Muhammad Yunus always says that human beings are very creative, that we are all entrepreneurs, if given the chance. What it takes is faith, trust someone to believe in us...credire to believe in, is the basis of credit, which Yunus asserts is a human right.
Microentrepreneurs will be able to use this financial upheaval in creative ways that will astound us. In a sense, the walls have come down, the gatekeepers cannot keep up, they are too busy juggling the mess they have helped create. Microdistributors, microsystems and micro-local-community; everything will flourish, and already is. Take a look at the cable and telecom dish wallas in India spreading connections and content...or the neighborhoods in the US which have decided to turn their yards into organic gardens... or the women of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh who sell minutes on their cell phones to the villagers.
This is human creativity at its best. Some of the most amazing ideas and ways of making systems function at low cost and effectively come from places such as Cuba, where there was no Internet connection or phone reception and new parts for cars were also unavailable...so they made them out of whatever was at hand! Or on Native American reservations where they started their own Internet service locally and then began selling it outside to the general public in nearby communities...the list goes on and on. Read this great article about how to make the most of the crisis through entrepreneurship: http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/61/social-entrepreneurs-mainstream
Use the opportunities presented by this "financial crisis" to become more creative and more sustainable...some of the biggest and best run companies were started during crises. And open your mind to learning from those countries which have lived through an almost permanent financial crisis...they go on living, working, creating everyday. The West has a lot to learn, they just need to be open to the answers coming from not only within their own countries, but within groups which have been marginalized, such as the poor, both in the West and around the world.
This time, instead of believing in the same old trickle down economics, know that it will be grassroots bottom of the pyramid building up...the only thing in the way of knowledge of a new way to evolve, is ego. So get rid of it, and get om board of the micro-everything train. By starting small, and focusing local, we can dream big. Perhaps this is what true Globalization was meant to be, built on meaningful partnerships and two-way communication. It's a win-win.