Microcredit with Kiva.org

I was looking for new charities to support, and I have just found a very interesting one. Kiva.org gives very small loans to those in poverty across the world. I have given a loan of $25 to help Miriama Maposua to purchase raw ingredients needed to make products for sale. She produces and sells baked goods on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

The amazing thing is that as it is a loan, Miriama will give me back my money within 15 months (98% of kiva loans are repaid) and then I can loan the money to someone else. The interest charged for the loan is kept by the local administration teams.

I am very impressed by this initiative, empowering poor communities. I am looking forward to seeing the loan getting paid back. 

I have tried to google for negative news articles, feedback, comments on kiva.org, but haven't found much. I will update this post if I do hear something bad, and I will also posto about my own experience as it unfolds.

Attempt to increase productivity - Part I

I decided to start my blog by sharing a link to a nice Firefox add-on that helps your productivity by blocking or controlling access to websites: LeechBlock. It's quite impressive: you can block specific websites that hinder your cutting-edge research (or whatever else it is you do) on certain days of the week, in pre-specified time intervals and you can even choose to give yourself a break once in a while! For example, I have set a website that I tend to procrastinate on to be accessible for 10 minutes every 3 hours between 9am and 9pm.

This all sounds very good, but it is as easy to set this up as it is to unblock it, one would think - and therefore remain un-impressed. However, here comes the surprise! One of the options requires you to enter a 64-digit random sequence in order to unblock the websites! I have clicked on that option just to try it out... and now the only way for me to unblock the websites that I have entered is to enter that 64-digit sequence... a huge turn-off. 

Starting a blog might not seem the best decision with productivity in mind... but I hear it pays off.