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flexagonNew Kiva loans for May:
$100 to Pong Chanthy in Cambodia, toward purchase of a new sewing machine.
$100 to Khotam Bustonov in Tajikistan, for purchase of construction equipment.
I was able to make two loans instead of one this month, because I experienced my first default; a microfinance group called SEED, it turns out, was not passing along 100% of the capital raised through Kiva to its entrepreneurs. Kiva has ended that partnership and announced a default on loans made through SEED, but my SEED-based loan was almost entirely paid back anyway... the field partner was the bad apple, not my entrepreneur. I just rounded up a smidge to give myself an even hundred in Kiva credit as if it had been paid back, and off I went. I'm getting stricter about making loans only to people who are buying equipment or education, rather than the many many people who are just buying goods to sell in a store.
(Join me? You only need $25.)
As a side note, I don't think I've mentioned that Zopa is now up and running in the United States. It offers a way to make loans to those who need them in the good old US of A... and yes, I am conflicted about this. As most of you know, I do the microfinance thing in order to fight poverty, and I've been doing it since before Zopa existed. I find myself torn between making loans to those in the third world, where my money goes a long long way and can make a real difference to people's quality of life, and wanting to put money to work locally. I could be helping wlaffin here in Brighton. There are other borrowers in Massachusetts as well.
Global vs local... what do you think? I was very touched by reading Deep Economy a year or so ago, and it sold me on the idea of acting locally to fund the local eco-finance-web and keep it robust. Still... it's kind of telling that most of the requested American loans on Zopa are for paying off existing, higher-interest loans. These people are trying to do a smart thing, and yet their case isn't all that compelling to me.
$100 to Pong Chanthy in Cambodia, toward purchase of a new sewing machine.
$100 to Khotam Bustonov in Tajikistan, for purchase of construction equipment.
I was able to make two loans instead of one this month, because I experienced my first default; a microfinance group called SEED, it turns out, was not passing along 100% of the capital raised through Kiva to its entrepreneurs. Kiva has ended that partnership and announced a default on loans made through SEED, but my SEED-based loan was almost entirely paid back anyway... the field partner was the bad apple, not my entrepreneur. I just rounded up a smidge to give myself an even hundred in Kiva credit as if it had been paid back, and off I went. I'm getting stricter about making loans only to people who are buying equipment or education, rather than the many many people who are just buying goods to sell in a store.
(Join me? You only need $25.)
As a side note, I don't think I've mentioned that Zopa is now up and running in the United States. It offers a way to make loans to those who need them in the good old US of A... and yes, I am conflicted about this. As most of you know, I do the microfinance thing in order to fight poverty, and I've been doing it since before Zopa existed. I find myself torn between making loans to those in the third world, where my money goes a long long way and can make a real difference to people's quality of life, and wanting to put money to work locally. I could be helping wlaffin here in Brighton. There are other borrowers in Massachusetts as well.
Global vs local... what do you think? I was very touched by reading Deep Economy a year or so ago, and it sold me on the idea of acting locally to fund the local eco-finance-web and keep it robust. Still... it's kind of telling that most of the requested American loans on Zopa are for paying off existing, higher-interest loans. These people are trying to do a smart thing, and yet their case isn't all that compelling to me.
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I admire you!
Date: 2008-05-05 02:25 pm (UTC)Re: I admire you!
Date: 2008-05-06 01:43 am (UTC)Thank you so much, this is really an incredibly sweet comment. You do know Kiva's the only "good" thing I do, right? I love microfinance, but aside from this, I don't rescue puppies or feed orphans or anything. And I write about it mostly to spread the word, because it's so freaking cool I wish everyone knew about it. But this is my one good thing so I guess I should be proud... mostly, it just makes me feel warm.
What would Flexagon do? Probably homework and floss teeth and go to sleep. Virtue is dreadfully boring. :D
Re: I admire you!
Date: 2008-05-06 01:31 pm (UTC)Whatever! You're also like the yoga queen, and you knit, and when someone's like, hey do you wanna do X, you're like, yeah! And you actually do it. Unlike me, who thinks about doing X and then gets too overwhelmed with getting to work (mostly) on time, paying bills and feeding squirrels to actually fold in any new activities. But I'm working on it! Thanks for setting the good example :)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-05 09:53 pm (UTC)Their cases aren't all that compelling to me either - I mean, credit card debt from xmas shopping? Clearly not a charity case. But the loans do pay interest, as opposed to the kiva loans, so I guess you're balancing out your financial interests with theirs. Helping someone who's gotten themselves into a bind, and making a small amount of money yourself. Kiva seems more meaningful to me though.
That said, I've considered prosper in order to help with some of my credit card debt from last year. If you want to sponsor a local needy party I have an idea. :P :P :P :P
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 02:38 am (UTC)Even so... as someone who grew up poor in a first-world country, I hate to think I'm not doing things to help people who are basically like I was. Maybe that's part of my issue with most of the Zopa/Prosper stuff... I never got myself in credit card debt with my Xmas shopping, so I feel rather less sympathy.
That said, if you get a prosper loan, do let me know how it goes. It is interesting. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 03:25 am (UTC)My industrial engineering master's degree paper was on the topic of the Mondragon Cooperative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondrag%C3%B3n_Cooperative_Corporation) in the Basque region of Spain. I think it's the prototype for how local development can be done right.
Just local alone doesn't necessarily work. Sometimes you end up with Jim Crow with local stuff if it's not balanced out in socio-economic terms to do good things. Even Ben & Jerry's is a Unilever branch now.
The key, imo, is to make it democratic and widely accessable. That's what Mondragon has done. At least when Father Arizmendi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Arizmendiarrieta), who came up with the idea, was keeping an eye on his organizational baby. And this was in Franco's Spain of all places. I think they may have drifted from his vision, unfortunately, in recent years. But that's another story for another time.
Some examples of this kind of local democratic capitalism can be found with the Casa Nueva (http://www.casanueva.com/) [article (http://www.jgpress.com/IBArticles/2000/MA_12.htm)] in Athens, Ohio and the Arizmendi Bakery (http://www.arizmendibakery.org/) [video (http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1520991158&channel=825291844)] in San Francisco.
Another book you might find of interest is "The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy" (http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Capitalism-Opening-Paths-Economy/dp/0684862204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210043862&sr=1-1) by William Greider. It touches on related efforts in the USA. I did a brief book review (http://www.hopedance.org/new/book_reviews/r90.html) of it some time back for the Hopedance Magazine (http://www.hopedance.org/).