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Awww, I shouldn't have waited. Now she's fully funded as well!
Dragon, want to pick someone else? If you want to wait until tomorrow when there are more choices, that would be fine. I don't see anyone on there at the moment who matches the first two you picked.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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haha she's fully funded now too! This is crazy!
I'd say you should just pick someone Tatiana - they're all worthy of our funds, and clearly we can't wait long enough to discuss it or other people will happily provide the money before we can.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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Okay, folks, we're in business! We just loaned $275 to Jose Dolores Ramos Cruz to help him expand his grocery store. He's got kids to support, his business helps the people in his area, and he seems like a good risk since he's been in business for a number of years.
Tomorrow starts March's fund. Papa, thanks for the sticky, but I think we can let the thread float from here on out. I'm totally chuffed at what we've done, people! You guys are awesome!
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What does everyone think of the person I picked? Do you like him?
He had all the qualities that Dragon stated, other than single motherhood. I like the idea of supporting single mothers, or of helping out women in third world countries where women often have very low status and lack power, economic or otherwise, to change their situation. However, it feels wrong to me to discriminate against men to accomplish that. This guy has an intact family, so when we loan to him, we're also helping out his wife and children. Eight for the price of one, so to speak.
Do you approve of my choice?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Okay, I'm glad you guys approve. Jose got his loan completely funded now, did you see?
You can ignore the stuff below if you're not interested. It's just the fine print and full disclosure and accountability part, for anyone who cares.
jatraqueros lender report for Feb 2007:
Total collected:.....$279.09 Credit card fees:........$4.09 Total amt loaned:..$275.00
Remaining balance:...$0.00
What I'm doing is starting each month out with a $25 donation from me, then at the end of the month, I'm paying all credit card fees myself and rounding the number up to the nearest $25 increment, because you have to loan in $25 increments. I may or may not also donate 10% to kiva.org to help them with their operating expenses, since they work for free. They have servers and stuff they have to maintain. This month I didn't.
I put Wallis and Futuna as our country because you had to pick one, and I didn't think it was right to pick the U.S. or Canada since we come from all over. They didn't have a selection for just Planet Earth, which I think is quite specific enough already.
Everyone should feel free to donate as little or as much as they want. $5 is fine, or $10, or even $1. By pooling our efforts, we can accomplish much more than any of us alone.
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If we end up stopping the loaning process for whatever reason (the site goes defunct, no one wants to manage it, etc.) can we agree that whatever's left in the fund will be donated to a charitable cause we all like, such as the Heifer Project (or kiva's operating expenses)? If so, then I'm willing to chip in some cash.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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(We're tight this month, but we're paying off all our credit card debt, then probably in a few months refinancing our car, and so then we will have a little cash to spare, even with savings and paying on some personal loans. I will chip in some in a future month when we do. )
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Yes, of course I will keep it going! I consider it a sacred trust! If it stops for any unforseeable reason, though, I'll just donate it to whatever cause people say.
One possibility would be sending it to kiva for operating expenses.
Another possiblity would be lumping it in with my other kiva fund, which is funded just by me, and continuing to keep it rotating forever. I have 13 businesses now in my portfolio. My lender page. Actually, I don't see any advantage to doing that. I would just keep rotating the money in the existing jatraqueros fund, because it belongs to jatraqueros.
But I don't see any reason for it to stop, really. Maybe if I get banned from hatrack? You never know...
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Contingency plans are good! Oh, and the way it works is we don't get any of our money back until a given loan is fully paid off. Then we get it all at once in our kiva account. At that point, it's available for us to loan again.
You're welcome! I'm really excited about it. I can just see this thing growing and growing until the income disparity in the whole world is greatly reduced. I think it's a fantastic idea whose time has come.
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<laughs> I hope not! (getting banned, I mean)
I suppose Uncle Orson could decide to quit paying for hatrack, like Richard thinks he should do. In that case, I'd plan to keep the jatraqueros fund rotating.
Kiva itself could die or something, though it seems to be growing like crazy now. In that case, we might not get our money back, I suppose. I'm not sure what the possibilities are there.
Suffice it to say that I consider it money that belongs to the hatrack community as a whole, and I will do whatever you want me to do with it. Hey! I know! I can donate it to the next year's holiday season gift if Dr. Rabbit is still doing that by then.
Ooooh, I love that tree! It's seriously gorgeous. The birds love it too!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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It's the 16th now and we're still at $100. Surely someone will chip in ten bucks soon just to keep the ball rolling. Our borrowers need us.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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It's the 22nd now (well, very soon now). Happy equinox everyone (2 days ago). <celebrates> The nine day countdown starts now.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Dragon, feel free to nominate. Anyone who is still around on the evening of the 31st I'll go for!
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This woman mentions school fees in her profile... so we'd be funding education as well as the business.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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All right! We loaned $125 to Nora Topeto for her flea market business. Our lender page now shows both our borrowers. This time I chipped in 10% for kiva's operating expenses, so Premal and the guys can get by. I think what they're doing is awesome!
I give all of y'all a high five for what we're doing. Hatrack rawks!
In case anyone's interested, I added a couple more borrowers to my personal lender page as well, lately (using my own money of course and not jatraquero funds). (Understand that I loan small amounts to each one, as my personal strategy, so Hatrack does far more than I can do myself.) In particular there was one lady with 4 kids whose husband kicked her out when he found she was using birth control. I just had to choose her! I get such a feeling of excitement and happiness watching the list grow longer, that I wanted to share it with y'all. <beams> I love the feeling that it's just going to snowball, as old loans are paid back and new are generated. Here is a tiny beginning of something that has the potential to become huge someday, and to transform the world into a place where everyone has enough, where respect and kindness for each other is the dominant feature of politics, and where we work together to overcome the challenges that beset us. I get all inspired and stuff about it.
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I really want to donate, but it's tax month and we're getting killed. Next fall our finances should be much better, and I'll be able to start regular monthly donations.
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Everyone, even if we can give just a little bit, just $5, it will really add up. If we do it regularly then no matter how gradually it starts, it will keep going, keep snowballing, until it's like an avalanche or a mighty river. =)
Right now it's a baby that we have to feed to keep it alive and growing.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Time for a bump. April is officially 11/30ths over, and we have $25.
In other news, I'm starting a wiki about averting human extinction. So far I've reserved the domain name avertinghumanextinction.org. Then my volunteer IT department went to sleep. =) (Thanks, Josh!)
Anyone have any good suggestions?
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