Guest Post: Ending World Poverty! & Kiva

Guest post! I’m delighted to share this post by Sean from the excellent, and at present quiet, screenwriting blog Writing About Writing. (He also exists in the real world where he is a splendid fellow.) It’s about microlending service Kiva, which I’ve mentioned before. Sean – thanks for this, a privilege to have this insight!

Hi everyone, I’m Sean.

Morgue has asked me to share my experiences with Kiva, the microfinance website.

Kiva provides lower-cost loans to the world’s working poor, and Kiva is what that this post is about, eventually. But first I’m going to talk about myself for a while (ha ha, you fool Morgue, giving me this platform!)

I’ve wanted to address poverty for a long time, ever since I did a primary school project that opened my eyes to what my life was like in a developed country, and what I could have expected if I’d been born in a developing country instead. I felt lucky and guilty at the same time.

Anyway, ending world poverty was one of my long-term goals that would occasionally pop into my mind: “Oh yeah, really must do something about global poverty one of these days…”

Flashforward to me getting older. Statistically, half my life was over, and I hadn’t done anything substantive about poverty (apart from those World Vision 40 hour famines when I was that primary school kid).

I heard about Kiva through a workmate, who asked for a Kiva voucher as a going-away present. All very worthy, I thought at the time. But I was also impressed that she’d forgone the usual beautiful bowl/platter/piece of jewellery that a leaving workmate would usually get from the rest of us, for something as abstract as a voucher for a good cause.

Anyway, the Kiva seed was planted, which grew to me checking out the Kiva website, mulling it over, and eventual some action. I asked my relatives to give me money for my birthday last year, rather than the extra DVD/pair of socks that I didn’t really want or need. From that money, I made my first Kiva loans.

Okay, so what is Kiva? Kiva is an online conduit that closes the gap between ‘wealthy’ lenders (that’s me!) and people seeking loans in developing countries. Run out of San Francisco, Kiva was set up in 2005, and now has 572,389 lenders (or so!). Lenders provide their money for free – a lender (almost always) gets their money back in repayments, but makes no interest on the loan.

As a lender, I’m provided with summaries on loan applicants from across the developing world. There’s a description of what the loan will be used for – loans are usually for inputs into a small business e.g. buying stock for a shop, or animals as livestock – and some personal details about the loan applicant, which helps humanise the loan. After viewing the summary, I then have the option of loaning US$25 towards the loan applicant (through PayPal), and this US$25 is combined with loans from other Kiva users to fully fund the loan.

Kiva provides loans through field partners based in the countries concerned. The field partner acts as the liaison between Kiva and the borrower: field partners write up the details of the loan on Kiva, and are responsible for the repayment of the loan. As a lender, I can follow the progress of the loans being repaid, and hear updates on how the loan has made a difference for the borrower.

I get to choose my priorities for the loan portfolio. I usually fund women through Kiva – women have relatively little control over the world’s wealth and resources, so I feel like I’m working to redress that in some small way as well. It doesn’t always have to be business loans either – I’ve lent money to someone who needed to replace their roof in the Philippines.

So what are the issues – nothing is perfect, right?

A field partner did suspend repayments on one of my loans for a time due to political/economic turmoil in the country concerned. They’ve since resumed repayments, as they’ve been able to do so.

A bigger deal was when I realised that field partners charge interest to borrowers, and that this level of interest looks exorbitant by Western standards. There has been some criticism of Kiva for not making this plain enough on their website, which I sympathise with. The fact that field partners charge interest isn’t hidden, but IMO it’s not highlighted either.

But after thinking about it, I accepted that the level of interest needs to be measured against the costs of processing loans, and also the rate of inflation in any given country. As far as I can tell, the lending rates are considerably better than would otherwise be available. Kiva defends the field partner’s loan rates here, saying they need to be high in order to cover the costs of the field partners.

Kiva itself makes no money from the loans they are helping to process. As I make a loan, I have the option of also donating US$3.75 towards the running costs of the organisation. Plus Kiva has various corporate partners and supporters.

So, where am I now? I feel good about my Kiva loans. I’m not going to single-handedly deal with global poverty like I used to dream of. I’m not some kind of Economic Superman. But in a small way, I feel I am making the lives of some people in the world a little better in some ways. That’s what Kiva gives me, and that’s why I like it.

And now linky

Did you check out all the amazing linky people added in comments last week? So much good stuff there. I haven’t even got to the end of the list myself. Go back and see. And hey, it’s not too late to add yours…

But the grind of linky is eternal and unceasing, so here be more:

The Content Farm, which shows how one good joke executed flawlessly can be all you need.

Data about infographics, presented as an infographic.

What a personality cult actually is (I found this quite enlightening)

Forbes fictional rich list

Star Wars the musical from 1996! This is an unlicensed adaptation of Star Wars performed by high-schoolers, with new Star Wars lyrics to famous songs. The bits I watched work surprisingly well – it’s heaps of fun. (This is what I hoped Glee the TV show would be like.) Here’s a sample, the rest at the link:

Star Wars the Musical: Act 1, Part 1 from Funny Farm Films on Vimeo.

Office supply art

Automated voicemail transcription service is asked to transcribe the poem Ozymandias. Fascinating. Found art as mashup?

Photos of 1800s theatre stars. Also in 1800s photography: Lewis Carroll’s photos.

60 completely unusable stock photos

Relive your adolescent frustration with this compilation of game deaths:

And finally, via Dangerous Minds of course, the stylings of the Eminems of Ayn Rand, the Vanilla Ice Tea of the Tea Party, yes it’s the conservative movement’s rap duo: The Young Cons. Swoon!

Want: Shackleton Whisky

Antarctic explorer Shackleton had some whisky stored in his hut. It has been recovered, and a blend created to match it. The blend is apparently quite close. Lots of details at the Whisky Exchange blog.

My great-grandfather Felix, about whom I’ve blogged before, went down to the ice with Shackleton. He was part of the team that built the hut. He might have answered the ad mentioned at the start of the Whisky Exchange article: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” He might have been the one who set down the crate of whisky that has been recovered. (He didn’t stay on the ice – he came back to New Zealand with the Nimrod after the hut was built, down there about a month all told.)

Felix used to live across the street from our new house. In his final years he used to sit on the step and chat to passers-by. I’d like to stand across from that step and lift this whisky in his honour. Genies, falling stars, and other miscellaneous wish-granters – please consider making it so.

(Note to my parents, my aunt, and others who have a filial interest in making me happy: this is a hundred-quid bottle. Don’t even think about it.)

Freedom Theatre founder killed

Horrible: one of the founders of Palestine’s Freedom Theatre has been killed in Jenin, in the West Bank.

Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli of Arab and Jewish parentage, was shot dead by masked gunmen in Jenin. (NOTE: before you make an assumption, this almost certainly was nothing to do with Israel, and indeed a member of Hamas has apparently been arrested).

The Freedom Theatre is a great initiative, building peace through creative expression (and, crucially, giving young people something to pour energy into that isn’t the intifada). When Cal and I visited Palestine in 2004 we visited the Al Rowwad Theatre Society in Aida camp, which was affiliated with the Freedom Theatre. It was a very humble environment, but everyone we met was committed to using performance and creativity as building blocks to a greater peace. As a result of that visit I’ve been on the main Freedom Theatre mailing list for years, and in January got their announcement of their new show, an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Needless to say, this is a terrible event. From this distance I don’t expect to ever know or understand how it came to happen. It is clear however that the path to peace, difficult enough already, has just been made more challenging.

Mother Jones has a good article, covering Khamis’ acting and filmmaking as well.

Bigfoot Sighting

The Alligator has posted a few photos from one of our expeditions, as part of my birthday celebrations. They include photographic proof of the existence of the rare NZ sasquatch:

This photograph was fulfilment of a long quest; we had earlier been sasquatch hunting in the Catlins, without any success.

(We’ve shown this photograph to several experts but they all maintain it’s actually a man in a suit, or perhaps a moose. I suppose the truth will have to stay out there.)

Nice one, Wanisan!

Fools Linky

PITY THE APRIL FOOL: Kids dressed like Mr T

So hey – it’s my birthday tomorrow. Give me a birthday gift of an interesting link to an essay, video, picture, whatever. Pop it in the comments, and I’ll open them tomorrow! Hurrah!

This one’s been all over. From its origins until the late 80s, Schulz’s strip Peanuts used a four-panel format. (It then changed to three panels with more formal experimentation.) 3eanuts takes those strips and removes the fourth panel. The rhythm still works because 3-panel strips are more common these days, but without Schulz’s bitter/redemptive final panel gags the tone is… well. Lets just say it’s one more sign that Peanuts was a really really weird strip to be globally famous. It’s not exactly Garfield.

From Alastair G, since seen everywhere: 20 sad etsy boyfriends

Mills & Boon covers recreated – first saw this via Jenni

Mike U pointed out these political/philosophical reviews of the Mr Men books

Police vs Clowns, locked in time:

William Burroughs on Led Zeppelin

“Do you LIKE HIM like him?” That’s contrastive reduplication.

Meant to do this one last year: an American writer reviews and compares the first episodes of NZ’s Outrageous Fortune, and the US remake Scoundrels. In the comments, OF co-creator James Griffin sounds off. Great stuff for people curious about why TV some shows work & some don’t.

A channel featuring the worst of YouTube

Fantasy travel posters

Via Warren Ellis, one heck of a short film (a wee bit disturbing)

I linked this on Facebook aaaaaages ago, but think it never made it to a Friday linky: Pictures of Muslims wearing things

Evie found this neato diagrammatic version of Hamlet.

Spider-Man wants you to vote! And drink vitamin C! And use contraception!

There’re a lot of lipsync videos on YouTube. This is the most impressive one you’ll ever see.

Bad postcards


EC Segar’s Raiders of the Lost Ark

From the Smithsonian – Top 10 consequences of having evolved (via Monsieur Bartok)

Greatest letter ever printed on sportsteam letterhead

Trailer for fanfilm adaptation of Lovecraft’s Whisperer in Darkness – this has been in my list for months and months, come out already film!

Yoga – not as old as you think

Why are easy decisions so hard? (via gnat)

And finally… Iron Crocodile

Birthday & Akira

Facebook just reminded me that it’s my birthday shortly. I was genuinely surprised.

In past years I’ve asked people to gift me with a favourite quote, or indeed with any old quote, and add it in comments.

This year I’m going to ask you to contribute a link on Friday, to the usual Friday Linky post. Together, we will cast a magic spell of procrastination that will ensorcel offices throughout the world. So keep your eyes peeled for potential linky goodness.

Here’s one you can’t use because I got it first: Prince Gomolvilas’s vid about the white boy’s Akira that I posted about last week.

Immune Linky

Baby Willa has had 3-month immunisation jabs this morning. All good. Some concentrated linky to immunise you against the internets:

From the Alligator: now this is a boot

For the Alligator, and everyone else with impeccable taste: Where’s Randy Savage?

Now here is a Liz Taylor movie I would sit down to watch: The Drivers Seat (1974). Knifeman, I presume you have heard of this film? Viewing party!

Recycling a bottle, flashmob style:

And a social norm breaking experiment that is also basically a flashmob (I will restrain myself from talking at length about how this is a dumb way to do a normbreaking learning exercise):

The British Library is collecting and recording children’s games from around the world – another wonderful resource from the BL who do amazing stuff, and I hope they don’t lose much capacity under the Cameron govt…

Via Hamish Ritchie, all the spoilers (um, spoilers for everything)

Via David Ritchie, Withnail & I meets Star Wars

An appreciation of Bulwer-Lytton, whose name is now on that ghastly bad-first-lines contest, poor devil.

On The Fundy Post, an island that’s basically straight out of Lovecraft. (Cthulhu gamers, here is your next adventure setting.)

The great Milton Bradley boardgame Heroquest, as a free-download computer game.

And finally… please forgive me… the YOGA FARMER

Māori are confused

Duncan Garner on TV3’s morning news show Firstline just now: “Māori are confused. You’ve got Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples saying this is good legislation… and on the other hand you’ve got the last of the activist Māori saying we don’t want this.” (Starts at 4’41 into the clip, although he says “Māori are confused” at other times as well.)

Y’know, it’s good that Pākehā don’t get confused when John Key and Phil Goff say different things, or the country really would be in a pickle!

White Man’s Akira

Don’t worry folks, even though lots of really big things in the world are going wrong, there’s still room for some very small things to go completely wrong too.

The script for the Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures live action adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s 6-volume graphic novel Akira has been sent to a short list of actors… I’m told that for Tetsuo, Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy have been given the new script. For the role of Kaneda, the script has been given to Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix. The two leads are expected to come from that group of actors.

[They’re not actually going to have Robert Pattinson playing a character called Tetsuo. The Deadline link says the action has been moved from Neo-Tokyo to New Manhattan. He’ll be Theodore. Justin Timberlake will be Kevin. I guess they won’t be teenagers any more either.]