1. Do micro-lending organizations help or hurt communities? Is spreading capitalism the best way to bring struggling countries out of their poverty? One organization we talked about was:
fonkoze.org
2. The perception that Creole is less than a full language is an attempt to simplify a beautiful history. Creole has evolved like all language and is just as capable of expressing ideas as any other language.
A fulfilling lunch. Then I saw the Natural History Museum. There were real dinosaur bones, eggs and skin. Whoa. There was also a beautiful display of opals, my favourite (see that British spelling?) stone.
4 comments:
What are your thoughts and answers to the first question?
You know, micro lending seems like a great idea. Fonkoze, in particular, primarily lends to women...apparently they've been more trustworthy, stable savers. But there's a downside when someone is successful in a community and not everyone gets a part of it. I'm just not sure that capitalist ideas always translate to a village mindset.
That makes sense. I sometimes feel like our "radical" ideas--like socialism, libertarianism, even green politics--work really well in a village. Theocracy, monarchy. Just about anything. Capitalism, on the other hand, may or may not be the thing that works in large, unwieldy societies, where most other binding influences have collapsed.
I'm basing that hunch on very little.
CJ -
So I just found out about this project called Street Papers - have you heard of it? It's actually quite successful in the United Kingdom. I'm becoming very interested in it, and would like to know what you think -
http://www.street-papers.org/about-insp/
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