Adventures of a Midwestern Girl (and Her Hillbilly Hermit Tennessean) in Sunny, Sunny California

Microcredit is the "new" big thing in charity and economic development. You may have heard about Mohammed Yunus who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his use of microloans. Now you can get in on the action, too! Kiva.org is a peer-to-peer microfinance gateway that allows individuals to loan money to poor entrepreneurs who are requesting funding to start or expand a business. (Honestly, it reads a little like sponsoring a Sally Struthers child.) You can loan as little as $25 and, when it is paid back, you can either withdraw the money or re-loan it to someone else.

Of course, it is a loan (not a charitable contribution, so no tax write off) and there can be no guarantee you'll get it back, but it can be a small amount and Kiva's current repayment rate is over 99.7%. I'm also encouraged by the positive press Kiva is getting. And I have to say, there is something very appealing about the notion of loaning money directly to an individual who is trying to better his/her life and being able to see the results.

Posted by Anne at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I were hip and into texting, there are several of these that would come in handy and I'm not even a boomer! Of course, using KTD would probably disqualify me from the hip category anyway.

Oh well. BRBGTP.

Posted by Anne at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gallop Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution

The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.

Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution. But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from.

Posted by Anne at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wasn't able to go to the SLA Conference this year (I'm going to AALL this time instead), but I've been following the happenings on the blogs I read. I LOVE this comment overheard by Tricia. I think it sums up very well myself and the librarians I hang with.

One hotel worker commenting to another: "I like having the librarians here. They drink like fish, but don't trash the rooms."

Posted by Anne at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)