Help Gadling buy this woman a cow

by Neil Woodburn on

If you’ve ever traveled to a third world country and fell in love with its people, you know that feeling of guilt that inevitably arises when you realize just how difficult life can be for those less privileged than you.

Most travelers caught up in this epiphany often wonder what they can do to help, how can they give something back to the wonderful locals who made their trip so memorable? Unfortunately, so many of us return from our travels with good intentions, but poor follow-through.

If this happens to be you, than today is your lucky day; Gadling is here to help and it’s not going to cost you a thing.

Just in time for the Holidays, Gadling is teaming up with Kiva, a unique non-profit that provides micro loans to “help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence.”

The concept is simple. Local entrepreneurs contact Kiva’s field partners around the globe requesting small loans to help out their businesses–which are often not much more than a single cow or perhaps a roadside stand selling melons. The field partners determine risk, and if acceptable, will then post a description of the loan on the Kiva website. In addition, the field partners will also post information about the borrower, thus adding a human face to the transaction.

Anyone interested in providing a micro loan can then sign on to the Kiva website and lend money ($25 minimum) to the entrepreneur(s) of their choice.

So this is where you come in. Gadling is looking for your guidance to help direct our loan to a deserving individual whose business we will then spotlight over the next 8-12 months while the loan is being repaid.

We’ve included six choices below (with descriptions provided by Kiva) but feel free to visit the website and expand the selection. Loans surprisingly move quickly on this popular site–Fatima Huseynova featured in the photo above just received money for her cow last week–so let’s hear your thoughts in the comments section below as quickly as possible and we’ll announce our choice next week.

Tajikistan
Alisher Musoev has been in the bakery business for 7 years. So that he could provide for his family, he started working as a trainee in one of the local bakeries at the age of 16. For one work shift that usually lasted 17 hours he was only paid 6 to 7 loafs of bread, which was not enough for his family. He started looking for a space so he could open his own business. Once he found one, he started his own bakery. In the beginning, he was only baking for special orders for weddings because he was short of cash. After a period of time, when he accumulated more funds, he started producing bread for the sales on the market. Currently, his father and two hired employees, who are paid 450 somoni, are helping him in the business. Alisher is asking for additional funding so that he could increase his production.

Cambodia
Mrs. Sout Sro Em, age 25, is a traditional musician, earning around $5 each day. Her husband works driving a trailer attached to a motor-bike to transport passengers, making about $4 per day. They have one child who is too young to attend school. She would like to request a loan of $1000 in order seek an additional income source by purchasing pigs to breed and sell. She also plans to fix her husband’s broken trailer so he can better operate his business.

Lebanon
Fatima is a 47 year old mother of four children. Fatima is a very serious and committed microentrepreneur. She lives in South Lebanon, in the region of Saida. Fatima works with her husband cooking falafel, chickpeas and beans. She needs a loan of $1200 to buy a new chickpea processor and provisions for the business. This is the sixth time Fatima is asking for a loan from Al Majmoua.

Peru
Farming and the production of fruits are the main activity of most of the settlers of the Peruvian forest. Don Rolando is one of these men, who learned from his parents the skills and secrets of this beautiful activity. This education has now allowed him to be a man with multiple skills for agriculture and most of all it has allowed him to support his dear family in these days of multiple economic problems. He has a partner and his desire is to get married and build a small house and condition it to open a small grocery store to help with the expenses of the house. He is asking for a loan that will allow Rolando to have a bigger income this year and achieve all these goals.

Pakistan
I am Amna Bibi. I am a mother of six: four boys and two girls. Currently, only the elder two attend school while the others are too small. My husband works for skimpy pay and I own a few cows and sell their milk. Last year, I took a loan for my business, which resulted in increased profits, and I was able to save $250. Now I wish to further expand my business and require a loan of $350 for this purpose.

Azerbaijan
Djeyhun (his sister is pictured) has his own business. He was born in 1984 and lives in the Salyan region in the village of Yenikand. This man is single. He has been in this business for 8 years. Now he needs a loan of $1,200 to buy foodstuffs for improving his business.

Wrestling over moon and Arctic ownership

by Neil Woodburn on

Someday, hopefully soon, we’ll all be able to vacation on the moon–providing, of course, you have a passport and the necessary visas.

The latter will be required because at some point in the future, some country here on earth is going to claim various swaths of the lunar surface, if not the whole thing itself.

Although the Americans planted a flag on the moon, no laws currently governing ownership of the big cheese. This slight regulatory oversight, however, will have to be solved soon. And a test case is occurring right now in the Arctic.

According to a fascinating essay by Richard Morgan in Wired Magazine, a current battle over ownership of the Arctic by Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the US will set the stage and precedent for future “lunar land grabs.”

The Arctic is the last bit of unclaimed land on this planet and it would have remained that way were it not for global warming and the subsequent melting effect it has had on this otherwise unwanted and worthless piece of land. Increased temperatures, for example, have opened up the valuable Northwest Passage and might also be opening the door to enormous oil deposits–thus creating a rush to stake claims as soon as possible in the potentially lucrative region.

Depending on how things work out, our grandchildren might be taking their summer vacations in the Norwegian Arctic and their winter holidays on the Canadian Moon. Or something like that.

Feed the hungry for free

by Jerry Guo on

Last week I gave a quick shout-out to Free Rice in a post about rethinking African aid. Since then, I’ve really gotten addicted to this website. You learn words and help feed the poor. What can be better.

The way the website works, you never get bored because the words are tailored to your ability level. So you could be a Chinese student learning English for the first time or a word Nazi over at the New Yorker. Works for both.

I think this is a great example of how the Internet has reinvented the nonprofit field. Not only does it make donating easier, but here’s a case where you don’t even have to shell out a buck. Definitely worth a play.

Human Rights Day is tomorrow, but the walk in Malaysia is canceled

by Jamie Rhein on

International Human Rights Day is tomorrow, December 10. The day was established by the UN to commemorate the Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the general assembly of the UN in 1948.

When I was looking for information to let you, the Gadling reader, know what events are going on in the world to make the world a nicer place in honor of Human Rights Day, I found web pages that could not be displayed and information from years past. Even the UN Web site page where this logo is from is from last year’s announcement. It’s easier to find out information about St. Nicholas Day. (I guess they are related, come to think of it.)

I did find out that the Human Rights Day walk in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that was scheduled to happen today, Dec. 9, has been canceled. The logistics might have been nightmarish? Still, there is an event in the Central Market that sounds interesting. There’s a lip-reading of the Declaration of Human Rights (even this link is 9 years old) and stage performances. I do think there are events and talks going on in various parts of the world, but people who are busy promoting human rights may not have a lot of time to update Web sites, or the organization isn’t prominent enough to show up at the top of the list in a search. I’m just saying. If you know of something, pass on the news.

Now that you know it’s Human Rights Day tomorrow, smile and play fair–not that you wouldn’t anyway. We can all do our part.

Ethics of studying Amazonians

by Jerry Guo on

This week I was on the phone with a world-renown linguist, Pierre Pica, who works with an Amazonian indigenous tribe. He and his collaborators have already found some great stuff–that these people can only count to roughly four or five though they understand basic geometry about as well as the average Westerner.

What I’ve been pondering, however, is the impact of this kind of research. Keep in mind that many of these indigenous tribes have little contact with modern civilization. Some have never seen a modern human being. So I would say that ecotourism and the such probably are out, even for tribes that are near cities. Sure, they’ll get nice amenities like electricity and money from the gawking visitors, but just look at what conditions American Indians are in right now. They have high rates of alcoholism and fall behind on educational opportunities.

The trickier issue is the ethics of anthropologists. Do they benefit Western society? Sure, their research is valuable in understanding not only these tribes and gives us a better sense of our own origins and culture. But does the research necessarily help the natives? Theories aren’t going to help them hunt for food. Hmm. But maybe it’s ok if the guy’s Pierre–he tries not to stick with one tribe for too long (a couple days) before sailing down the river. And he sounded like a good guy on the phone.