Mochaclub.org

Mocha Club makes giving something to those who need it easy.  Sign up here.  have an amount of money automatically charged to your credit card every month.  And that's it.  

They recommend a donation of $7 per month - the cost of two mochas, but you can choose to give more or less.  

You can choose the type of work you'd like to contribute to.  Be it Aids/HIV, Orphans, Genocide ...

The only catch is that you have to commit to at least three months of donations to cover their set up costs.  

And they make a point to keep their overhead low which means more of what you give actually makes a difference in Africa.  

Random facts from the site:

$7 can

Feed one person for one month.  

Educate two school kids for one term.

Save one persons life from malaria 

Provide clean water to seven Africans for one year.  

Be Junk Mail Free!!!

Send a letter asking to be removed from all distribution lists to:

Mail Preference Service

Direct Marketing Association

PO Box 643

Carmel, NY 15012-0643

Be sure to include your mailing address in the body of the letter.  It will take up to six months to be completely removed from all of the lists held by this company (over 75% of the market share...) so be patient... but like mom always said: 'patience is a virtue'. 

And for those of you renters... When you fill out your change of address with the post office, DMA will follow you to your new address.  It may take some time for them to get their systems updated, but rest assured; your request will be honored.  

Banker to the Poor - Muhammad Yunus

The Grameen Bank started as an experiment in a small village in Bangladesh and grew into a world wide operation with many many success stories, and only a few set backs. As an economics professor, Yunus knew only of poverty on a massive scale, and of the billions of dollars needed to fix this issue. A day trip out into his own community made him realize how little an individual person needed to bring themselves and their entire family out of poverty. He made his first loan out of his own pocket to a woman who made bamboo stools. She needed $27 to get out from under her money lenders and bring her stools to the open market herself. And thus began the Grameen Bank.

The Grameen Bank now has hundreds of branches (including in the UNITED STATES) and has fostered many copy cat banks around the world. The end of this book left with his making a goal to reach 100 million of the poorest families around the world by 2005. I'm sure the next book on my reading list (The Poor Always Pay Back - The Grameen II Story) will tell me that he did reach his goal :)

By focusing on lending to women, he was able to improve the lives of entire families, and consequently, entire communities. Birth rates fell for Grameen member families, their children went to school, and they didn't starve or resort to begging. Yunus along with the Grameen Bank was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to promote social and economic well being among the poor.

And a quick plug, of course... http://www.kiva.org/ to make a difference and help to alleviate poverty around the world.

Campus Singnage

The latest random signage around campus aimed to raise awareness... I think.  I get that they're unhappy that the budget has been cut, but wouldn't the right time to be protesting have been when something could have been done about the budget?  remember... when state congress was 90 days late ....

Yes, this is the first year in history when the CSU system will deny eligible graduating seniors a place in any school

Yes, tuition is going up.  At an average rate of 17% over the last many many years.  This is to be expected.  CSU's haven't raised tuition in the last three years, we're due for an increase with or without budget cuts.

Yes, tuition is going up - but teachers are not being laid off.  Instructors who are here on a year to year contract are not having their contracts renewed... but that is a risk one takes when accepting a contract position - that their contract may not be renewed.

ok, this one does just suck.

Three hundred dollars seems reasonable to me...  It's not a HUGE amount of money that one CANT  come up with, yet enough that when multiplied by the 30,000 students that they have at the school...  I Think that in order to keep are campus as clean and orderly as it is that seems like a reasonable request given the current circumstances.  

My Runs

These are my two runs with my Nike Sport Kit (which I still think needs a better name...).  As you can see, I have A LOT of work to do :) 

How Rich Are You?

I work part time. I consider myself to be a 'starving student'. My income still puts me in the top 11% of wage earners in the world. I am the 669,642,941 richest person on earth. There are over 6.7 BILLION people on earth.

I'm feeling a little guilty for spending $350 on software (most of which I probably won't ever *need*). There are so many better places my money could be going right now...

Ending the worlds poverty can solve so many problems. We throw our donations at organizations that attempt to get a pair of shoes on every young one who needs them, or organizations that help to give educations to girls in developing countries. We don't stopp and think that if they were not barely able to feed themselves, they would be able to afford a pair of shoes for their kids and be absolutely willing to send their kids to school. Once a higher percentage of people is educated, they can grow their own economy and solve their people's problems on their own. We're trying to fix the outward symptoms of an underlying problem.

A snippet from the Global Rich List:

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

Change the world? Okay.

I just finished reading Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (It's on sale right now ;) by John Wood. Whoa. Rarely do I find a book that I cannot put down (I would like to apologize to anyone I've bumped into... literally... between classes over the last few days). John left a very high up position at Microsoft after an enlightening trip to Nepal in which he discovered the state of the education system there. Imagine had your school had classes with three or more grades squished into one small room and a library consisting of a handful of trashy romance novels that tourists had left behind (um, actually I know Calaveras County still many schools in this condition... I did a book drive back in high school for an elementary school way out in the hills that had a single shelf of books for their k-6 school... but that's beside the point :)) In just a few years, John was able to found, and make successful, Room to Read - a non profit whose sole purpose is to build schools and libraries in developing countries. To date they have built over 7000 libraries. It's difficult to comprehend that $250 can fund a girls education for an entire year (including a backpack and a new pair of shoes), and a mere eight to ten thousand dollars can build an entire school or library. It's seems like such a small number, we should be able to do more to improve the lives of those who are in need of basic resources like a public library or a classroom in which every student has a chair to sit in.

Seasteading

Today I went to a lecture given by Patri Friedman (grandson of Milton Friedman...) on Seasteading.  He intends to build islands out in the middle of the ocean and create unique governments created by the people, for the people (haha, couldn't help it).  His issue with the world today is that there is no chance of a new government emerging anywhere without millions of people dying.  So, to begin a new government he is going to build platforms out in the middle of the ocean, as that is the only unclaimed earth left, and let the people who live there design their own rules to live by.  He envisions people being able to move from one island to the next until they find an island that most closely matches their own moral/ ethical belief system and choose to stay, (to avoid the issues of emigration and immigration that are present in our land owning governments, people having the right to come and go as they please is his only requirement for these emerging governents).  My most poignant concern - is this not going to enforce racism/ prejudices that are prevalent in already existing countries and governments, but not so blatantly separated from one another?  I can imagine a liberal island and a conservative island going through a few rough patches...  Or the Mac island vs. the PC island...  

Kiva.org

Ok, I know I tend to do a lot of talking about making the world a better place, but I understand that I am of limited knowledge and resources and can only do so much when it comes to these things. Which is why Kiva is so great. With $25 anyone with either a credit card or a paypal account and improve the life of someone in a developing country by helping them build their business, or make their business run more smoothly.

I first learned about Kiva two years ago. I would drive from SF all the way down to Mountain View at least once a week, and on every drive I saw the same billboard for Kiva.org and was intrigued. Then, when friends started talking about it I was hooked on the idea. Don't ask me why it's taken me so long *actually* get involved; but I have. Today I made my first micro loan to a man in Togo who sells cement to other entrepreneurs and carpenters. His business has grown and he needs some money up front to place his next order to keep up with the demand. I chose to loan to this man in particular because he was not only growing a business for himself, but because his business is allowing others to maintain their own businesses as well. His providing this product to the community gives income to others which grows the community that much more.

And with that, I ask that everyone at least have a quick looksee :) http://www.kiva.org/