Posted by
Mark McConnell on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 12:16:32 PM
Frontline last night
had a segment on the microinvestment project, called
Kiva. Entrepeneurs living in third world countries advertize their ideas on the internet, seeking loans from as low as $25 to around $1000. The story was very eye-opening and inspiring.
Kiva's servers have been crushed under the response. Bookmark the site and return. Deacons, put your heads together around this idea.
updates:
- Kiva's first year press release appeared on Marketwire, On Oct. 16, 2006,
- The idea has had the attention of the lefty blogs since the beginning.
- Global Microcredit Summit
- The thirty year-old strategy of Nobel Laureate, Bangladeshi economist Mohammad Yunus.
- Wikipedia's article: Microcredit - read the "Criticism" section
- Kiva's approach is uniquely person-to-person.
- Martin Bello at The Nation thinks this is a fad, and warns of the danger posed by false hopes that this idea offers the same kind of panacea for global poverty that socialism does. Only a socialist could think that there is such a thing as a panacea.
- Alexander Cockburn, another writer who often appears in The Nation, has all kinds of horror stories to take the wind out of your sails about microloans.
- Hebrew Free Loan Association (since 1897): "
We provide interest-free loans to Jewish residents of Northern California
for education, small businesses, adoptions, first-time home purchases, as
well as personal and emergency needs."
- FiveTalents.Org "Microenterprise
development (MED) has proven to be an efficient and effective method
for fighting poverty and raising up entrepreneurs in developing
countries. Where grants and giveaway programs have failed"
- Connie Evans speech: The power of community investing.
- Oikocredit: Netherlands-based church supported microfinancial institution.
- Blog, Nothing but the rain: "Unfortunately, rigorously derived evidence that microcredit helps people in this way is surprisingly thin." - more anxieties about the shortcomings of microfinance, from Salon. - fixed link
- Frontline - not Nightline
- M.S. Sriram writes about Yunu's experiment.
- MicroCreditCapital is another internet-driven plan, in Haiti. Kiva's appeal is in connecting you directly to the people and their plans.
Mohammad Yunu's idea of "microcredit" is centered on the notion of "credit as a civil right" - whatever that might mean.
Technorati is only mildly abuzz with talk about the idea, some of which is about the Frontline segment.
Microlending has potential for profit, which
is a cause of controversy. You can see the potential for abuse in our "pay day loan" pay advance monstrosities in this country. When interest is introduced, a different dynamic materializes - as
Chuck Huckaby points out.tags: Kiva Microcredit