Some Thoughts

It feels as though someone has stuffed a large grapefruit into my sinuses, but aside from that it's been a good weekend.

Once the dust settled from the renovations at my apartment, things ended up looking pretty good. The wine-stained green, spangly counter top in the kitchen has been replaced with something low-key, tasteful and, most importantly, stain resistant. I'm starting to grow rather fond of my apartment, even if it does have, ahem, "character". (Read: Stalactites on my living room ceiling.)

I was thinking the other day about the kind of charities I'd like to see out there. Not to disrespect traditional methods of delivering foreign aid, but I think that if you deal with the overt symptoms (ie. hunger, disease, malnutrition, etc.) but not the root causes (ie. economic disadvantage, inadequate education, poor security situation, oppressive political environment), the aid you deliver won't actually change anything.

What I'd like to see is an adaption of micro-credit lending that would give micro-grants to local organizations that are working towards political freedom, basic human rights, gender equality, conflict resolution, and economic and educational opportunities.

I'm thinking of something sort of similar to the online auction model, where you can browse based on your price range and interests, and then pick a project that works for you. Regardless of whether you wanted to vaccinate Romanian orphans or provide office supplies for Puruvian womens' rights advocates, you'd be able to find a project that worked for you.

The one issue is accountability, but I think there are ways around that. In almost any given country, you have diplomats, journalists, travellers, writers, government officials, etc., etc. Similar to the way you'd ask a local professional to vouch for you when you apply for a passport, the aide recipients could get local and international officials to vouch for an organization's credibility.

There'd be several benefits to setting things up this way. First off, you'd be supporting some very important work around the world. It's not a pleasant truth, but there are many individuals and organizations who do not believe in democratic government, human rights, or freedom of opportunity for the impoverished. Those who do support these goals deserve support that they don't often receive.

Next, you'd be providing a forum for people with similar goals and interests could share ideas. Rather than having to reinvent the wheel a hundred times over, people can learn what works and what doesn't, and change what they need to make it work in their own setting. If it works, great. The results are evident, and the group gets more funding. If not, then it's back to the drawing board - with even more incentive to get it right the next time, lest someone log some negative feedback.

I totally got off on a tangent here. Other than bandying such thoughts back and forth, the weekend was really good. Very relaxing. The grapefruit in my sinuses appears to be shrinking.

I'd appreciate commentary on this idea, and not just the hearty-backpatting variety, either. If this kind of stuff is a priority for you, is this the kind of model that you'd consider using? Why/why not? What sort of things would you do to improve it? What sort of guarantees would you want? I know there are a lot of you out there who have experience, or at least an interest in this sort of work, and it'd be good to hear from you.

That's it for me. I'm sleepy.