Kiva

Last week's New Yorker had an article about the
current Nobel Peace Prize recipient who is considered
by some to be the father of microfinancing.

If you aren't familiar with it, microfinancing or
microcredit is basically loaning small amounts of
money to poor people in order for them to have capital
to invest in business ventures or business
development. Loans are usually under $1000, given to
people in third world communities, and used for buying
things like food and soap to resell to locals.
Sometimes loans are used for building business or
buying carts to be used as storefronts.

The New Yorker article gives a good overview of the
problems facing these microfinance institutions. Some
institutions rely on charity. Others feel that the
future of microfinance cannot depend on the good will
of people because good will isn't strong enough to
change the economic structure of third world countries
that need more than a temporary fix. These latter
institutions tend to charge extremely high interest
rates on microfinance loans in order to make the
business profitable and self-sustaining. Despite
these high interest rates, many people are still
taking advantage of these loans, paying them back and
being successful in their business goals.

Frontline World on PBS featured an internet company,
www.kiva.org.
Kiva is an online company that has partnered up with
various microfinance institutions in different
countries to provide a database of people looking for
loans. Kiva doesn't seem to take a stand on the issue
of the future of microfinancing, but instead focuses
on making it easier for people like you and me to get
involved with loaning out money and being in direct
contact with the people who take out the loans.

Please check it out and see what you think.
I lent out a total of $100 to 4 different people in
Mexico and Honduras.
I think it's a great opportunity and am telling
everyone I know.

One thing you should know if you are interested, Kiva
uses paypal for all transactions. I already had a
paypal account, so it was easy for me to get things
going. There's no fee for paypal, although linking up
your bank and credit card accounts to paypal takes a
bit of time. Paypal doesn't charge Kiva any
transaction fees. I'm sure partially for good PR,
partially (perhaps) for good will, and partially
because one of the staff of Kiva used to work for
paypal.

In any case, if you have any questions, let me know.

Guess Who: Part Two

Who is that Bearded Man?

(not that one [duh], but the other one)?

For the answer, click here.

On Being Neglected

I was pointed here by Whit:
http://jargonbooks.com/neglect.html

A wonderful essay, required reading.

Two Poems by Anne Carson

EPITAPH: ZION


Murderous little world once our objects had gazes. Our lives

Were fragile, the wind

Could dash them away. Here lies the refugee breather

Who drank a bowl of elsewhere.

EPITAPH: ANNUNCIATION


Motion swept the world aside, aghast to white nerve nets.

Pray what

Shall I do with my six hundred wings? as blush feels

Slow, from inside.

Peer pressure

Alright...so someone told me I should post this up here instead of just emailing.
Update is at the bottom if you want to skip down.


So, I was talking with coworkers today...and somehow we started talking about salami.
I whipped out this article that one of them gave me about salami...and showed it to the other coworker.
He looked it over and started talking about how his favorite type was “soppressat”.
My first thought (which I did not verbalize) was, Isn’t it soppressatA? SoppressatAAA!!!
And then I started wondering if the guy grew up in Jersey. But no, he grew up in Long Island. But he did spend a long period of time in Jersey. He now has a house upstate, but also has an apartment in Hoboken.

I could picture Emily correcting him and Noah coming to his defense.
I couldn’t help laughing to myself.

For those of you who didn’t overhear Noah and Emily discuss the ending vowels of Italian cuisine (I don’t know how you couldn’t have), I’m sorry (though I’m not quite sure what for).

I think maybe I’ll interrogate him tomorrow.


-----Update-----

So I talked to him today...and he said that he lives in a largely Italian neighborhood. So when he goes to an Italian market and sees people ordering mozzerella, they never say the vowel at the end. Mozerell. Prosciut. Soppressat.
Now, he admitted that he doesn't know if that's just because the guy behind the counter is off getting the stuff before the customers finish their word...or if they're just being sloppy with their end vowels like how a lot of French people get sloppy with their vowels...but he said...when he goes, he just orders like the people around him.

And yes...he's talking about Hoboken. Not upstate.

I don't know. What do you think? Conformist?
Sell-out?
Supporter of the evolution of language?
Underminer of the stability of society?

All I know is that I'll be tempted to call Emily, "Emil" from now on.

Salon Inaugural

To E. T. by Robert Frost

I SLUMBERED with your poems on my breast
Spread open as I dropped them half read through
Like dove wings on a figure on a tomb
To see, if, in a dream they brought of you,

I might not have the chance I missed in life
Through some delay, and call you to your face
First soldier, and then poet, and then both,
Who died a soldier-poet of your race.

I meant, you meant, that nothing should remain
Unsaid between us, brother, and this remained—
And one thing more that was not then to say:
The Victory for what it lost and gained.

You went to meet the shell’s embrace of fire
On Vimy Ridge; and when you fell that day
The war seemed over more for you than me,
But now for me than you—the other way.

How over, though, for even me who knew
The foe thrust back unsafe beyond the Rhine,
If I was not to speak of it to you
And see you pleased once more with words of mine?