Microfinance and miniscule ambitions

Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist, demonstrates tragically low horizons in relation to fighting poverty. He advocates using websites such as kiva.org and globalgiving.com which allow Westerners to lend small amounts of money to third world entrepreneurs:

“From my laptop in New York, I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic. I did this through www.kiva.org, a website that provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries – their photos, loan proposals and credit history – and allows people to make direct loans to them.”

A PDF version of his article, from the kiva.org website, can be read here.