Saturday, April 07, 2007
Holy Saturday
Canned Beef Monument in Sarajevo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070406/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_bosnia_monument_can
I like beef well enough, even in canned form but I haven't had to have outdated canned beef even in some VERY hard times in my life. Probably the absolute worst food I ate in the catagory of food that was given to others was some turkey sausage that wasproduced in the U.S.,but intended for sale in Russia, or perhaps Ukraine. The package had Cyrillic lettering and I could tell it wasn't Serbian. It was the most disgusting vile stuff I ever ate in my life. I don't like turkey to start with and this was worse than just turkey!
I include this story because I've been a big proponant of micro-credit and other asset based poverty relief. I still think it can work if it is done correctly. I think if a program is poorly administered of course there's going to be problems, and of course there are some people who may just be in a hopeless situation, but the positives, particularly for women can't be ignored either. I think the irony of this critique is that micro-credit was seen for a long time as a compromise between conservative and liberal thinking on poverty relief. Now it looks like conservatives have turned on the idea, and liberals as well. The point with micro-credit is that most of the places where it has been used have NO social safety nets whatsover, unless begging in the streets counts. ..
In the U.S. micro-credit is a difficult means of poverty relief because there is a lot of regulation in any business enterprise. Regulation could be a problem in other countries and another problem is overlooked in the article, maybe not the report, but in the article and that is the heavy role corruption of public officials plays in poverty, and heavy interest rates. Micro-credit in the Indian subcontinent at least freed peasants from the usuary of the zamindar who might charge 400% interest or even more! Putting the interest at something like 5% or so at most, gave the poor a chance.
Micro-Credit Backlash
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886720/site/newsweek/from/RSS/
Holy Fire From Jerusalem to Arrive in Bulgaria
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n109648
Happy Easter to all my loyal readers,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070406/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_bosnia_monument_can
I like beef well enough, even in canned form but I haven't had to have outdated canned beef even in some VERY hard times in my life. Probably the absolute worst food I ate in the catagory of food that was given to others was some turkey sausage that wasproduced in the U.S.,but intended for sale in Russia, or perhaps Ukraine. The package had Cyrillic lettering and I could tell it wasn't Serbian. It was the most disgusting vile stuff I ever ate in my life. I don't like turkey to start with and this was worse than just turkey!
I include this story because I've been a big proponant of micro-credit and other asset based poverty relief. I still think it can work if it is done correctly. I think if a program is poorly administered of course there's going to be problems, and of course there are some people who may just be in a hopeless situation, but the positives, particularly for women can't be ignored either. I think the irony of this critique is that micro-credit was seen for a long time as a compromise between conservative and liberal thinking on poverty relief. Now it looks like conservatives have turned on the idea, and liberals as well. The point with micro-credit is that most of the places where it has been used have NO social safety nets whatsover, unless begging in the streets counts. ..
In the U.S. micro-credit is a difficult means of poverty relief because there is a lot of regulation in any business enterprise. Regulation could be a problem in other countries and another problem is overlooked in the article, maybe not the report, but in the article and that is the heavy role corruption of public officials plays in poverty, and heavy interest rates. Micro-credit in the Indian subcontinent at least freed peasants from the usuary of the zamindar who might charge 400% interest or even more! Putting the interest at something like 5% or so at most, gave the poor a chance.
Micro-Credit Backlash
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886720/site/newsweek/from/RSS/
Holy Fire From Jerusalem to Arrive in Bulgaria
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n109648
Happy Easter to all my loyal readers,
# posted by Katja R. @ 11:11 AM 
