I got a letter from a woman in India the other day. An email, actually. Her written English was halting and grammatically atrocious, but her sincerity and gratitude were unmistakable. I had recently loaned her $50, and she had written to thank me.
No, I have not been caught up in a Nigerian-prince-style marketing scheme (I hope). I have just been introduced to the only-in-the-21st-century-would-this-be-possible idea of microloans.
Actually, I was introduced to the idea a few months ago while scholarship-hunting on the internet and it has been a bug in my ear since, so I finally decided to try it out. Part of the double-edged sword that is globalization is that we now know about problems such as the horrors in Darfur, or the poverty in India and Africa and much of southeast Asia, and we feel the need to do something about it…. Read more…