Invest in people and bicycles as a social experiment. Bicycle workshops were where all of today's big auto makers got started. The Wright Brothers also got sta

Invest in people and bicycles as a social experiment. Bicycle workshops were where all of today's big auto makers got started. The Wright Brothers also got started in a bicycle workshop. So what would happen if you made the largest individual purchase of bicycles in history and gave them away to some war torn part of the world? You could choose a town in Afghanistan where the road/rail connections were not great and choose a demographic - all 16 year old people in the town. The bicycles could be reasonably decent and fit for purpose. There need not be any strings attached, however, your 'sponsored' town would be different to other towns due to the bicycles. In five years time would the economy of that town grow in ways that neighbouring towns did not? Would there be bicycle workshops and innovation? Would people be better educated? Would your 'bikes not bombs' development model inspire others? You need not even visit your chosen war-torn town to get things started. You could get some post-traumatised veterans to go out there and do the swords to ploughshares bit, setting up bikes properly and making sure that everything was distributed as per the 'experiment'. A few years ago the bicycle company Kona made an interesting bike for Africa, it enabled Western buyers to buy two 'Africabike' models at full retail with another 'Africabike' being donated to Africa. Somewhere in Africa, a long way from the news headlines are doctors able to do their rounds in a fraction of the time due to their steeds. This is conventional 'charity'. You can forget the 'charity' part and instead just see if you can stimulate a whole economy, albeit at a town size level, just by adding bicycles. I am sure that in years to come the people of this to-be-decided town would welcome you and your family as kings, even if the bicycles did end up wrecked after a few years. You might laugh at this suggestion, however, I have helped a local homeless guy with a bike (and a radio). He has too much pride to be 'homeless' but he is, even if I don't see him that way. The bike enables him to do dog-walking gigs and gardening jobs that were too far away to get to when walking was the only option. There is a small virtuous circle enabled this way, not everyone can find a person to walk their dog whilst they are working, not everyone is fit enough to keep their garden in order. My friend is not stuck as a beggar. He contributes to the local economy, earning money fair and square. The bike enables this transformation. There is quite a lot in it for me too - I don't have to shuffle by my homeless friend, ignoring him out of fear I might have to be parted with my 'spare' change. I also like to have a go at fixing things so my bike skills stay fresh. I also feel a lot safer in public areas due to being on first name terms with local homeless folk including aforementioned friend. So my advice is to do the bike thing at a larger scale for enlightened self-interest reasons.