A consumer’s guide to microcredit…
Slate rates six microlenders that allow the rich to lend money directly to developing world entrepreneurs…
Clans and open source intelligence…
Premise 1: “The end of the Cold War is ushering in a new world order of clans, tribes, and ethnic groups that have been smothered for generations under the weight of nation-states.”
Premise 2: “The foundation of global communities [is] the ability to acquire and quickly use information to gain an advantage.”
Premise 3: “The winner in global competition today is one who can cycle information faster than the opposition. It is more than just having information; it is a matter of using it faster and better than the other person.”
Premise 4: “We need to demystify and de-spook some of our intelligence… Rather than use information and intelligence, we horde it.”
From a 1995 Marine Corps Gazette article…
Security in Iraq…
50% of Iraqis now say that they have personally experienced the kidnapping or murder of a family member, friend or colleague in the past three years. In Baghdad, the figure is 79%. Research conducted February 07.
Biofuels and food prices
As the general enthusiasm for biofuels continues to accelerate unabated (most recently with the climate change deal secured at the EU Council of Ministers by Angela Merkel), a sage warning comes from US Department of Agriculture chief economist Keith Collins: all this biofuel-led demand for grain is going to have a big impact on food prices.
Beyond the religious right…
The NY Times has a piece about an anti-war protest at the White House by thousands of Christians.
John Pattison, 29, said he and his wife flew in from Portland, Ore., to attend his first anti-war rally. He said his opposition to the war had developed over time.
”Quite literally on the night that shock and awe commenced, my friend and I toasted the military might of the United States,” Pattison said. ”We were quite proud and thought we were doing the right thing.”
He said the way the war had progressed and U.S. foreign policy since then had forced him to question his beliefs.
”A lot of the rhetoric that we hear coming from Christians has been dominated by the religious right and has been strong advocacy for the war,” Pattison said. ”That’s just not the way I read my Gospel.”
Further evidence that there’s a considerably greater diversity of views among politically engaged evangelical Christians in the US than is often supposed – and that more progressive constituencies are getting increasingly well-organised. See God’s Politics by Sojourners head Jim Wallis…