Saving the world's women

[Stella_Omega]

I just wanted to share this article from the New York Times.

 

[sadangel]

I just wanted to share this article from the New York Times.

Very interesting articles. The pictures also. Thanks Stella.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That book should be required reading for everyone in the U.S. State Department and Congress. And might I point out to those people in Zero Population Growth (who have conveniently made sure that they were already born before they joined ) that the quickest way to lower a nation's birthrate is to raise its living standards and, as this article points out, the quickest way to do that is to educate its women?

 

[Teloz]

There are times when I'm ashamed of being male. Reading that article made me cry.

 

[Handley_Page]

The book should be studies by politicians and clerics in Pakistan first.

 

[Corylea]

Thank you, Stella. That was fascinating, sobering, yet ultimately hopeful.

 

[amicus]

I was under the impression that Stella had left for greener pastures, instead, she just dropped a big cowpie in this one.

With just a slight nod towards the historical fact that America was a 'slave' society and did not grant women emancipation until the 20th Century, one might surmise that something other than feminine equality brought about eventual freedom for all.

That, 'something' was the recognition of individual human rights to life, liberty and property. Something never attempted or experienced in the world before that time.

In societies such as those described in the article, government and religion or a combination, acted and acts to keep a people in poverty and clinging to the 'old ways', of life.

The 'old ways', a subsistence existence, naturally tended towards the division of labor that kept women by the campfire and men as breadwinners.

You got it backwards, kid. First comes human individual rights, free enterprise, an industrial revolution and then the ladies have the opportunity to expand their being as they choose.

A little education, for you, might go a long ways...but I doubt it will dent your faith and dogmatism.

Amicus

 

[Stella_Omega]

There are times when I'm ashamed of being male. Reading that article made me cry.

Hi Teloz, don't let it make you cry-- but you might, sometime, contribute to a microfund foundation, and help save one woman-- who just might then save other women as well.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Or Heifer International. That's one of my favorite charities. Every Christmas we give a handful of critters in my sister and brother-in-law's names. Haven't been able to dig up the scratch for a camel, yet, but do we do small livestock! :d

 

[oggbashan]

That, 'something' was the recognition of individual human rights to life, liberty and property. Something never attempted or experienced in the world before that time...

A little education, for you, might go a long ways...but I doubt it will dent your faith and dogmatism.

Amicus

You seem to forget something called Magna Carta signed long before America was discovered, or that slaves were freed by France and the UK long before the US.

A little education, for you, might go a long ways

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

You seem to forget something called Magna Carta signed long before America was discovered, or that slaves were freed by France and the UK long before the US.

A little education, for you, might go a long ways

Og

It would also help if he read the whole article. Microlending is all about furthering the market economy, a very conservative position--economically.

 

[amicus]

You seem to forget something called Magna Carta signed long before America was discovered, or that slaves were freed by France and the UK long before the US.

A little education, for you, might go a long ways

Og

~~~

Ah, Ogg, your continual pathetic apologies for the British Empire, the scourge of humanity, especially the Irish, betrays your residual anger that the upstart American's kicked your Limey asses twice in the span of half a century.

I try to extend a sympathy that you were born British/European, instead of American; you could always move here, I guess?



Amicus the arrogant American...

 

[oggbashan]

~~~

Ah, Ogg, your continual pathetic apologies for the British Empire, the scourge of humanity, especially the Irish, betrays your residual anger that the upstart American's kicked your Limey asses twice in the span of half a century.

I try to extend a sympathy that you were born British/European, instead of American; you could always move here, I guess?



Amicus the arrogant American...

Some of my relations did. They seem to have done quite well. At least one US community is named after them. One of them even wrote a book encouraging emigration to the US. I'm no sure whether he wrote it with his tongue in his cheek. He suggested that if all the rogues and vagabonds from England and Ireland were to be selected as emigrants then here would be a better place and the US would be better because they could prey on each other. Maybe he had a thing about lawyers?

Og

PS. Did my post mention the British Empire? I mentioned Magna Carta which was the basis of English and US law.

PPS. Sorry that we burned Washington. Perhaps you need to do it again?

 

[amicus]

Hello, Ogg, since we are musing with foils at the ready...

"...He suggested that if all the rogues and vagabonds from England and Ireland were to be selected as emigrants then here would be a better place and the US would be better because they could prey on each other..."

That permits me to puff up my chest and acknowledge your assertion that Americans are certainly rogues, cantankerous and still have more gun related crime than any place but former British Colonies.

You might have done us yet another service, that of shipping your malcontents here instead of Australia and the prison colony. I also wish our incursions into Canada, to flush out the remaining Redcoats in the North, might have been successful. It would have prevented those poor Canadians from continually bowing to the Crown and sharing the disgrace of the fallen empire builders.

Being a bastard, my heritage is in doubt, but I suspect from my demeanor, that it might be Ulster Irish.

What would you say to annexation to the US after your National Health Service bankrupts your entire nation? I think Hannan might have suggested that off the cuff, so to speak, although I am happy to claim the suggestion as my own.

Yours truly...

Amicus

 

[oggbashan]

Hello, Ogg, since we are musing with foils at the ready...



That permits me to puff up my chest and acknowledge your assertion that Americans are certainly rogues, cantankerous and still have more gun related crime than any place but former British Colonies.

You might have done us yet another service, that of shipping your malcontents here instead of Australia and the prison colony. I also wish our incursions into Canada, to flush out the remaining Redcoats in the North, might have been successful. It would have prevented those poor Canadians from continually bowing to the Crown and sharing the disgrace of the fallen empire builders.

Being a bastard, my heritage is in doubt, but I suspect from my demeanor, that it might be Ulster Irish.

What would you say to annexation to the US after your National Health Service bankrupts your entire nation? I think Hannan might have suggested that off the cuff, so to speak, although I am happy to claim the suggestion as my own.

Yours truly...

Amicus

You should know your history better. We DID ship malcontents to America BEFORE we sent them to Australia (and yes my relations went there too - one as a convict for stealing a pair of trousers as a hardened criminal aged 12).

Our NHS has been in existence for over 60 years and shows no signs of bankrupting us, perhaps because we spend proportionately less on health care as a percentage of our GDP than the US does. We also spend much less of our GDP on lawyers.

My paternal heritage is clear and documented back to the 14th century. My maternal heritage includes some more interesting accretions. My ancestors include some very feisty women including one running her own mass transport company in Victorian London and several women registered as master craftsmen (sic) in the middle ages.

My relations have spread around the world including countries that never were part of the British Commonwealth.

If you claim to be Ulster Irish then that would make you Protestant Unionist and more loyally British than the mainland Brits. If on the other hand you are descended from the Catholic Irish then you wouldn't refer to yourself as from "Ulster".

Og

 

[amicus]

Always interesting exchanging insults with you Ogg, though not predestined to be a regular diet.

I think it was EMP Hannan I was paraphrasing concerning the NHS about to bankrupt the nation. I do try to be conversant in all areas of interest...I am better at some than others.

There is so much World History that I do not know and I am continually amazed, as I was with the Irish story, much more in depth than ever before.

I am more fond of the history of the British Isle's than any other; I think there remains a little romance in the myth of Arthur and Robin Hood that particularly draws me, even more than early American History.\

toodles...

Ami

 

[TE999]

It would also help if he read the whole article. Microlending is all about furthering the market economy, a very conservative position--economically.

We have a microlending system in this country...it's called the Small Business Administration...my father-in-law called it the Stupid Bastards (in) Atlanta when he attempted to get a loan for his business and was told he failed to meet the criteria (read: quota) for getting a loan. He went to a bank and obtained one with a higher rate of interest, no problem. The SBA writes off millions of dollars in loans every year, but is considered a 'success story'. What a surprise.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

We have a microlending system in this country...it's called the Small Business Administration...my father-in-law called it the Stupid Bastards (in) Atlanta when he attempted to get a loan for his business and was told he failed to meet the criteria (read: quota) for getting a loan. He went to a bank and obtained one with a higher rate of interest, no problem. The SBA writes off millions of dollars in loans every year, but is considered a 'success story'. What a surprise.

No, Tom, the SBA doesn't do microlending. Micro loans are less than a hundred dollars and wouldn't do an American any good at all. However, in the third world where poverty is so extreme we can't imagine it, they are enough to start a family on the road to comparative prosperity. And they have a very low rate of default.

The SBA doesn't figure you're really in a small business unless you have several hundred thousand dollars a year in sales!

 

[Corylea]

No, Tom, the SBA doesn't do microlending. Micro loans are less than a hundred dollars and wouldn't do an American any good at all. However, in the third world where poverty is so extreme we can't imagine it, they are enough to start a family on the road to comparative prosperity. And they have a very low rate of default.

The bear is right. One of the women profiled in the article turned her life around -- AND turned around the lives of a dozen other people -- with a loan of $65.

Not $65,000 or $6500 or $650. Sixty-five dollars.

And I've read other articles about women who've gotten loans -- loans that enabled them to start successful businesses -- that were as little as TWELVE dollars. It's just amazing.

 

[TE999]

No, Tom, the SBA doesn't do microlending. Micro loans are less than a hundred dollars and wouldn't do an American any good at all. However, in the third world where poverty is so extreme we can't imagine it, they are enough to start a family on the road to comparative prosperity. And they have a very low rate of default.

The SBA doesn't figure you're really in a small business unless you have several hundred thousand dollars a year in sales!

Ooops...I forgot the *sarc* tag in that post.

That's what pissed my FIL off...he was starting a business...well, really he had bought an existing one and wanted to expand...but he was too small to get a loan.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Ooops...I forgot the *sarc* tag in that post.

That's what pissed my FIL off...he was starting a business...well, really he had bought an existing one and wanted to expand...but he was too small to get a loan.

He's not the only one who's had that problem. I've got an African American friend, a computer genius and photo-artist supreme, who had the same problem. And he was filing under Affirmative Action regs! The U.S. government, can't live with it and you can't live without it . . . even if you wanted to!

 

[Verdad]

The article is just heartbreaking. Mandatory reading.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You guys need to make up your minds about whose team you play for, because you cant have it both ways.

Back in the 20s Franz Boaz convinced a generation of soft-headed, bed wetting leftie girls that we're all God's chilluns, and God smiles down upon every society on the planet; the gentle Amish are no better than Nazis or cannibals or Africans who circumcise girls.

And its wonderful until you see it up close, and begin to wonder what sort of sick puppies do such crazy shit as this article reports. It doesnt happen in America, of course, life is infinitely better here for females; but by this afternoon youll have forgotten this article and be back to flinging dog turds at our flag.

 

[xssve]

Microlending has an excellent track record, and a couple of decades of data to back it up.

Speaking of history amicus; the womens emancipation movement was instrumental in agitating for the end of slavery, it seems they had common cause.

 

[busybody..]

There are times when I'm ashamed of being male. Reading that article made me cry.

why are you ashamed of being a MALE?

is it a male problem?

NO!

ITS A MUSLIM PROBLEM

Stop being so dumb, so naive, so PC

DONT BE A MORON!