Kiva and Microfinance

Few weeks ago, I read about Kiva in one of Nicholas Kristof's article in New York Times. While many are charcterizing this as a "sexy" thing to do, I don't mind doing a tiny bit rather than "sitting on a fence". So, once the Times covered it, I was rest assured about some credibility. An aside - this is one of the reasons why I still believe NYT and credible entities need to exist in the internet. I know myself well enough - I would have never shelled off a dime if I did not have some comfort of legitimacy. Kiva was simply amazing. The process was simple and within 24 hours, I got an update that my beneficiary in Kenya has got his loan and on his way to expand his stock of shoes and repairing tools. It does make me feel good. Not for the amount of money that I chipped in, but the fact that when many chip in, it turns out to be a good sum. Time and again we argue about solving issues by democratization resulting in settling with the lowest common denominator. We argue competition enhances performance. As JP has mentioned in many of his posts - gift economics vs. market economics, sigularity vs. plurality, teamwork vs. individuality, and opernsource vs. proprietary are many faces to these ongoing discussions. Well, organizations like Kiva is another example to remind us that there are alternate frameworks to explore. And in some cases, maybe, works much more effectively than products that come from our conventional, common, or popular wisdom.