Help people, help yourself: Kiva

[thistlechaser]

I've been very grumpy for the last 24 hours. I made the mistake of watching the presidential debate, and I've been pissed off and hating Romney ever since. (Previously I only disliked him.) He was so rude, refusing to stop talking, talking over the moderator, arguing with the moderator, not to mention the usual stuff like lying and saying whatever he has to to make people like him. But no, people aren't calling that rude. He was "aggressive", which is a good thing! I swear, my dislike of the general public and everything has grown so much. Is this what we want? People who refuse to follow the rules? People who talk over other people? (I shouldn't be surprised. Bully is as bully does.)

Anyway. This post wasn't supposed to be ranting. I've been doing enough of that in my head the past day. (And just typing that up has me all angry again, grrrrrr.) This post is about Kiva, the microloan group.

One of the loans I made had a payment, so I went to the site to see how much credit I had. Just over $10, so I looked into donating it back again. I found this woman, who for some reason reminds me of my mother (my mother isn't Asian, but the shape of the face and body are similar, and the shirt? and the way she's standing? Hair? Not sure, but it really pings me). This woman is working as a librarian in her local school, as well as raising livestock and mending clothing on the side. Why? So she can "save enough to pay for her children’s education".

I forgot donations are usually $25 and I had only $10 credit, but I covered the difference myself. And it made me happy (until I started this post :P ).

Kiva is an amazing group. Say you start with a $25 "donation". Within the stated time period (generally a year), you get paid back. Kiva has a 98.96% repay rate for the 264,217,700 loans it has made. It's nearly certain you will get your $25 back.

So once you have the $25 credit, you can either take your money out and keep it, or loan it out again.

The woman I donated to tonight is getting a $2,150 loan ($25 from a bunch of people). Two thousand dollars wouldn't change a life here in America, but elsewhere it can make a massive difference.

I'm able to invite people and you will get a free $25 to donate if I do. No charges, no strings. If you'd like an invite, please leave a comment with your email address. I have comments set to screened, so no one else will see your address.

Comments

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

Re: the debates.

OMG I KNOW RIGHT? He was so fucking rude. I had to turn it off because seeing him argue with the moderator and come off that aggressive, honestly, put me off. I'm not saying this as a person who usually votes Democrat. I'm saying someone who felt unsettled. I felt like I saw a very ugly side of that man.

I do NOT understand how people said he won. Maybe the debate changed after I turned it off? I dunno.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I watched the whole thing (unfortunately). He only argued with the moderator once, but he talked over him nearly every time he was told to stop. At one point the moderator told him two or three times that his time was up, then had to just give up because Romney wouldn't stop.

I bet the moderator hates him more than we do!

I do NOT understand how people said he won.

The biggest reason I saw was that he was "aggressive". That he leaned in more, that he got angry. Obama looked down. To me, it looked like Obama was staying calm and dismissing Romney's ranting.

Know what kills me most? That likely a big group of Americans will think it was good that he was "aggressive", that a president needs to be. (Hello one of the reasons the rest of the world tends to dislike us. Oh wait, the opinion of the rest of the world doesn't matter! RAH RAH GO AMERICA GOD'S FAVORITE COUNTRY!)

...here I go ranting again. I'm going to try to skip the rest of the debates, they make me too angry.

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

Yeah I hear you. I am just... disgusted.

Especially since Mittens has flip-flopped on virtually on all of his stances. What he was saying in the debates, makes sense. In my heart of hearts, I'm a moderate. *I* might actually may have voted for him if that was the case, but up until last night he was running on extreme right wing principles. It's like he changes his mind with the tide. I can only hope that puts off some hard nosed conservatives who never trusted him to begin with, because you know what? They shouldn't.

/okay I'm done. This is raising my blood pressure.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

His VP outright lied, so why wouldn't Romney? They'll say whatever they have to to get elected. Just a couple days ago the Republican party was involved in voter fraud (when they were RAGING against nonexistent voter fraud issues not too long ago).

Stealing elections ftw?

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of curious if Romney's sudden shift to moderation was strategic. Most of the far left/right is considered to have made their choice, with many voting early. They think all that remains is to fight over the Independents & Moderates. Makes me suspect that Romney considers the far right is his, and he'll lose fewer votes among the far right than he'll gain from the moderate if he starts espousing moderate stances.

Personally? I'll continue using the political season to start debates about greater political ideas (yesterday's topic was "What is your problem with Communism?") under the disguise of arguing about the election.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I suspect you're right. He needs the middle and the right is likely to get out and vote if only for Not Obama, so he has little to lose at this point.

The rest of us, on the other hand, have so much to lose...