charity

I am a big believer in micro-loans.  I have done a lot of reading about them and actively participate in loaning money. In celebration of my 100th micro-loan I thought I would share my top five reasons to participate.

1. It’s not charity. I know this seems like an odd statement but I firmly believe that charity is problematic.  First off, a huge percentage of foreign aid is siphoned off by corruption.  It is pretty easy for a warlord or gang of thugs with guns to seize any funds or products being delivered into a country.No one wants to steal a loan the loan is an agreement and there are little tangible assets to take.  Secondly with a lot of charities the people administering the aid are not the people who need the help.  Meaning they are imposing their values and views to create a solution rather than providing the necessary resources for the people affected to find a solution. Micro-loans let the people who have the issue decide on the solution.
2. It makes you a better person. There is a certain feeling that comes from knowing you have given someone a leg up that is crucial to personal development.  Children should know what it feels like to help someone who cannot do anything for them, and to share without expecting something in return.  This is because there is a hierarchy of human needs. People need consistency and safety, paradoxically they need change and variation, they need to be needed and they need to contribute.  The need to contribute helps make you achieve self-actualization.Samuel Johnson wrote, “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”  I would like to be measured as a good person.
3. You can afford it. Twenty five dollars is nothing, NOTHING for someone in Canada. Don’t give me some sob story about your rent or how you only make minimum wage. Saving a dollar a day will allow you to make a loan every month and reward yourself with a latte with the change left over.  We tend to overestimate the effort required to make a change when we look at the whole change, but underestimate the value of small incremental changes.I can’t save the world.  But I can help someone.  They in turn will make a contribution and so on.  My loan might help a farmer buy a goat, which will lead to milk for his children, which will improve their health.  Because they are healthy they learn better at school.  Because they learn better they might get a scholarship.  They might use that scholarship to become a doctor and so on…  Plus you are not throwing the money away.
4. It’s a savings plan. You are LOANING the money, not giving it away.  I have almost a thousand dollars floating around in various states in KIVA.  If I wanted I could wait a year for all the money to be paid back and take it out of the service.  While I may not make any interest on it, my bank doesn’t really pay interest either.  In fact, my bank is charging me a service fee to handle my money so this is even better.
5. You make the world a safer place. Colin Powell, Former US Secretary of state said “[We] cannot win the war on terrorism unless we confront the social and political roots of poverty.”  With all the money the US and Canadian governments are spending on security they could have really fought the good fight against poverty.I have a little rule:  Never fuck with someone who has nothing to lose. It might sound a little glib but essentially it is the poor and dissolute who become suicide bombers, not people with farms and livestock, families and businesses. If we want to make the world a safer place we need to give the other guys something to lose.
6. What goes around, comes around. It doesn’t get simpler than that.