The newspaper clipping “Do-it-yourself foreign aid” was floating around my “to-do” pile for months. Last weekend I finally logged onto kiva.org and lent out some money. The New York Times had directed me to the organization in the article. Why question the NYT? They do their homework.
I lent with the spirit of helping. I certainly do not intend to profit from the loans, but rather pay any interest earned forward and make my loan pile bigger and bigger until I am helping swarms of women set up fruit and vegetable stands in their villages (I purposely chose women wanting to sell fresh produce, forget the evil dudes wanting to sell soda!).
Well, three days later—after my little goody-two-shoes deed, there on the front page of the NY Times this morning: “Many Borrowers of Microloans Now Find the Price Is Too High".
Turns out the loan sharks smelled the blood of potential hefty profits and came swimming over to see what all the fuss was about. I read the article and discovered some of these impoverished people are paying up to 83% in fees and interest.
Can you imagine being such a capitalist f**k that you swoop in on non-profit organizations that are trying to help people by gathering little $25 loans up and handing them out to people who have painstakingly filled out forms and are trying to change their lives in $500 or $1,000 increments? The banks and financial institutions are exploiting the intricate systems and sensitive relationships that took volunteers and non-profit workers over a decade to build.
You know what, I’ll just check the websites of the worst offenders (thanks, NYT, for listing them) and add those banking and finance executives to The List.*
*The List: people that have screwed me, crossed me or otherwise knowingly and/or intentionally taken advantage of an innocent party.
I cannot tell you the details, but I promise you this:
They will be wishing all they had to do was pay 83%!
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