bobharris.com
Travels in microfinance: 20 countries, 5 continents, 1 best job ever
Coming soon: giant fun following teeny-tiny loans
This blog is increasingly about my work and travel for The 1st International Bank of Bob, my upcoming book about microfinance (“MiFi”) for Bloomsbury.
After my 2008 round-the-world luxury hotel reviews for Forbes Traveler, I took the money from that gig and plowed it into more than 1800 microloans in 53 countries, almost all via Kiva.org. Now I’m traveling the developing world to see the results, meet amazingly strong people, and share their creative and inspiring stories.
This space will soon carry stories and pics from along the way. If you’d like me to speak to your group, here’s a video sample and here’s the place to call.
If you’re popping in from BoingBoing, TMW, or HuffPo, please bookmark and come back. Updates will increase in frequency shortly. Thanks!
My 1800th Kiva loan: 50,000 Ugandan shillings (about 25 bucks)
Aug 22nd
Meet Sharifa, a 19-year-old who sells vegetables and charcoal in Uganda.
Sharifa needs USh 200,000 to grow her business (a little under $100). Eventually she’d like to open a beauty salon. She learned her business skills through a program run through the microfinance place managing her loan, BRAC Uganda.
I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I can look at this young lady and not chip in $25 toward her loan via my team at Kiva.org. (You almost always get paid back, btw — the repayment rate is close to 100 percent.)
Sharifa’s is the 1800th business I’ve invested in so far via Kiva. So far, out of over $45,000 I’ve sent out, I’ve lost less than 30 bucks. And after visiting entrepreneurs on four continents so far, I’ve seen how much good this can do with my own eyes. (If you like the idea, join my team and get started right now!)
I’m hoping to visit the good folks of BRAC Uganda on the next trip for the book.
More to come!
#Kiva gets $5m grant! Go Kiva!
Aug 13th
The Omidyar Network (which sounds like a Turkish ESPN but is actually a philanthropic investment firm founded by the dude behind eBay) just tossed $5million to Kiva.org.
It’s the biggest grant in Kiva’s history, and they’ll use it to further spiff up the website, hook up with more microlenders in the field, and generally do more good do-gooding more.
If you’re not up on the whole Kiva thing, the quick intro is here. And if you haven’t yet joined my lending team, we’ve made more than 2400 loans to mom-and-pop shoestring operations in more than 50 countries. Hop on board here!
USAID sets up Iraqi microfinance institution
Aug 12th
Hurray. But this is one MFI that I won’t be visiting for the book.
NY Times: More stuff ≠ happiness
Aug 10th
Nice visit with reality. But it’s no way to sell ads for luxury goods in the rest of the paper.
How cell phones = banks in the 3rd world
Aug 5th
It’s microfinance on speed-dial: from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, check out how ordinary cell phones are transforming finance in the developing world.
And here people think the iPad is a game-changing technology.
Will a $353 million IPO help a billion people in poverty?
Aug 4th
Indian microlender SKS, whose village loans typically run $100, just blew out the doors on its IPO, anchored by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and other global names.
A harbinger of the world’s poorest becoming just another profit center for the world’s richest? Or an inevitable growth stage of a successful model, a natural expansion of a system that encourages self-sufficiency for the poor? Or both?
Comic-Con’s genius slogan
Jul 24th
“Celebrating the popular arts.”
Finally — somebody is standing up for things that everyone already likes.
So desperately needed.
Beyond Caprica: My New DK Sci-Fi Travel Guide
I just found out a few weeks ago that I’m about to have a new book-type thingy published.
Last year, my dear friend Jane was running Caprica (the Battlestar Galactica prequel), and on the strength of my real-world travel writing and the country summaries in Who Hates Whom, she thought I’d be a good choice to devise backstories for the show’s planets (the “colonies of Kobol”), amplifying the existing tangential references in the original BSG into fuller political histories, giving Caprica’s writers an internal bible for consistency.
Naturally, I jumped at the chance — this was like being a Star Trek fan in 1968 and being asked to write the show’s history of the Romulans for use in future episodes.
I didn’t figure this would be published, but whoa — turns out NBC/Universal has edited my memo to fit the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide format, licensed the resulting pamphlet with DK, and published a limited run as if it’s a real full-color DK travel guide to be released in a limited run at the San Diego Comic Con — but it’s also on sale at the NBC store.
I don’t think this will ever be in stores, so if the show becomes a cult like BSG, it could become a collector’s item.
Neat!
My Keynote Talk on the Web, Global Culture, and Monumental Screw-ups – Now on YouTube
Mar 5th
Update: welcome to everyone popping over from my Peru travelogue on BoingBoing.net.
And if you imagine your group would want me to come by and speak, here’s who you want to call.
Last year I was asked by Web Directions North, a gathering of assorted bigshots from Google, Yahoo!, etc. — people who literally convene to design the Internet itself — to deliver a closing keynote on the future of the Internet’s influence on global culture and politics.
Naturally, my take was illustrated with people dancing in the streets, teenage males being given fake boobs, and coffee made from civet poop. I’m happy to tell you it got a long standing ovation.
You can see the whole talk online here. It’s broken into bite-size pieces, organized loosely by the point I’m making, each about the length of a pop song. If you dig the chunk above, click to the YouTube page with the whole shebang.
Thanks again to PAAC
Feb 24th
Quick note of appreciation to the good folks at the Pacific Asian Affairs Council, who brought me out to Honolulu, set me up at the University of Hawaii, and arranged for me to keynote their summit on microfinance.
I had a total blast and met a ton of cool people. And seeing so many young people get excited about a sense of connection with the developing world, and the ability to touch lives halfway across the globe — that gave me a huge boost of enthusiasm for my own work. So I definitely received at least as good as I gave.
Thanks to everyone at PAAC. Hope to see a bunch of you in Vietnam next!
The Bones episode what I done writ
In case you missed it, I was asked to write a Bones episode this year, it aired a couple of weeks ago… and here it is, available for streaming at the network’s website.
Incidentally, even though it says “Written by” and then my name in the credits, stuff like this is always a massively shared enterprise, so credit belongs in huge part with the entire writing and producing staff.
Very cool and fun bunch of people. And I’m happy to report it was their highest-rated episode since 2008!
Great experience, this was. Thanks to everyone involved!
My new New York Times puzzle is up
Sep 5th
Circular Reasoning, a new puzzle I designed and wrote for the op-ed section of the New York Times, is up!
My brief companion essay is here, and the introductory essay by novelist Arthur Phillips, who introduced me to the editors, is here.
It’s meant to be hard and yet amusing enough that you’ll want to share it with a friend or family member and work it together as part of your long holiday weekend. Did my best, anyway. Enjoy!
My 650th Kiva loan
Sep 5th
Goes to this group of 20 small entrepreneurs in Trou-du-Nord, Haiti.
If you’re just tuning in, I’m writing a book about microfinance for Bloomsbury. Kiva is quickly becoming the microfinance equivalent of eBay. Great place to start if you’re interested.
Want to do something cool today? Go visit, open an account, and loan a few bucks halfway around the world. (Hundreds of loans now, I haven’t lost a dollar yet. That’s unusual, but their default rate is less than two percent.) It’s not charity; you get the money back, they get to build their business, and you get to keep loaning the money right back out, over and over if you like.
My plan is to make 1000 loans this year. I’m a little behind right now, but I’ll catch up. After that, I’ll just keep re-loaning the same money over and over. It’s a great addiction, if you’re looking for one. Highly recommended.
Too bad the Emmys aren’t this smart
Aug 3rd
Jane accepts the Program of the Year award for Battlestar Galactica at the Television Critics Association Awards on Saturday.
I think the other three women were her backup singers.
The New Xerox Logo and the Kyrgyzstan Flag
Jul 7th
I just saw the new Xerox logo for the first time (I guess I don’t buy office equipment much) in the background of the Dodgers game. My first thought: why did Xerox (left) adopt the symbol on the Kyrgyzstan flag (right)?
Obviously a coincidence. Still: small, weird planet we live on.
If you came here from the TV, looking for the book…
Jun 26th
If you’re looking for the book that Jeopardy! mentioned out loud tonight (!):
It’s right here:
And while you’re here, kick off your shoes, poke around, scroll down, hit the Travel or the FAQ if you’re curious or click over to the Trebekistan section if you want more Jeopardy!-related stuff, and otherwise make yourself at home. Thanks for stopping by.
A Twitter-length post only seems appropriate here
Jun 22nd
CNN trying to look cutting-edge by using Twitter is like 1950s radio trying to look high-tech by describing what’s on TV.
(btw, if you haven’t noticed, you can follow my own Twitter feed here. Enjoy my random brain farts of 140 characters or less!)
My 402nd Kiva loan
Jun 19th
To Ugandan coffee merchant Max Musiime and her group, to replace business funds pulled out to help the 10 kids she cares for and to buy another bicycle for her employees.
So far, not one loan has defaulted.
Easiest way to do good I know.
Share the planet! Go do some Kiva.
