Waiting to Die

This image was taken by Kevin Carter of a starving child struggling to a UN food station, a kilometre away, in 1993. A vulture patiently waits for the child to die. Kevin Carter won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in April. In July, he committed suicide.

"I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners...I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."

Today, despite photos like these, children continue to starve around the world, including in our city. How can we look at ourselves in the mirror?

A Booming Poverty Market

Micro-lending was such a novel concept to help the poor, help themselves. It started with not-for-profit organizations, lending to the poor in developing countries -- lending really small amounts of money to help folks start a small business and give themselves a sustaining chance. And it is still going strong around the world, sustained by not-for-profits -- but these days, the greedy feeding frenzy of for-profit business is taking over. The thing about lending to the poor is that most often, they are honourable, trusting people. Getting a loan establishes them in the group on their way out of the hovel, and they would do anything to not default on that status -- anything, including not going into personal bankruptcy. The poor also tend to be uneducated and unaccustomed to the sophistication of modern banking. They care only about how much they regular payment needs to be, and how long they need to make them. They are ripe and ready to be plucked. Easy pickings for those that know better. For-profits know better, and so they taken advantage of the poor, putting them on the slippery slope of 100% APR, with interest rates charged against the full amount of the load, even if the principle is lowered by repayments.

Evil. Absolutely evil! BusinessWeek is carrying an article on for-profits that target the poor in Mexico, and are doing more harm than good. That is what happens when a business caters to its shareholders, and only its shareholders, with no care for the society it serves. Totally pisses me off.

Dharavi: Asia's Largest Slum

Dharavi is reportedly one of the biggest slums in the world, with a population of more than 1 million people, spread over an area of 175 hectares. Unless you live in a slum, you probably can't fathom this level of congestion. Stuck in the middle of Mumbai, between the city's two main railway lines, Dharavi is rapidly evolving into a city within a city. It is a place where the unwanted of India's caste system are kings -- where an informal economy is humming away, creating products that make it all the way to the shelves of big boxes in North America and Europe. It's a testament to the human condition that such a place exists -- and despite the odds, such a place is working.

Read more in:

• The Economist: A Flourishing Slum
• National Geographic: Dharavi: Mumbai's Shadow City
• BBC News: Life in a Slum
• Dharavi via Google Maps:

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Ordinary Kindness

An acquaintance of my wife had a bit of an emergency recently ... he had to move out of his home in a hurry. He had to leave by Dec. 31^st, taking everything that belonged to him and find himself a new home. Normally, this would be a problem for the best of us -- short notice, fire in the hole, scramble like hell. This situation was not so normal. Imagine your worldly possessions consisting of just your clothes, your computer and personal documents. Imagine having nothing else to your name. Imagine surviving on a limited wage amounting to less than $1,000 per month. Now imagine having no sight whatsoever. Yes, visual impairment. No sight.

I can't imagine what I would do. I also suspect I have limited imagination, because I never imagined what would happen next. I never imagined the kindness of complete strangers -- and friends and family of ours. It was mostly my wife's doing -- she regularly restores my faith -- my faith in human altruism. Sharing the story of a young man's plight with family resulted in an outpouring of support. It wasn't a miracle. In hindsight, this should have been expected. We have such a capacity for kindness. We just need to tap into it more often, since the demand is, unfortunately, always there. I don't like miracles, as they tend to be out of reach for most of us -- the response to this crisis is something we can all do at any time. No miracles needed.

Response to the emergency saved one person this winter from falling through the cracks in Toronto. There is now a little apartment, mostly furnished, and quickly turning into home. I'd like to thank those that helped.

• My wife -- who got the ball rolling and came to the rescue.
• Aunt Tiger -- who continues to save the world; in this case, finding cutlery, dishes, blankets, towels and more mugs than I thought anyone could have.
• Joan -- for quickly locating her son's bed and passing along her desk from when she was a teen.
• Maureen -- for the rug ... and getting us in touch with Marlene and Al.
• Marlene & Al -- for the sofa and chair, and staying home to help us.
• Kathy -- for all the stuff ... buggy included ... he can now manage his shopping and laundry a little easier.
• Tyler -- for the physical labour; the grunting & groaning; the wisecracks; and figuring out what to do with a long sofa and tiny, complicated doorways.
• Bernadette & Vanessa -- for helping with the first grocery shopping.

My youngest also introduced me to FreeCycling and a bunch of generous FreeCyclers. So thanks folks for helping out:

• Jason -- for the end tables you've had since your teenage years.
• Birch/Cliff (I didn't get your name, but you know who you are) -- for the laundry basket and electric kettle.
• Nell -- for the dresser. Perfect fit in the bedroom!
• Jan -- for the radio. It works great!
• Lou -- for the microwave ... a very useful appliance for a single guy!

Folks, you've all done a wonderful thing. You've helped someone in need. You prevented him from disappearing. His name is Dave, and he is incredibly happy with his move.

So what are we going to do next folks?

World Fair Trade Day

Spread the word ... it's World Fair Trade Day.

Designing Change

Limited thinking would view the poor as a burden to society, but if you buy C.K. Prahalad's bottom-of-the-pyramid theory, the 4-plus billion impoverished people in the world are a vast untapped market. If you're motivated solely by profits, you may limit your understanding of Prahalad's theory to bringing consumerism to the poor -- but if your aspirations are to close the inequalities that exist between those that have, and those that have don't, then this vast untapped market represents an opportunity to make a difference, even while eking out profits. The poster child for tapping into those at the bottom is Grameen Bank, with their micro-financing to aid those in developing nations towards self-sustainment.

Helping the poor help themselves is a novel idea that is taking off in philanthropy. It's not just about throwing endless sums of money at the vacuum of need -- but about wisely investing in the poor, so they can create an economic environment where the cycle of poverty can be slowed and even stopped. I've just found out about an organization, like Grameen Bank, that is investing in the poor, for a profit. Jacqueline Novogratz's Acumen Fund takes the micro-financing approach with venture funds, looking for businesses, business models and designing solutions to tap into the unmet needs of the poor -- and along the way, sometimes bringing home a small profit for their efforts that is then reinvested. What a virtuous cycle.

Acumen's $20 million investment portfolio is focused on health, water and housing, with seed money coming from some well known philanthropic organizations. Its website boasts some great success stories, such as a $325,000 loan to A to Z Textile in Tanzania, in which it lost $32,500, but got 5,000,000 Tanzanians mosquito nets to protect against malaria infection. A to Z Textile expects production to ramp up to 7 million nets. That impact, for a $325,000 investment. BusinessWeek tells the story of Acumen's equity investment in Drishtee, a startup in India, that rolls out information kiosks in rural India, complete with a computer, internet access, digital camera and fax machine. Drishtee offers the kiosks as franchise operations, allowing locals to own the kiosks that provide village access to health information, government resources and other necessities of modern India. Women it turned out made better franchise owners than men, as they open earlier and close later, but lacked skills and most banks in India do not lend to women. Acumen has invested in training village women in the basics of business and is working with an Indian bank to offer a guarantee to the bank's loans to women franchise owners -- aiming to prove to the bank that women are safe investment bets.

Jacqueline Novogratz, an American woman, making a difference to the lives of the poor women of India -- I like the female symmetry in this story -- noteworthy, since today is International Women's Day.