the production of goods are known as jua kali (Swahili for "hot sun") and have established entire ecosystems of production, from scrap sourcing to repair. The most advanced jua kali like Leonard have designed and built capital goods, such as lathes, that propel indigenous production forward. The jua kali have been largely ignored by formal institutions, regarded as a second-rate economy. Yet their drive for innovation, understanding of indigenous networks, and ability to work under extreme constraints make them ideal agents of industrialization.

Steve Daniels writing in the Postconsumption:

All throughout the developing world one can find geospatial clusters of informal enterprises that have grown either through an organic capital accumulation process or a government allocation of land. In Kenya, a number of such clusters exist: Gikomba, Kamukunji, Kariobangi, Ziwani, Kibuye, and Quarry Road to name just a few. These clusters start out as grouping of either producers or traders and will likely end up as a mix of manufacturing and market activities. Clustering is what allows informal microenterprises to produce efficiently--they rely on a well-developed ecosystem of producers, suppliers, machinists, and traders to provide services, each with minimal operating costs. Linkages among enterprises can be horizontal (labor pooling, sharing machines, etc.) or vertical (relationships with suppliers and traders, associations, etc.).

Minus: Realism factor was zero. Plus: Pure sweet awesomeness factor was 5000. Walking out of the theatre, I echoed others who commented that "this movie oozes testosterone," or "I think I grew a third ball," or even "if all the most kick-butt guys in the world pooled their DNA into one pure kick-butt kid, this movie would be the story of his life." I'm not kidding- this is the best guy's guy movie I've seen in years, just pure out fun, laugh out loud in sheer delight at how incredibly and unapologetically manly it is.

Of course it is all the actors who make it that way- Sylvester Stallone is a man, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis face off with him, Dolph Lundgren has been beaten with the ugly/cool stick, Mickey Rourke is the soul of the Expendables, and Jet Li looks like he was born for that part, Jason Statham is a touch of new age, Terry Crews is scary sweet, Randy Couture is an MMA guy, and Steve Austin is a WWE guy. I'm not going to spoil the movie by telling you the plot, but there are a couple scenes that stand out- the duel between Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren, the duel between Steve Austin and Stallone, the duel between Gary Daniels (a kickboxer) and Jet Li, the blowing up of everything, the shooting up of everything, the knife work and knife throwing, and maybe the sweetest use of a AA12 shotgun ever.

This movie isn't the most realistic and won't push any sort of message on you (unless you consider killing third-world dictators and drug dealers some sort of message), but is the funnest ride you'll have in under 2 hours this summer. I can't wait for the sequel! Go see The Expendables today!