Microloan - Part 2

Wow... in the time it took me to write that last blog the remaining $400 were raised! Good job everyone (knowing full well that nobody even had the chance to give any money)!

Here is a new "Entrepreneur of the week", a term I am considering renaming to something more accurate "Entrepreneur of the micro-minute" due to the speed and competitive nature of philanthropy in the world of Micro-financing.



Happy financing!

Microloan

Hey all,

Happy Halloween, or Hallowe’en... apologies to all you Pagans out there... apologies all 'round!

Here is another follow up to poverty week cause apparently we didn't fix it completely a few weeks ago.

Here is my entrepreneur of the week. Guillermo Espinoza Martínez:

"The young man Guillermo Espinoza is married and has the responsibility of supporting his beloved family. His job is selling hardware in the municipality of Ciudad Sandino de Managua. It should be noted that when he began the business five years ago, he was only selling a few products, but as time passed, he succeeded in increasing the stock in the hardware store. Now he wishes to expand it further. He is seeking help from Ceprodel to obtain a loan to be used to buy hardware products and thus improve his business even more."



If you decide to sign up for Kiva, feel free to fund Guillermo and to join my "Sustainable Development Team".

New Visitors!

This is a special post to regonize and welcome 2 new visitor to the blog.

First I got hits from Andorra which is a place that I haven't been to ever in my life but that I will likely see at some point since it's right between France and Spain two countries that I have been to many times and that I would revisit in a heartbeat. Next times mysterious Andorra person... next time!

Secondly I noticed a hit from South Bend Indiana. Been there 3 times, twice for games and once to visit the Mendoza B-School and MBA admissions officer. I thought it might be one of my cousins who visited the blog while going to a game but I doubt it cause the Fighting Irish were in Chapel Hill this weekend. On that note I would like to congratulate teh Irish so far this season for the big win against Michigan and those Ivey league wannabees at Stanford (I sooooo wish I could could get into that school!).

Anyway! Welcome newbees and come again. Tell all your friends if you enjoyed your stay. If you didn't enjoy it then just tell them that you did ;)

Mike

Older stuff

Here are some pictures and videos from last weekend and some from longer ago that I haven't had a chance to put up till now.

This first video is from Praia Mole a beach close to my place; one of the nicest in Florianopolis. I have some decent footage of surfing but this one impressed me the most:



This is a picture from last Friday's dinner. We had a Brazilian BBQ. Basically a BBBQ consists of rolling some meat in seasoned sea salt, cooking it over a grill then removing most of the salt. The results are delicious... salty, but delicious. I eat BBBQ twice that week. Once for lunch and once for dinner. The meats vary from pork to beef, chicken and ox. Cuts or types of meat vary too from sausage to ribs to fillet mignon and even chicken heart. Chicken hearts are pretty good but sometimes the arteries are a bit long so you cut them off. The first time I heard of this I laughed my ass off cause you see this whole tray of little hearts and your like "Nahhh, those can't be... what the .. thats a lot of chickens!". Anyway, BBBQs are great and they even have indoor electric grills to do them on. Not the safest but soo good! Beside me in the picture you have Marlon and Gislaine (who may be moving to Ottawa) Luciano and Nilda (who hosted aaaand who you may recognize from previous episodes) .




Here is some food that I bought for R$6. (About $3.30 CDN at todays rate). The cookware and dinnerware behind came up to about $90 in all.



I usually eat lunch with some people from work at a State government building that has a "by the Kilo" cafeteria. On the days that there is something really good I will often pick up an extra helping for dinner. This dinner cost me less than $2.



The price of food in general varies a lot. You can easily pay well over $20CDN for a meal but I avoid those places like the plague. I would go bankrupt in about 45 seconds if I started living that life style. For instance, electronics and automobiles here are not cheap! Everything gets taxed heavily, especially if it was imported.


This frog was tiny. How the hell did it get up to the second floor window; and why was this such a desirable place to go... so much that he went so far out of his way to get there?




Thats all for now. Next post I will try to get some good pics and vids of this tree:



I saw it last weekend but didn't have my camera with me. It's downtown in this magical sweet little inner city park. I'm my favorite place on the island so far. The type of tree is the "Figueira". Fig tree I think. I saw may of them in Spain.

Blog Action Day

So today is "Blog Action Day".
This is a day when bloggers around the world unite-and-write about poverty in order to raise awareness. Personally, I can't say that I an expert in poverty. I've been lucky enough to have never really experienced true poverty. That said, I'll give my two cents anyhow as part of the effort to raise awareness and knowing that two cents given from multiple sources can add up to worthwhile amounts. Which leads us to my first topic: Microfinancing.

I think that Microfinance can be best explained using infomercialism.

Infomercial for Microfinancer-2000-X already in progress :

Mike: "Many of you are saying to yourselves: Hey Mike, I've heard about Microfinancing, but I'm not really sure what it is. Micofinancing is basically the act of lending small amounts of money to the very poor, by institutions other than big banks."

Member of paid audience: "OK Mike, so that's what Microfinancing is, but why is it an important issue in today's turbulent times?"

Me: "Microfinancing is an important issue because it addresses one of the worlds pressing issues: Extreme Poverty. It does this by allowing money to reach entrepreneurs living in poor countries. Microcredits allow the entrepreneurs to start businesses, provide for their families and stimulate the local economy. They can place larger orders and take on larger projects and hire employees. Most importantly they avoid crippling interest rates that can often reach 100% per month in some countries."

Typical sales-person/host who asks basic naive questions: "That's all fair and well Mike, but why don't these entrepreneurs just borrow from banks?"

Me: "That's a fair and non-basic question Rob Lowe. The reason that the people who receive microfinancing cannot borrow from traditional banks is because they often cannot offer anything as collateral (such as a house, a building or title to land) which banks require when lending money. Even if they do have collateral it’s rarely enough to secure a loan large enough to be profitable for a typical bank."

Member of a visible minority: "If banks don't lend out the money then who does?".

Me: "Microfinancors vary from smaller private banks, non-profit groups and even people like you or me. The best part is that loans can come from multiple sources, so the risk is reduced!"

Grandmother: "Microfiancing seems complicated and I probably don't qualify... Not with my medical history."

Mike: "Not true, Microfinancing is easy to do and only takes a few minutes. There are no medical questions and best of all: The premiums never go up!"

Token blond, overly enthusiastic, soccer-mom type lady: "Wow, that sounds great. How can I Microfinance an third world entrepreneur right now?"

Mike: "You help end Extreme Poverty today by going to a site such as http://www.kiva.org/ and lending as little as one easy payment of $100?"

Rob Lowe: "Come on Mike! You can do better than that."

Mike: "All right Rob, how about this. For a limited time you can: Help end extreme poverty, reduce 3rd world dependence on foreign aid and for today only, as part of a special offer, you can also experience a sense of purpose! All for one easy payment of only $25!"

Rob Lowe: "Amazing Mike! Sign me up for Microfinancing today!".

Man that you never see: "Act Now! Dial toll-free http://www.kiva.org/ right now to fight Extreme Poverty. Usually around 90-100% money back guarantee. Shipping and handling charges do not apply. "



So that is microfinancing in a nutshell. Now that I am done promoting debt, it's time to bash it while trying not to sound like a complete hypocrite:

First off, debt is not a bad thing. In fact debt is an essential concept in today’s shaky economy (perhaps not tomorrows). The problem with debt is that it is often associated with interest, often high interest. Interest is a tool that for years has helped the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It’s based on simple math but since people don’t care much for math, they usually get into financial trouble due to interest associated to debt.

If your financial life was a hike along a mountain, debt would be the grass just at the edge of the path that is often safe to step on in order to speed up your pace. However, once in a while, it gives out and sends you on a trip down a slippery slope that you may end up on for the rest of your hike (never reaching the top of the mountain). In this imagery, the Bank would be the hiker ahead of you that recommends that you walk on the grass in order to reach the top faster. They also insist on hold onto your backpack for you.

All that to say that I hate owing or being owed money so I pay things back as soon as I can and avoid borrowing completely. Emotionally I prefer to give something away then to lend it. But that’s just me.

I'll end this post by mentioning the current global economic crisis. There done. I think we hear enough about it from our propaganda machines. As much as I like the topic I’ll stay clear of it today just cause I just had a long talk about it last night with a co-worker and I don’t really want to go down that rabbit hole again. I want to keep this short and just say this:
1) A lot of people and organizations are making money and (more importantly) gaining power over the "Crisis".
2) Usually if you want to find out who is responsible for a problem you simple have to look towards who is profiting from it.
3) The Federal Reserve should be allowed operate in the way it does.



Thats all for my blog today. Thanks for reading and stay tuned to find out about a really cool tree I StumbledUpon in downtown Florianopolis last weekend.

Hazy Sunday: Preclude Chronnicles of Nilda and Luciano

URGENT NOTE TO READER: This post is about events that took place a few hours before Chronnicles of Nilda and Luciano.

Its taken me a few days to sit down and document that fateless afternoon before Nilda, Luciano and I went on that ambitious adventure, but here are some pics and videos to remind me and show you what those events were and how they have helped shape the world as I know it.
This is a picture from a the boat launch on in the southern lagoon facing a highly desirable property:



Here are some tacky garden gnomes protraying the 7 dwarfs. Obviously these are the american version of the Dwarf. You can tell because with the weak Brazilian Dwarf exchange rate there are only 5 of them:



Local tagging:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/mike.mcnulty/SO-sr6ht_lI/AAAAAAAAAK8/W_y1hLNDL4E/s576/DSCF0120.jpg


Sidewalk Ceramics


Dog


Trees that (I strongly like to believe) are called the twisted sister. And who (I also like to believe) posses mystical powers, particularly the ability to forecast gum prices at the local gas station. Including brands such as Trident sugar freegum aaaaaaaand Wrigley's Spearmint:


This is the "Corridor of Inevitable Doom":


This is a typical building on this street:


Some nice foliage:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.mcnulty


A cozy little shit-pile:



Lets end this session with an educational video about Dogs in Lagoa da Conceicao:

Taschereau, Quebec

Je voudrais dire in gros "Bonjour!" et "Merci" à celui ou celle qui a visité mon blog de Taschereau, Québec.


... En tous cas... j'dis ça d'même.

My other distinguished publications

Click here to read about some previous adventures I've been on. I recommend this trip. Followers of the blog competed against each other in what was known only as "THE GAME". They would try to guess how many pastries I ate in each country. Points were awarded and fierce rivalries flourished, many of which are alive and strong to this day. That era however has pasted and we must look to the present to find what matters most. Which brings me to my next point: I want to be sure that you are all getting the most out of my blogs. I have some real cool features that you can use. Today I am promoting the "Traffic Map". Click on it and find out in real-time where other readers of the blog are coming from.

If you are unfamiliar with this picture then you are not using this feature enough. Click on the "Traffic Map" on the right sidebar regularly. Depending on what games I come up with next you may become involved in intense rivalries with some of these viewers. And it is always good practice to know where your enemies dwell.
That's all for now.

Hazy Sunday - Chronicle of Nilda and Luciano

Due to popular demand, I went and did 2 of the things that you all voted for last weekend. First I went to dinner with Conrado, Andrea and Vanessa at Vanessa's amazing apartment... but it is a little know fact that I also went to the south part of the island with Nilda and Luciano on that fateful hazy Sunday afternoon. The goings-on of the day have been passed down from generation to generation, keep secret from the general public for days... Until now!

Here I am testing out my cameras EXTREME-ZOOM on the fog. It worked very well... The people in the picture were located in Africa.



Here we all are pretending not to fear the wrath of the evil ocean tide that stared us squarely in the back of our heads:




Here I am testing out my mad skilz:



And here are some scenic shots to appease the masses:




Afterward, as per my constant nagging and death threats, we all agreed to visit this cool restaurant called Bar do Arante. Its famous cause people leave notes all over the walls. Historians maintain that it all started when people wanted to leave notes for their friends, telling them where they were on the island that day so that they could meet. These days, more advanced technology, such as Telepathy over/IP (To/IP) and carrier pigeons, is available and the need for these notes is no longer there. The tradition, however, carries on... as do insurance implications regarding fire hazards.



Here we are smiling politely.



Here is one left by a left wing elitist:



I decided to leave one in the form of a passport, because I had never seen one in the form of a passport and wanted to see it.




You can look at this picture too if you'd like!





Dial this toll free number right away if you wish to receive a commemorative coin celebrating the hazy afternoon that Mike spent with Nilda and Luciano:

4

local callers can dial:

5

cell phone users can also text the letter "U" to the number 3. (US customers should dial 1 first then the number) standard charges will apply.