Slate magazine recently asked the question: kiva ranked as the highest microfinance funnelling organization of them all. Kiva ranked high in the categories of ‘user experience’; ‘trust’; and ‘effectiveness’ taking home the top honors. And I would completely agree with the authors assessment… my experience with kiva has been tremendous!

This is a good kiva and get started!)

i just recieved an email earlier today to let me know that antonio is doing well and has begun repaying his loan. you may recall the discussion and the post about kiva from about a month ago… well, it’s going well and he’s already repaid his loan by 17%! that’s pretty remarkable for a month’s time.

if you haven’t checked out kiva yet, now would be a great time to not only look, but get in the game! it’s a fantastic organization that is trying to change the world one (micro) loan at a time!

david leonhardt wrote an intriguing article entitled ‘what $1.2 trillion can buy.’  it’s a very interesting look at this astronomical number and how one chooses to spend money….

how would you spend your $1.2 trillion?

last thursday, bono met with the newly elected congressional leadership in the democrat party to discuss a $1 billion commitment that the U.S. made towards fighting AIDS and malaria in Africa.  Bono was fearful that the commitment was going to be lost in translation, and of course it was…

“I’m alarmed we could not get a commitment from the Democratic leadership to prevent the loss of $1 billion in the continuing resolution,” Bono said Thursday in a statement.

“I don’t know who to blame. Democrats are blaming Republicans. Republicans are blaming Democrats. But the million people who were expecting (mosquito) bed nets don’t know who to blame. They just know that a promise made by the United States to keep their families safe is in danger of being broken next year.”

mosquito bed nets typically run $3 and save the life of a child or even an adult by preventing the deadly bite of a malaria infected mosquito.  unfortunately, we as a country are more concerned and infatuated with killing people (iraq–yes this is a political rant) than we are in saving people’s live.  with the cost of the iraq war set to reach $378 billion by March of ‘07, we can see the fruits of our tax money in the killing of about 500 iraqi’s per day (655,000 as of October ‘06, more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 that president bush gave us)–not to mention the soldier’s death toll (3,197 of all coalition forces*).  but our newly elected and crusty old congressional incumbents are too stingy to follow through on a promise to spend a measly $1 billion (in comparison) to save countless lives per day–at $3 per bed net that’s roughly 334 million people.  basically put we could spend $378 billion to kill 660,000 people, or we could spend a fraction (1/378th) of that and save the lives 509 times more than we’re killing.

yep, i’m proud to be an american**, aren’t you?

——

*death toll as of December 18, 2006

**please denote the strong sarcasm in this statement.

i just made a loan to this guy, antonio chinga:

antonio is a community college student in ecuador and has paid his way through high school and most of college by running this business. along with 8 other people we were able to give antonio the loan that he needed in order to expand his business and hopefully create a larger business down the road once he finishes college.

this is in no way a handout… rather, this is a micro loan through a new organization called kiva. it’s a loan that i expect to be paid back, interest free, in 6-10 months. there is a slight risk, barring the possibility that antonio’s business could fail–but i’d rather think that it won’t. it’s a rather amazing opportunity that i can loan someone some money and hopefully help change their life and the life of their family! (i would highly recommend it!)

now for a little explanation on the whole thing. kiva is a new micro-financing organization that is harnessing the power of the of the internet to help bring the basic service of bank loans to many around the world that don’t currently have that service available to them.

kiva is not a charity, but it is a great opportunity to bring justice and basic dignity to many in the world who have dreams yet lack the resources necessary to fulfill them. so far, kiva has experienced a 100% return on their loans to hundreds of entrepenuers. and historically micro-loans have an amazing re-payment rate of over 95% to more than 100 million of the worlds poor!

kiva makes it possible for anyone and everyone to get involved in financing hundreds of thousands of people around the globe to make a difference in their life and the lives of their families.

this is a wonderful opportunity to take a small amount of cash (as little as $25) and help change their life… and then take that same amount and re-invest it into someone else. i look forward to praying for, cheering on and rooting for antionio to succeed and many of the others that i hope to be able to invest in as time goes on.

so, get off your duffs, grab that extra cash you’ve got lying around and use it for something good!

p.s. ~ this would also be a great idea for churches and youth groups to get in on as well! i don’t think it’d take too much of a church’s (or youth groups) time or resources to make this a reality.

just how rich are you?  where exactly do you rank in the grand scheme of things in relation to the rest of the world?

click the link to find out, it’s quite sobering: global richlist.

now take a look at this… and then listen to this. (you might want to look and watch at the same time….)

“young homeless man, beavis, shooting up in the tenderloin. he picks his scabs to find a good spot; and tries a few locations before he gets a vein. he has the “love” and “hate” tattoos from “night of the hunter” on his fingers. he’s showing “love” with his right hand as he sticks the needle in.” (read more of beavis’ story)

this is a hard picture to look at, and it almost seems fake.  is hard reality so difficult for us to take in that our minds give us a mechanistic sense that what we are viewing is not really real?  (a defense mechanism perhaps?)

here’s a flickr photoset, from which this picture come, that displays the faces of poverty in america upclose and personal.  it’s full of great pics, and a gut check as to the realities of poverty in our own country.  it’s amazing how often we overlook these people in our day to day lives as we drive and walk right past.  have we become so calloused that we don’t even notice anymore?

this is a great ad run by one.org showing that many different people from many different backgrounds and mindsets (yes, even democrat and republican) are coming together to make a difference.  hopefully this will truly be a united front and not just a “show” and something remarkable will happen.  there’s another video of behind the scenes footage that shows democrat and republican strategists coming together, rick warren talking of the mission to the world (blessed to be a blessing) and don cheadle talking about the opportunity that we have as a country because of our great wealth.

“It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
~ Mother Theresa

via jordon

barbara ehrenreich asks the question can you afford to be poor?  she points out the ghetto tax.

a new study from the brookings institute documents the “ghetto tax,” or higher cost of living in low-income urban neighborhoods.  it comes at you from every direction, from food prices to auto insurance.  a few examples from this study, by matt fellowes, that covered 12 american cities:

• poor people are less likely to have bank accounts, which can be expensive for those with low balances, and so they tend to cash their pay checks at check-cashing businesses, which in the cities surveyed, charged $5 to $50 for a $500 check.
• nationwide, low-income car buyers, defined as people earning less than $30,000 a year, pay two percentage points more for a car loan than more affluent buyers.
• low-income drivers pay more for car insurance.  in new york, baltimore and hartford, they pay an average $400 more a year to insure the exact same car and driver risk than wealthier drivers.
• poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage interest.
• they are more likely to buy their furniture and appliances through pricey rent-to-own businesses.  in wisconsin, the study reports, a $200 rent-to-own TV set can cost $700 with the interest included.
• they are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small grocery and convenience stores.

update: chicago is ordering big box stores to increase wages to at least $10/hour.

i know that this article is pure satire, but sometimes satire strikes us as a little to true…  for me, this strikes a little to close to home as once upon a time in a ministry situation i was not allowed to raise money for a christian relief organization because they didn’t give away bibles….

Poverty-Stricken Africans Receive Desperately Needed Bibles

this was posted yesterday by scott freeman. it was tremendous and i thought i’d share it.

i had a blog post today…
…but I deleted it.

Therefore, I will not blog today.

I was going to blog about the anger I feel about the injustice, hatred and mean-spiritedness I witness all too often in the world today.

But, I removed it, because it seemed too angry and mean-spirited on my part.

So, I’ll just keep quiet and lay low. I’ll remain quiet out of the fear of offending. I’ll still my voice in order to avoid stirring the waters of public debate and frustration.

Nope, no blogging today. I’m probably wrong anyway.

• I’m probably wrong to care less about the USA than I do the Kingdom of God.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that war is wrong and violence is never the answer.
• I’m probably wrong to view children of Iraqi’s to be as precious as my own.
• I’m probably wrong to want my children to go to public school (even though I support Private education and have benefited from it) so they can learn at an early age to be salt and light.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that laws are often misguided and the health of a nation depends upon dissent against civil rights abuses. Maybe Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr shouldn’t be heroes of mine.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that it means something that the one time Jesus talked about judgment He did so in regards to how we treat the poor and the forgotten.
• I’m probably wrong to interpret grace into Old Testament laws of dealing with sojourners and aliens.
• I’m probably wrong to worry about genocide and AIDS in other lands when there is so much here to be concerned about like Brangelina’s baby.
• I’m probably wrong to want to love more than I judge.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that hatred runs deep into the fabric of American society-against gays, illegal immigrants, the French, Democrats, Republicans, minorities, or whatever group catches our ire at this particular point in time.
• I’m probably wrong about worrying about having too much “stuff.” I should just suck it up and buy a new car since the one I’m driving doesn’t have air conditioning in this Texas heat.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that the words of Jesus should propel us to make peace, love enemies, and deny self.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that political parties cannot be champions of the Kingdom due to differing agendas.
• I’m probably wrong to feel so discontent with the state of the church’s compassion, love and humanity for the lost, disaffected, poor and foreigner.
• I’m probably wrong to feel so much regret for all the times I’ve harbored hatred, hurled ethnic slurs, branded sinful people with vitriolic names, and supported agendas that suited me at the expense of others.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that being stewards of God’s creation means care for the creation and not just domination of it.
• I’m probably wrong to believe the greatest terrorist threat is not one of flesh and blood.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that it is a travesty that so many cannot afford insurance.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that liberals can be Christians despite what some might say.

So, instead of blogging today, I’ll just keep my mouth shut. I’ll not unburden my heart.

Cause, I’m probably wrong.

Although I sure don’t feel like I am.

In fact, I feel like I’m getting closer to the heart of Jesus.

And I really pray I’m not wrong about that.

“There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other’s wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.

Living community in whatever form - family, parish, twelve-step program, or intentional community - challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness.” ~ Henri Nowen.