50 years of poppadoms: A microfinance success story

If you thought that microfinance was a relatively new concept associated only with Kiva.org and Grameen, here's a story of seven women who, with an 80 rupee loan (currently $1.50 USD or $2.00 CAD), some initiative and lots of hard work, created a business cooperative called Lijjat Papads that now employs 45,000 women in India.

The original BBC story is here.

That original 80 rupee loan (about $2.00 CDN today) is a tiny amount of money that has had an amazing positive influence on the lives of thousands of people.

As we sit in our first world homes, grousing about the economic downturn and market crises and the like, let's take a step back for a moment and consider the amount of good that can be done with few resources...

Snow joy

Caught this clip on the BBC website... looks like fun!

The audacity to hope

I was fortunate enough to be able to be at home today to watch the broadcast of Barak Obama's inauguration festivities. While I do not envy the huge tasks ahead of him (and the even huger expectations on him), I could not help but feel hopeful at his confidence, his charisma, his eloquence and the grace with which he delivered his first official message to the world.

Particularly poignant: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

New regime, new year, new challenges and the audacity to have hope. 2009 will be a memorable year!

Credit crunch concept isn't new... just ask the Romans!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/28/credit-crunch-roman-republic-lecture

Cicero gave a speech that talks about credit crunch-type events that happened in 88 BCE!! Apparently, Rome had been in an expensive war with Mithridates of Pontus (now modern day Turkey) that wiped out the coffers and caused credit issues all the way back to Rome itself.

The orator told his audience: "Defend the republic from this danger and believe me when I tell you - what you see for yourselves - that this system of monies, which operates at Rome in the Forum, is bound up in, and is linked with, those Asian monies; the loss of one inevitably undermines the other and causes its collapse."

Gee, why am I having a deja-vu moment?

Simple pleasures: Chickpea soup

There's nothing like a hearty, hot soup on a blustery, cold day. A friend introduced me to this soup earlier this autumn, I find it to be delicious and comforting. My friend and I are both "cook-by-feel" kinda gals, so there is no official paper recipe per se. My attempts to reproduce it with the following proportions have been wonderfully successful, but if you are an experienced cook, you can easily "doctor" it to your own tastes.

Chickpea Soup

Saute the following in a dutch oven with a bit of olive oil or butter until the veggies are soft:
one medium onion, diced
two stalks of celery, chopped
two large carrots, sliced into half-inch chunks.

Add 4 cups of soup stock (I use stock I made from the thanksgiving turkey) and bring to a gentle boil
Add the following:
one 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes (don't drain!)
one can of chickpeas (I drain them and rinse them to get rid of the excess starch)
a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste
2 teaspoons of ground cumin (or amount to your taste)
1 teaspoon garum masala (or to taste)

Bring all of these to a boil, then simmer over low heat for an hour or so to let the flavours blend. You may need to add more water (I freeze my homemade soup stock in a rather concentrated form, so I usually have to add 3-4 cups of water).

Simple, easy and tasty, this soup warms from the inside out, is easily doubled, freezes well and is generally loved by anyone who tries it.

Yields 6-8 servings.

Payback: CBC Massey Lectures

I just had the pleasure of reading Margaret Atwood's latest book: "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth". It isn't yet another book about debt management or personal finance. It is, instead, a description of debt as "a human construct".... an academic, literary and sometimes very funny work that every person who reads books of a personal finance, economics, money management, and business genres.

CBC Radio One's show "Ideas" is running the 2008 CBC Massey Lectures. Ms. Atwood is giving these lectures. The five lectures align to the five chapters in the book, which has a large reference section.

Drippychick's view: worth the read and the listen.

For more information about the 2008 CBC Massey Lectures, go
here.

drip, drip....

The fall of dropping water wears away the stone -- Lucretius