Entrepreneurs! High risk

                                                                 Vendor hustles in rush hour

Let us start things off with the picture first this time. While returning to campus from a long trip I was taking pictures of the beautiful pink poui trees in bloom then out popped this guy. I smiled to myself and captured the opportunity. The informal sector is know for its innovation and entrepreneurship skills ( Williams 2006). To me this picture shows the lengths to which people go to in order to get their sale. Take into consideration the amount of road fatalities that occur in Trinidad.

This link show a recent article as to how callous and inconsiderate drivers can be in Trinidad
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,190484.html

One beings to wonder as to how good the payoff must be? is it really worth the risk? For me personally i don't think so but i have not the slightest idea of the mans reasons for his choice of employment. He does not look like he could afford to take a hit. Don't be fooled by his age either as most of these 'traffic hustlers' as i like to call them are quite nimble and seem t have some deeper relationship with the street lights than most.

With the increase in chaos and poverty there is said to be a rise in the amount of people employed in the informal sector (ILO 2002). This correlation is simple to grasp as people need to find alternate means of employment when times get hard and what a better place than the informal sector? The question that arises however is that with this increase is their a decrease in urban space? When people are forced to go on the highway itself and are at risk of being adding to the death statistics I think this is an negative. The con of lost life far outweighs that of the profits that could be gained.

References :

Williams .C Collins. 2007. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

Vol. 12, No. 2 239–254

International Labour Organization. 2002. Women and Men in The informal Economy: A statistical picture. Geneva