:Title: Simplifying MIcrofinance :Author: chris macrae :Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:28:27 PDT :Modified: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:30:55 PDT :URL: http://www.ned.com/group/microfinance/news/7/ .. raw:: html When I want to simplify something I go back to how to "teach" it to my 9 year old daughter. I dont necessarily mean teach , "experience" would be a more apt word if the english language permitted "experience" it. So that even the most attention distracting heckler can have no substance for worries, I went and bought a book "One Hen" http://onehen.org/ from someone I have never met sponsored by an organsiation I dont particularly like : Opportunity International Here seems to be a good enough start for 9 year olds to grab hold of MF. Kojo and his mother live in a village in the Ashanti region of Ghana. None of the 20 families in the village have very much money, but they do have a good idea. Each family promises to save a bit of money so that one family can borrow all the savings to buy smething important === OK so that's 3rd grade microfinance ; a community invests in the most sustainable-productive working idea that's put in front of it. Every one is co-responsible for this- there are no lawyers, no henchmen if the investment goes wrong. But if it goes right the community gets its money back to invest over and over in communally productive stuff, and all the while more and more jobs and prosperity is flowing round the community. This is empowering. Nothing is being extracted by outsiders. Let me leave it there for 48 hours or so - please do add your own 3rd grade notes (stuff it would ne informative for my or any 9 year old to read) before we go up 2 grades (Next we will see some good news when a 9 year old asked a question 1000 adult new yorkers dared not ask. Its worth the wait) ---- **Comments** :Author: David Bale :Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:56:09 PDT Chris, Why don't you particularly like OI? (My wife and I are fans.) ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:00:23 PDT :Modified: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:26:31 PDT well because I would like OI to engage in a transparent debate as to whether it is anything to do with how to plant a bank in a community; I believe its "entrepreneurial investment bank in SME " model is potentially great in investing in individual entrepreneurs who scale up something truly purposeful - ie spinning as much social good as business good - but that it does not flow http://flowidealism.org with seeing whole communities as its number 1 perforamnce metric. It is open replication of community-up models of integrating local into global that my father as 40 year veteran microeconomist at The Economist argued back in 1984 http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html would ultimately determine whether we (the one human generation 1984-2024) all network a a globalisation that is sustainable or not; the more connected peoples' livelihoods are the more community contexts need to be anchored truly before you listen to global image-led branding or other big powers (that however free and happy they were decared to be when oridinally decaring their independence are perpetiaully at risk to being taken over by very small groups at the top -the orwellian scenario of where globalsiation will be pied pipered if you like) To the extent that I am correct in my belief it muddles the discussion on what microfinance is (ie tyhe microfinace that has achieved the 7 year goal of giving 100 million families access to ending poverty), and because OI is probably more well resourced as a advocacy channel in the USA than the original Bangladeshi microcredit models it confuses all of usa peoples who want to action ending of poverty (as a failed system). I know I am different from many people here but as a mathematician I actually dislike noisy confusion between 2 good but opposite models as much as the confusion that is caused by eg when a big non-mfi banker pretends to be until it has got the community by the balls and then reverts to its old ways which the 20th century's mass media age has proved to use image-making to primarily trap in debt (excfess consumption and bubble like investments - junk bonds, dotcoms, housing being the last 3 bubbles banks have not only led people into but randomly gambled on tehmselves) rather than invest in peoples sustainable productivity (oddly this was the origin of entrepreneur and the transparency of the community was the original systems at the core of free market models as proposed by scot adam smith in late 1700s), and to extract wealth out of a community rather than to invest it back within that community so there are many levels of compound risk and opportunity to map naround what is OI, who are its neighbours (google.org? acumen? myc4? ...) as a type of "giving", is it ultimately at risk to the same failings as globa-down NGO models or is it communally local and diverse enough to make minifinance as powerful a mdoel for ending poverty as microfinance; but be quite clear mistaken economics if it is designed into what globalisation we (this generation perpetrate) will be just as much the compound cause of ending human sustainability as any other cause you might name- so somewhere this debate ought to be had...and actually since USA has been led by the most non-trasprenmat professions these last 8 years, somehow you ought to quiz potential candidates for presidency to see if they get this. very specificailly I interviewed the chailrlady of a year 2000 report of 50 experts on market's unseen compound truths in spring 2001; she had juts presented to the bush adminsistration the compound risks that would spiral if correct maths of community-up organsiational models was not chosen- she got removed from her DC jobs for her courage. Unfortinatley this post has gone upo to grade 40, I will try and bring my next post back to grade 3-5 again. May I make a suggestion that if we want to go to gade 40 stuff of which leaders seem to be engaging in the trasparency of this debate we might click to the maps at http://www.ned.com/group/microfinance/news/4/ ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:12:16 PDT :Modified: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:14:31 PDT whilst in jamaica, this Q&A with Yunus seems a natural to post before we go up to 6th grade: How should a micro lending organisation measure its effectiveness? First, it should be self-reliant, cover all its costs; it should have impact on the family by seeing that the family's income level is moving up. Children, the next generation, are getting better prepared and educated than the last. These are the basic features to strive for. Micro credit is to help people get out of poverty. It's not something to make money out of poor people. ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:41:00 PDT :Modified: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:52:15 PDT my daughter enters 6th grade this fall; she has no problems with the whole truth of this statement (also made by Dr Ynus whilst in Jamiaca)- so I wonder at what age in the american psyche and ideology does this start to become complex, and I wonder why, and was it always so ... I have a strong belief it wasnt in 1962 when I wss in 6th grade .. raw:: html
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As a footnote I must register a lot on anger I still feel towards an incident that I noticed whilst my daughter was in 3rd grade- she was required to memorise by heart - in her social studies course book - an exactly opposite defintion of the word entrepreneur from that which it was coined to study in 1800. Yunus applies the original definition of entrepreneur - the study of the creativity born in all of us to serve each other in the commnity in a way that is valued enough to develop income generating activity. I regard it as absolute evil when education brainwashes 9 year olds with 180 degree false definitions. Its time parents looked at whats going on in the american educational curriculum. ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:57:23 PDT So what exactly was the "exactly opposite" definition, Chris? BTW I'm glad your daughter is resilent enough not to have been brainwashed. She sounds a great kid! ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:21:55 PDT And thanks, Chris for your thoughts on Opportunity International. I'm not sure I quite agree when you say: I would like OI to engage in a transparent debate as to whether it is anything to do with how to plant a bank in a community; I believe its "entrepreneurial investment bank in SME " model is potentially great in investing in individual entrepreneurs who scale up something truly purposeful - ie spinning as much social good as business good - but that it does not flow http://flowidealism.org with seeing whole communities as its number 1 perforamnce metric. I'm not sure... because I don't quite understand what it is that you are saying. And also because I know that I certainly agree with what OI (UK) says in a report that came in my post today: Many poor Malawians hide their money under a mat, or invest it in livestock and other assets because commercial banks won't accept their small deposits. Most people can't afford formal identification, like a driving licence, to prove their identity. Even a small amount on deposit can help poor people manage in a time of crisis and plan for their future. Money in the bank helps others too. Bringing unused capital into circulation makes it available for others to borrow. We have set up the "Saving Grace" Fund to raise £175,000 to help 50,000 poor people in Malawi save this year. Just £3.50 will cover the cost of a fingerprint-enabled bank card to help someone set themselves up for life. ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:34:59 PDT us 9 yearold text book - entrepreneur is businessman whose dominating goalis to make lot of money ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:40:50 PDT :Modified: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:01:08 PDT David These days OI has lots of funds and by all means it may choose to invest some of them in true microcredit. Malawi may be a case though -if I really wanted to find out for that place I would probably pick up the phone and ask the founder of the oldest microcredit institute in malawi.I believe I have correctly identified this here http://www.ned.com/group/econo-politics/news/16/29/ though one of the reasons I challenge myself and this community with longitudinal threads is to tell me if you find something even more original there. (Actually when I save some time from hecklers I mean to pick up such a phone anyhow as malawi is a country burnt onto my mind as my 18 yeae all old niece died there in an accident whilst volunteering overseas during her gap year. We all have our own reasons for trying to search ever deeper meaning and contextually true maps however much lowest common denominator threadsters dispute such freedom. Equally OI has done the exact opposite by creaming out tens or hundreds of millions from its invetsment in taking the mexican compartamentos from mutial owned microcredit institution to stockmarketed one however the point I would erally like to go back to is if you chnage even one rule in a game you get a whole new ballgame OI (with its large and costly image-making budgets) has often tried to claim that it preceded the birth of grameen which it did; but it certainly did not invent game rules for purposefully compounding "a bank in a very poorest community owned by the poor community model" that yunus did since 1976 (with Fazle Abed and soon fellow Bangladeshi's of which about 50000 are now franchisee trained to run branches ) , and which since 1997? the microcredit summits have collaboratively performed the world networking record of providing 100 million access to ending poverty in 7 years. Microcredit (and not microfinance) seeks to ensure the true system game rules are transparently known and quality certified http://microcredit.tv ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:55:11 PDT Chris said: OI (with its large and costly image-making budgets) has often tried to claim that it preceded the birth of grameen which it did. I wasn't aware that Opportunity International had often tried to make the claim that it preceded the birth of Grameen. Though, if, as you admit, it did in fact precede Grameen, I don't see anything wrong in making the claim - or indeed in not making the claim for that matter. Part of our differences of perception about OI may be due to the fact that my observation of the way that they operate is confined entirely to OI (UK). Their financial statement for 2007 shows that 87% of expenditure was on direct charitable activities, 12% on generating future income and 1% on governance. That sounds good to me and doesn't seem like a "large and costly image-making budget" at all! And globally in 2007, 84% of loans were made to women. That seems like good thinking to me. ---- :Author: Mark Grimes :Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:43:30 PDT From **Microfinance, Macroimpact** A few weeks ago, I wrote in The Province business section about the Canadian division of a microfinance non-profit called Opportunity International that funds banks for the poor in 28 countries... `Full Article`_ .. _`Full Article` : http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/withoutborders/archive/2008/06/15/microfinance-macroimpact.aspx ---- :Author: Ceris Dien :Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:33:05 PDT This thread is what brought me here to Ned from Facebook - thanks Chris! I'd like to come back to the question of how to write stuff about community economics in a way that engages, inspires and educates, because "community centric" very much reflects (1) my (always evolving!) personal interpretation of how things might best work, and (2) it's also central to to my boss's vision at the Community Development Trust, and central to my role there too. I don't want to get involved in the OI debate! The biggest challenge we face here at the Trust is reaching out to and actively involving older children and young people in the social and economic regeneration of the community, the same target area as for Chris's book, and the same essential themes and principles. It's the only area we seem to have scored a duck in so far, the traditional Youth Club approach has failed (closed, I don't know the specific reasons why because I wasn't involved at the time) and we've yet to find an alternative platform. I've been mulling the questions posed here by Chris, I've even scribbled down some ideas for story lines and settings, but they're not going anywhere. I think I know why - it's not me who should be writing the story, it's the kids! It ought to be their story, otherwise it will have no validity. What I ought to do first is facilitate a platform where they can experience, explore and develop the themes for themselves, perhaps along "oral history project" lines , perhaps using multimedia and traditional media techniques combined. Chris, would that be a possible solution for you, to find or establish a platform where kids are engaging with the themes and to work from there? The way I see it there would be two ways of succeeding- either the kids write the book themselves, or you write about them. ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:08:23 PDT :Modified: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:11:53 PDT Ceris, I guess you're thinking of projects where young people interview older people as a way of creating their own versions of older stories. E.g. The `Gentle Giant project`_ (scroll down) .. _`Gentle Giant project`: http://www.hlf.org.uk/English/InYourArea/Wales/CaseStudies/ProjectExamples.htm *edited for clarity* ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:39:34 PDT :Modified: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:13:31 PDT David for all my working and mathematical life I have studied brands - global risky ones which wield huge power - and like any power that spins and spins to good or bad ends- I have slept with such enemies as being employed by the world's largest ad agency and one of the world's then Big 5 accounting forms. I have personally done social research projects on what some of the poorest peope want in over 30 countries and thousands of markets. In the 1980s, our project teamworking (at a microglobal firm in paris with a worldwide licence to use MIT models except in USA) used early express database software to codify needs from millions of hours of interviews with ordinary people and to try and harmonise cross-cultural flows as well as honest communities rising. Back in 1995 I hosted my first www which a business school put up for me. CHANGING OF THE ACADEMIC GUARD Then the top professors changed and just as dotcoms were coming hot and my web searches number 1 on alta vista as it was then they took the web down over night. I went on a road tour with my learning on communitions to marketing faculties at harvard, dartmouth, georgetown - what they basically said was we understand your logic ut there is no funding for anyone to research the sorts of practices you are talking about. The same sorry problems happens with every human flow process- knowledge managhement, how you prevent risk at boundaries, how you share critical information live-time- I have talked at annual conferences of professional networks in these and 10 other areas that I hoped might flow what humanly matters more than did your organisation take extract max it could the last quarter and the last quarter. I have even shown how the maths is wrong. What do you think happens if a global accountant has billions of dollars of bsuiness goodwill but serially abuses its promises to be true and fair to society. In 1998 I shared my model of what would happen/compound with people who advised anderson. I believe that ultimately flow multiplies (that's the operation of connectivity; you should only use addition for stuff that is lifeless and separate). What happens is you lead to billions times 0=0 inmstead of billions + 0=billions. If macro-economists understood multiplication they would not advise Boardrooms that economics of externalities is valuable in the long run is worth a cent of any true sustainability investment. Ultimately if you make profit in one quarter by putting a weakest community on the other side of the world (a bhopal) in critical danger, they may not know that's what you did at the time (that boardooms leades may have exited with hundreds of millions of bonuses) but a few years later it starts caching up with you. And maybe their terrorist attack back doesnt hit the original perpetrators - but have no doubt the bhopals, the enronms, the andersons of this world did every bit as much to seed microterrorism as eg the english landlords (and empire) who early 1800 corn monopolies started the irish (when potato famine came - is there not a grain famine paralel this year). This is further relevant cos in 1843 a scot trained in adam smith free market economics came down to london and did 2 things - he became an MP with the intended aim to sack the 90% of MPs that repersented the corn laws vested interestand he started a newspaper caled The Economist. Where is that paper now we might well ask? if you want to put economics as a brand that gets back to trust not just image promises, join our campaign to ask directors of The Economist to start a social business The Grameen Economist. Perhaps one of the first projects readers of goodwill could collect for is a 12 parallel wikis on hi-trust economics for 7 to 18 year olds. If youth were programmed with the truth their fashion power would dismantle boardooms or governments or global NGOs that didnt keep up with truth economics and trust branding faster than the duration of an adverising spot. http://saintjames.tv Brand & Media Transparency: Over 20 years now: I have published widely on the crime of promising with brands what you have no service design to deliver - ie seeing communiations as all promise no trust-flow. 99% of the people who make money out of branding or of auditing brand valuation or anything that maps how goodwill multiplies dont give a damn whether tyhe world's biigest brand pursposeully do what they promise. I do even if it costs me my last penny saying it matters http://brand.blogspot.com it matters at ever age group from 9 up - there are some fundamental system flows we abuse our kids by not letting them trial and error true stuff. 3 of the bigegst crimes of education on kids are: personal/communal economics water's system and brand - whether what the biggest identities that spend billion a dollars a year communicating is to be trusted (maingst otherthings failing to question of this makes a mockery of the initial clauses of te devalaration f imdependence- it causes what is done in the good name of americans people not to be anything like what they believe their patriotic DoI stands for) I am delighted that Opportunity International formally existed before Grameen Bank. Whatever OI developed it was not the same system as the 100 million ending poverty one that the 3 25000+ person grassroots networks of bangladesh call microcredit. Since this once poorest nation in the world is kinndly offering us an pen source goft of microcredit we could do them the favour of knowing every time we bump into some organisation that is selling under the guise of what true microcredit can do whether it is. I am simply saying that some sales people and their whole large pr advocacy machine which is quite high cost in the USA rumor that they are the same as community-based banking owned by the community's poorest people - they are not. And every time you meet a salesman or an ad huckster who says they are I ask you to debag them. or at least do not applaud them - or if you do, dont expect me to be polite about such non-transparent communications or behaviours since there is no more likely way to end the world than ever brand that connects billins of people being a lie, not knowing when its original purpose is still being truly practiced communally anyweher http://journalistsforhumanity.com http://saintjames.tv http://yunuspartners.com chris macrae washington dc bureau 301 881 1655 ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:04:19 PDT Its 8 minutes long. The life in the day of half a billion women. A tribute to 30 years of experience of The Hunger Project .. raw:: html ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:19:21 PDT Chris says of Opportunity International: I am simply saying that some sales people and their whole large pr advocacy machine which is quite high cost in the USA rumor that they are the same as community-based banking owned by the community's poorest people - they are not. And every time you meet a salesman or an ad huckster who says they are I ask you to debag them. or at least do not applaud them ... I don't want to prolong this difference in our respective experience. I suggest that * I scrutinise OI's activities in the UK carefully, while continuing to support them * You consider the possibility that OI operates very differently in different places * We both remember that bad publicity (merited or not) can easily tarnish an organisation's wider reputation. I dislike Oxfam's use of "paid volunteers" (especally to make cold calls!) but I continue (for the moment) to make regular financial contributions. However I don't volunteer any longer to collect in Oxfam Week. Much bad publicity is largely subjective: KIVA has been caused a lot of bad publicity on the grounds that it is supporting cock fighting in Peru, when to my mind it has done nothing of the kind. ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:36:45 PDT :Modified: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:11:01 PDT David, over at http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/news/112/22/ I believe we made some progress in defining how community-rising microcredit sees its 20 year job in empowering a community and transferring the banking ownership in that community to the region's poorest women. I am not deliberately trying to tarnish any organizations' reputation -however in working with global brands all my life I have got to an age where I absolutely will train people to expose brands that have gap between what they image and what their reality and trust is about. I worried quite a lot about greenwashing from the early practices of co-branding and CSR in the early 1990s- in fact I was one of about 5 people who developed the literature of how do brands marry each other to good or bad ends in my 1989 book called ironically enough world class brands. But I was not prepared for how bad this had gotten in the global ngo sector one that I only really became interested in when I was editing a special interest group on TRUST for the European union at knowledgeboard.com and among fellow sig hosts the guy who did the hardest and most trusted debates was exploring NGOs By 2005, I got the shock of my life. I was delegated by http://www.simpol.org - a network that believes in policies for people sans frontieres- ie what policies do national governments make worse for human sustainability when they compete against each other to be the last to lead the change that hi-trust futures need - to interview in many of the UK's 300+ NGO partners of make poverty history. I found almost all operated their sectors as global down models not community-up. As eg Easterby (white man's burden) argues these global aid sectors are part of the problem of bottom billion poverty's failed system not part of community empowerment. They have marketing costs; the compete in boxes; they dont trickle down or transfer flow knowledge; they have no map that exponentially develops local communities. This white man's burden tarnishes unicef, and whatever is your list of the 50 most famous global NGOs. It also tarnishes how all global media serve the world -an industry sector that my professional networking peers seek to change since there is no sustainability for humanity unless on life critical things our communications compound way beyond inconvenient truth- and actually dare question on behalf of the smallest voice not leave media to the biggest interests. Unless the media sector is changed, any concept of freedom of speech and democracy worth trusting is risible. Oddly this also offers a huge opportunity. If any of these organisations would like to come round the other side and transparently explain how they to audit their work in community rising models (the occasional nedster peter burgess is a retired chartered accountant whose life's work was mainly for multinational corporations- he now offers Community Impact Accountancy as the other way round accounting system to that which global top's use), their marketing costs would come down by 90% , their work would start and ending in building capacity in communities and the transparency that nurtures. And for example in the domain that Peter is most passionately interested to change while he is on this planet, the mosquito would have been beaten long ago what with all the global funding end malaria has had. When it comes to OI, my point is that I believe its potential, the community-up sector it could lead, is nothing to do with the community-rising microcredit model but very much akin to the sort of investment in Africa’s most exciting small and medium entrepreneurs which it would seem that eg acumen and google.org are doing. I actually believe that OI has far longer and deeper relationships to do this than google.org and acumen though it might best collaborate with the as it seems to me they are all their to serve the same development cause not to compete with each other's brands.. So I wish it would OI would brand the open model of what we do for its whole sector which we might call minifinance of whatever you like as long as you dont call it microcredit ; agree its different from the Bangladeshi model; make sure people (government aid, the general public and the media that informs it, the world's largest philanthropists, virtual networks that seek to change the world so that we integrate every locality sustainably) know these are validly different choices -horses for local contextual courses, and both needing long-run exponentials audit mapping not just 90 day clicking at numbers. Actually I have no doubt that if there is a world in 50 years, microcredit will even more be celebrated as a model that ended poverty for hundreds of millions- whether minicredit will be there depends whether the likes of OI kiva and google.org make it clear what they can bring transparency to as being venture capitalists for poor world’s medium enterprises using pen sourced franchises. Minicredit doesnt need to reinvent entrepreneurial wheels it needs to find tens or hundreds of social franchises that work where they are founded and openly replicate wherever the local contextual need is similar as a system flow If you are working in very poor rural communities, then it is likely that Bangladeshi microcredit is the best investment for 20 years. If you are working in developing Africa cities or other places where its not realistic to think of one community you are building for 20 years, then I would go for investing in the entrepreneurs provided their ownership structures primarily ploughed their profits back into the social responsibility of compound development that donors were expecting - this is where yunus' new book offers the social business model to audit with. You dont need to be a fan of yunus to adopt an audit model that makes sure that the entrepreneurs you originally collect donations to fund primarily reinvest in the region you are trying to develop rather than jump ship, take their profits with them ultimately externalized to big city's banks. That is how poverty compounds ever greater divides- the biggest cities profiting from the hard work of the poorest places. OI has taken tens of millions out of the poorest in Mexico because it made an investment in compartamentos that then IPO’s to be just another big city bank. OI may not have known that was what the decision-makers of comparatamentos were up to when it made its investment but it does show a certain kind of carelessness in who it invests in and to that extent self-tarnishing Topline the social business entrepreneur is different from every other side because they do believe in business that is income generating activity - ie every quarter has a surplus - but they seek to reinvest that surplus in the community development goal and have the whole owned by the longest-term investors which typically in the our billion world is the poorest women. having defined this belief it is mathematically measurable and its transparency can be double-checked by seeing no gains are ever creamed off to big global cities or others outside the community that did the work and the development flow. ---- :Author: Ceris Dien :Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:48:22 PDT I've still got the question of how best to educate about the value of microfinance ticking over in the back of my mind. Maybe it's because I'm concentrating so much on how to innovate and strengthen networks locally where I live that I keep coming back to these two points - (1) When I think "credit" I think in terms of time,attention and energies - that's the kind of micro credit I see in action on Ned, and that I would like to see more of here at home. (2) Even though we're rich in world terms many of us do live at or below the UK poverty line in monetary terms, also in terms of relative access to opportunities. We might approve in principle the microfinancing of the developing world but we don't see how we can contribute, nor what relevance it has to us in real terms. So my thinking on the topic of this discussion is - educate about and facilitate the growth of proactive and reciprocative thoughts and deeds that make a difference to our daily lives, show how that links in to and affects the community economy and how that in turn better enables us to connect and play a part in the wider world. It's applying the bottom-up approach, micro credit for hearts and minds, charity begins at home etc :) So a story aimed at teenagers might begin with a helping hand, quite literally, in a teenager's own back yard. ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:38:21 PDT **Young Teenagers** For many years John Powers has made `paper hats`_ and has pondered ways of raising money this way. I think it's a cool idea. His paper hats are not the disposable bits of tissue paper you usually find in a Christmas Cracker but solid semi-permanent items suitable for some re-use. They are made from recycled materials. They look good. They are fun. You can take photos of people wearing them. There are no real limits on the creativity of those who make them. Each hat is a personal item that someone specific has made, yet it can be shared and worn by many. Making hats can be a social event: it can form part of a programme of different activities or it can be a regular session (a reason for kids to get together in a semi-formal kind of way). You could build up a "hat library" that lends out party hats to other community groups. Scope here for a modest financial return to the group. Cost of materials for hat-making: nil (everything could be collected or donated) - charge for hat hire: voluntary donations invited or a modest set of charges (the kids could decide). The kids would need to prepare a catalogue (develop their design and photographic skills), pout it on the web perhaps (ditto their IT skills). They could visit day nurseries, old people's accommodation projects or take a stall at community events where their hats could be on display, bookings taken and booking forms given out. They could earn their own free use of the hat library for their own parties based on the number of hats they had made. They could choose local (or international) charities to support by offering their hats to local businesses for use on occasions like the annual office party. In return for the hats, the business would make a donation. **Older Youth groups** Stage showings of `Shawn Ahmed's videos`_, for example, and see if they wanted to follow up on his invitation to raise small sums to enable working kids in Bangladesh to go to school (by contributing to the very modest cost of the teacher's salary - $14 per month is it? ) Or make Peace Tiles and donate a mural to a local group or organisation. Get coverage in the local press. The next time they might think of sending their Peace Tiles to people in another country, perhaps as some kind of exchange that would aid self-awareness and enpowerment. Still thinking... .. _`paper hats`: http://hatsforhealth.blogspot.com/2006/11/make-simple-hat.html .. _`Shawn Ahmed's videos`: http://uncultured.com/ .. _`Peace tiles`: http://mixedmedia.us/peacetiles/ ---- :Author: Ceris Dien :Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:50:27 PDT Thanks David, but I'm wondering if you've got this discussion mixed up with mine ?? I was thinking here specifically of explaining how micro credit works in a novel /graphic novel aimed at teenagers, as per Chris's original topic (I can see though that it could apply to either discussion!) Thanks for the ideas though, much appreciated :) ---- :Author: David Bale :Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:00:39 PDT Ceris said: Thanks David, but I'm wondering if you've got this discussion mixed up with mine ?? I wondered that too when I previewed what I'd written. Then I thought I was trying to do no more than develop the idea I thought you were putting forward when you said in effect: (1) many people in developed countries don't have the financial means to participate as lenders in mainstream microfinance initiatives (2) those same people are unlikely to have charitable impulses towards people in developing countries if they haven't first developed charitable impulses in relation to others in their own communities You appeared to be contemplating the development of activities conducive to the impulse behind microfinance but which might attract the involvement of those without wealth and without pre-established liberal attitudes towards global problems So, following this line of thought, I was trying to make suggestions about activities in the local community that could mirror, in a general sense, the essential MF process of investment in community enterprises but without actually involving any personal financial input. In other words how to produce young people with attitudes more sympathetic towards microfinance than is currently the case. Part of the answer seems to lies in activities that involve investments of time, talent and imagination rather than of purely financial resources. So, you may well be right in saying that these comments would fit better in another thread. Nevertherless, they were first prompted here in this thread - even if they have ended up somewhere beyond the MF field of play! So ---- :Author: Ceris Dien :Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:14:58 PDT David, I appreciate your thoughts very much, being so new on here I'm afraid of breaking Ned codes of etiquette - or am I being paranoid again? ;) But you're right, I am trying to explore ways and means of raising awareness of microfinance using "credits" of time and effort rather than money. My premise is that if we in the West were to stop thinking of money as the "be all and end all" of personal happiness and prosperity we might realise that we can in fact spare some of our hard cash with those who really need it. At the same time a community that actively engages in cooperation and reciprocal actions will function more efficiently and thus boost it's own financial economy, creating more wealth and more practical ability to reach out to others. This kind of thinking mirrors the mission of the Development Trust here, except that whereas the Trust focuses solely on it's own community I see potential to draw far flung developing communities into the loop, at which point money comes into it's own as a practical and efficient tool to help lift people out of poverty and thus boost the global economy. The keyword in the previous sentence is "loop" - what you give out (or most of it) will return to you. Another point is that microcredtit (financial or otherwise) is not charity to my way of thinking, it's banking. I know that it works because it's working for me right now. And that's quite enough thinking for a Sunday morning! ---- :Author: Mark Grimes :Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:46:10 PDT >>I am trying to explore ways and means of raising awareness of microfinance using "credits" of time and effort rather than money.<< Ceris, perhaps some global type of Time Banks could fit into what you're thinking: http://www.timebanks.org/ ---- :Author: Ceris Dien :Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:14:02 PDT Thanks Mark, another great link :) I still feel we've strayed too far from the original topic, I may be my own worst enemy in this respect but it wasn't my intention to discuss projects for my own community here !It was to work on ideas for a book which could be used to explain micro-credit to teenagers. I'm using the Trust's approach as a frame of reference because the ultimate proof of it's success (it's stated goal) will be increased economic prosperity for the community and it's inhabitants. The building up of the social structure is a means to an end. To me it seems very like the Grameen approach. Mark, I'm not sure if you were suggesting Global Time Banks in the context of a storyline scenario or not, but it definitely has potential in that respect, maybe science fiction style, I like it! ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:45:34 PDT :Modified: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:46:30 PDT I've been in dhaka for a week- perhaps debates of other credits such as time and attention merits a different thread- for example I have been often intrigued by debates on how we could arrange a mentoring swap bank but I dont see this huge debate as on thread whilst in Bangladesh I experienced a lot - including a trip to a Grameen village I hadnt previously been fully conscious of how revolutionary the centre construct is to grameen's microcredit if you think of a typical grameen branch serving 4200 members in a 5 mile square area then there will be 70 vilage centre spaces each providing the meetimg area for 60 members; in days before grameen poor village wmen had literally nowehere to meet; now the village centre is where they organise the vilage's and their future- its both where they update their weekly challenges for the community, pay back the week's installment as well as come together so that women power develops communal sustainability ---- :Author: Liam Cullen :Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:12:19 PDT nahhh Ceris.. you've missed the point... Chris started this thread under the guise of how do you explain microeconomics to young children.. but read on... his own contributions have nothing to do with this.... OK... why did the middle aged parent want to explain Microeconomics to his young impressionable daughter? Answer... because he was a zealot who lost all perspective on allowing the curiosity of children to be amazing in its own right... and not an opportunity to brainwash and then feel warm and fuzzy himself. end of story ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:40:11 PDT :Modified: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:54:30 PDT microcreditsummit - the biannual network conference of 2000 people who since 1997 have helped 100 million familes access the end of poverty starts next week http://microcreditsummit.org http://microcreitsummit.tv - how 100 million microentreprenurs and their supporters can be so aggresively flamed by a few people at ned to the disadvantage of the majority is one of those ironies that virtual communities co often seem to fall victim to ... ---- :Author: Liam Cullen :Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:01:17 PDT chris macrae said: microcreditsummit - the biannual network conference of 2000 people who since 1997 have helped 100 million familes access the end of poverty starts next week http://microcreditsummit.org http://microcreitsummit.tv - how 100 million microentreprenurs and their supporters can be so aggresively flamed by a few people at ned to the disadvantage of the majority is one of those ironies that virtual communities co often seem to fall victim to ... Hey Chris, you accuse me of speaking for all on Ned for calling you on your long winded epics... yet you speak on behalf of, "100 million microentreprenurs (sic) and their supporters"...... if you are married, your wife must be very pleased she married Mr. Right...... it's just a shame his firt name is Always. regards, Liam ---- :Author: chris macrae :Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:03:48 PDT Extracts from 60 minutes video interview with mrs begum, mother of microcredit Minute 12- Bangladesh 1976 - Gradually we started to talk to the women,- the first reaction , I’m a woman, I cannot do anything. My husband is responsible for any economic activities. Most of them never touch money with their own hand, because the husband is bringing all the things so she is not really handling any money matters. So when we started talking to them , they were really surprised,- oh you go to my husband, he can do something, I cannot do anything. So we gradually convince the women to take some money to start up some business, so some of them – very few – first loanee was Sophia. She was a beggar who startes to work. And others were just observing what was going on. Then one by one they came…seeing those who hav the money are doing better. But it was not an easy task. From the beginning we had in our mind that at least 50% should be the women and 50% should be the men. To talk about that is easy, but to involve women in that scenario, it was not easy. So it takes time. One thing I should say, how women feel much better and the position came up. I was in a workshop in Tangi in 1979, and in that workshop I’m talking about: is there any change with their family, with their husband, the relationship? So one woman mentioned my husband never took me to doctor or never brought me any medicine if I feel sick. But later when I joined Grameen and I’m in money, now my husband goes to the doctor, brings the medicine. So I asked what is the reason ? She told me that this is – I am an "earning woman" – the important thing that you are depending on yourself, not dependent on others, husband or son or the father…and you come yourself and you give yourself some confidence. And this is the dignity of life. So what Dr Yunus wants, to bring the dignity among all these women, vulnerable women, so that they can make their own future, they can make their children’s future, because the mother always loves her child very much. .. raw:: html ----