Seawater and enterprise flow freely through the Suez canal. Since 1869, the canal has been a byway for travel between Europe and South Asia without navigation around Africa, thus serving as a "maritime shortcut" to rival all others. The Suez canal welcomes every vessel of commerce "without distinction of flag," and is in urgent need of expansion. But, how do you embark on a project of this magnitude? Construction aside, the financial investment could be an overwhelming projection.
It could be, but it is not. Because, interestingly enough, this infamous avenue of waterway benefit to enterprise, has become a beneficiary of free enterprise itself: A byway of Egypt’s first crowdfunding platform. Just a few months ago, over $8 billion was contributed, entirely by Egyptian citizens, to finance the expansion of the Suez Canal. Historical preservation, benefiting the entire world is suddenly attainable, and surprisingly quickly. Ahhh... the power of crowdfunding.
AqarFunder’s CTO, Nadin Mustafa describes the successful funding campaign in language synonymous with the P2P Lending marketplace in the United States. “Arguably, this is the most significant and successful crowdfunding campaign to date. We believe investors are extremely open to this funding model, especially when it is collateralized by hard assets or real estate.”
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Real Estate~ Patch of Land’s focus since inception. Serving to grow communities and leading, with diligent evolution on our side, The Patch continues as a crowdfunding byway to financial success & social progress.
Crowdfunding, whether in the non-profit, real estate, or individually purposed sectors, embodies opportunity without distinction of flag, gender, or other superficial identifiers. The result is a much wider forum for input, and much greater pool of resources than historically accessible: A Melting pot of people & financial opportunities. Communities on the rise, and byways of opportunity that create additional byways of opportunities, are limited only by our capacity to envision. Can we be part of a Preservation Nation, continually acting on our inspiration to rehab historical venues and re-purpose them to benefit our current communities? This month, raise awareness about your favorite historical place, even one in the United States, by "heart bombing."
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Realizing that we can collectively impact the preservation of places that matter to you, what landmark would you choose to revitalize? The Great Pyramids? A local pub?
Nathan commented February 12, 2015
Interesting read, especially considering all the bad news coming out of Egypt. Humanity never fails to surprise us.