dagblog - Comments for "The Extraordinary Pierre Omidyar"

Beggars can't be choosers,

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:46:35 +0000

Beggars can't be choosers, eh? Dont look a gift billionaire in the mouth. Sure, in an ideal world the UN might have a trillion dollar budget. In the meantime maybe we can just regulate the non-UN portion a tiny bit better rather than waiting for paradise on earth. Microlending collapsed and per capita consumption in Andhra pradesh decreased by 20% since the scandal. the non-profit sector didnt step in to pick up the slack. them's the breaks. for the little people. folks in america can be a bit more idealistic - the day to day realities dont impose on the vision. If bill gates is 70% right, it's better than doing nothing.

Of course there are

tmccarthy0 — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:51:34 +0000

In reply to I'm sure there's plenty of

Of course there are programmes that work. I am a believer in the UN Global Microlending programme, the funders aka underwriters are well known, the IMF, World Bank and UN Development programme. The reason I trust these types organizations over the great billionaire savior is that these organizations go through constant reassessment, they produce research, they go through constant critiques and must respond to committee that might have vigorous oversight.

I don't trust these great billionaires who will show us the light, lead us to the path of truth, because their money sets us free?? But it doesn't.

Let's take Bill Gates for example, I love his software and his company, I admire his philanthropy, but I vehemently oppose and object to his funding of charter school initiatives around the country, bad mouthing teachers, public school and teachers unions, and the only reason he gets a say in anything is because he has money. He certainly has no expertise in pedagogy, curriculum, or the real problems that face our public schools that has much more to do with income inequality than simply having lousy teachers protected by unions. He can throw his uneducated weight around, because he has dollars and his own deep belief, not backed up by actual evidence. I suspect Mr. Omidyar is any different than Bill Gates or even the Koch's. They have their own agenda's but there is no rigorous critique, no constant reassessment required because he, not unlike Mr. Gates is accountable only to himself.

Most of the good work done on micro-lending is only located in your library, or if by change you have access to JSTOR online.

Is the 'corporate culture'

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:34:08 +0000

In reply to You don't approve a corporate

Is the 'corporate culture' worse than the predator individuals & gangs doing the same thing since forever in India and elsewhere? Put in 'corporate' to make it more scary?

Workers are abused & driven to suicide at Apple's Foxconn and Jabil (a $17 billion US company) factories - does that mean we won't buy mobile phones, or that we'll criticize Jobs & Cook's iTV & iPad cloud content plans based on worker treatment?

The criticisms of microfinance focus on one horrific story of a woman setting herself on fire in 2010 - what's changed in the last 3 years, or will we keep trotting out the same story from 2010? There are people researching the causes, issues & solutions - why not quote them? Then, there were 14,000 suicides in Andhra Pradesh in the first 9 months of 2010 - several hundred of them seem from microfinance, much larger portion seems to be government pressure on the farming sector.

What's the background? Farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh are so common they get their own Wiki page - but these were common before microfinance, and increased after the 2010 decline of microfinance. These were the biggest but not only targets of the malfeasance.

While it's pretty obvious the microfinance industry needed to be regulated better with some practical reforms, is the subsequent decline of the industry helpful?

in 2010, Andhra Pradesh had a population of 84 million, out of which an estimated 27 million were in households that borrowed from the micro-finance industry. Did this intervention have the desired effect of improving household welfare? Going beyond the impact upon the 27 million persons in borrower households, what was the impact upon the population at large?...

...As a consequence of the ban, disbursements dropped to a mere 1.7 per cent of loans disbursed prior to the ban. More than Rs7000 crore micro-borrower loans were effectively in default, with recovery rates at 10 per cent.

We find that consumption expenditure of households in Andhra Pradesh decreased by 19.5 per cent as a consequence of the ban on micro-finance, compared with those outside AP. This decline varied across components of consumption: AP households spent 16 per cent less on food and 34 per cent less on education as a consequence of the ban. Consumption across all income groups was negatively impacted.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/microfinance-ban-hurts-the-p...

Bravo, so we kill the microfinance industry while ignoring the effects on the poor. One aspect of microfinance I'd read about earlier was the abuse by men in using loans to women to essentially enslave them, so the promising buying of a sewing machine might be 1 man's personal sweat shop. Anyway, it's India, so huge and complicated and unpleasant. What this has to do with Omidyar's media startup, I don't know.

I'm sure there's plenty of

ocean-kat — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:20:46 +0000

In reply to Real ly republican Clear

I'm sure there's plenty of information about microfinance. I just haven't had time to read much about it. I only said this to make it clear I wasn't criticizing or endorsing the article. Sharing links is always nice but getting some links wasn't the point of my comment. I can do an internet search.

What drew me in to comment and the point I was making is that you're slamming Greenwald lovers selective vision while I see just as many Greenwald haters with their own form of selective vision.

It was so bizarre Sweden did

A Guy Called LULU — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:30:02 +0000

In reply to I can't quite fathom why they

It was so bizarre Sweden did drop it at first.

The points you bring up and more were the reasons it was originally decided by the Swedish authorities not to charge him in the first place. Then, being free to travel he went to England and then suddenly someone in Sweden who had to stretch their jurisdiction and stretch Swedish law beyond its normal reach and intent, decided, for whatever reason that getting him back was worth an international incident which, like you said, made Sweden look stupid and made their true intent subject to suspicions.
Still, and again emphasizing that only if he was given assurance that he wouldn't be extradited, I believe he should have returned and faced those charges and I think that was the commonly held, or at least the commonly expressed, opinion of almost all who supported his Wikileaks actions.

What a strange accusation to

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:02:44 +0000

In reply to I said before I primarily

What a strange accusation to put on me. I havent even commented on this latest media venture. who are Greenwald's 'associates' i'm championing? And where tje hell did i say greenwald is irreproachable?

People die in misery in india ebery day - if your only objection to something is someone died without any perspective, it's completely frivolous- of course rights should be protected -but they arent. How many of the same people would get a loan frm a tjug on the corner if SKS werent tjere? What was the practice in 1985? How many have been helped, how many hurt? How can the systm be improved for less (not 0) abuse?

I can't quite fathom why they

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:52:14 +0000

In reply to Surely you must have come

I can't quite fathom why they couldnt interrogate him in the 6 weeks following the accusations, and sorry, a not-US standard "rape" charge for not wearing a condom and/or condom breaking while 2 women compare notes get outraged that their rockstar spent the night with someone else... no, i dont think he should go back and face tje charges. If it had been Jimmy Page they would have woken up to cod between their legs. What's established? The 1st let him stay at her house while away, but returned early and had sex wi him - and then claims he broke his condom on purpose - loony or what. Maybe the 2nd had some point where there was no condom for their 2nd fuck - she says he refused. But both women bragged by sms about their conquest, no mention of rape - not until they found out the other had slept with him too. so no, forget it -too bizarre for a court case, drop it. Makes sweden look stupid.

I said before I primarily

A Guy Called LULU — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:01:17 +0000

In reply to I said before I primarily

I said before I primarily look at reported facts.

How's that working out over the long term? Were you relying on reported facts all the way through Bush's term?

Never mind, you didn't bother to answer my questions [maybe it was a combination of just couldn't and just wouldn't] so I probably shouldn't bother answering yours with snark. Strike it from the record.

Real ly republican Clear

tmccarthy0 — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:52:48 +0000

In reply to Of course that's true, just

Real ~~ly republican~~ Clear Politics... haha nice.

I will supply you with a few links. But there is plenty of information out there available to you as well.

The pitfalls of MicroLending

Woman and Microcredit in Rural Bangledesh.

Microfinance Misses its Mark

You don't approve a corporate

NCD — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:46:35 +0000

In reply to From what I see, the

You don't approve a corporate culture that loans money to the poor, and then hires collectors who drive debtors to suicide.