tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276Sat, 14 Sep 2024 14:17:43 +0000EarthquakeHow Microfinance WorksMy WorkVideoECLOF PeruClinton FoundationFive TalentsFujimoriComunion PeruGrameen BankLife in PeruLife in RwandaYunusBanco CompartamosBooks Worth ReadingEconomyGarciaKigaliMRTAMontesinosObama CampaignPartners in HealthSendero LuminosoToledoTravel in Africahttp://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Erik)Blogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-1524900581305313160Sat, 20 Aug 2011 09:07:00 +00002011-08-20T10:29:42.999+01:00Books Worth Reading It's Our Turn to Eat by Michela Wrong My rating: 5 of 5 stars Terrific book. By now I have a real soft spot for Michela Wrong so I'll probably like anything she ever writes again, even if that's a turgid write-up of all the Chinese meals she's ever had. It's Our Turn to Eat is, to borrow an over-used term from the literary "cognoscenti", a very important book. For anyone not convinced (how http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-it-our-turn-to-eat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-7139173143045398307Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +00002011-01-11T19:16:36.114+00:00Travel in Africa[The events hereunder described took place from 5th to 10th July 2010.]  Day 1   The glory of Kilimanjaro was first apparent to me in 2006 during a visit to Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya. Scraping together what remained of my holiday allowance from work, I headed to visit my girlfriend who was a journalist with Reuters in their Nairobi office. A five day trip packed in http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2010/12/conquering-kilimanjaro-almost.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3622429743659496246Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:39:00 +00002009-07-23T17:28:06.836+01:00Clinton FoundationLife in RwandaMy WorkPartners in HealthIt's a beautiful Summer evening in Kigali. There is neither even a whiff of a breeze nor a cloud in the sky as the Sun heads swiftly for the Horizon, glowing bright red as it does the closer you are to the Equator. Being as close to the Equator as Kigali is (2 degrees south) the days don't vary enormously in length from Summer to Winter. At their longest, as they are now, the Sun sets at http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2009/07/enjoying-calm-while-it-lasts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3060420870331350803Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:57:00 +00002009-04-01T23:01:37.644+01:00Clinton FoundationFujimoriLife in RwandaMy WorkFour and a half months into my life in Rwanda and I’ve managed to say virtually nothing about my life here so far! My intention was to round out my experience working on the Obama campaign with one further entry detailing the micro-managed, super-focused, hugely rewarding and in the end massively successful two months that I spent in Las Vegas but the task of writing that piece has seemed so http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2009/04/newish-beginning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-1789419843939446286Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:35:00 +00002009-02-08T12:44:28.522+00:00Obama CampaignAmongst the political entertainment during my time in California (New York Governor Eliot Spitzer the unwitting tangential prize of an organised prostitution-ring bust, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick charged with eight felonies, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens charged with improperly compensating a building contractor, etc), a very serious one was continuing its eighteen month-old machinations. What http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2009/02/short-backgrounder-part-two.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-6776878608463835503Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:16:00 +00002009-01-04T13:16:44.737+00:00Clinton FoundationMy WorkHow did I get here? And where have I been? Questions I’ve asked myself a few times of late. After seven months in Lima, the last one and a half of which I spent separately traveling with parents and friends from London, I decided the time had come to move on. But move on to what? I had looked into a few jobs which would make some use of my combined experience in the finance and non-profit http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2009/01/short-backgrounder-part-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-4517823384912441473Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:31:00 +00002008-12-28T09:45:39.135+00:00Clinton FoundationKigali[ This is an entry which I had previously circulated via email, not knowing whether I'd resume the blog. Since I have now decided to do so, I'm republishing this November 26th summmary from shortly after my arrival in Kigali. For those who are wondering "Kigali? WTF? How did you end up there and what have you been doing since you left Peru? When did you leave Peru? Why did you leave Peru?",http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-onwards-to-rwanda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-5319532059234818938Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:15:00 +00002007-12-10T17:18:23.063+00:00How Microfinance WorksIs it incompetence? Or pure dishonesty? Sadly, probably the latter. There have been stories in the press recently (see links below) reporting suspected fraud at credit unions in Uganda. These Savings and Credit Cooperatives are set up as societies where members can deposit funds and take out loans, in essence much like any microfinance institution, but due to the law limiting its remit, the http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/12/lets-not-lose-sight-of-human-weakness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3579430009701504501Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:58:00 +00002007-11-27T17:16:00.153+00:00FujimoriHot off the press this morning, the Minister of the Interior in Fujimori's cabinet at the time of the dissolution of Congress and the Judiciary in April 1992 has been sentenced to ten years in prison for having participated in and backed what is referred to in Peru as the "autogolpe" (self-coup). Nine other members of the cabinet from that time have been given four year suspended sentences for http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/11/recent-peruvian-history-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3286867627060797864Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:55:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.466+00:00ECLOF PeruFive TalentsVideoIn May 2007 I hitched a ride with Tom Sanderson, Director of Five Talents UK (FT UK), Craig Cole, Executive Director of Five Talents International (FTI), Helga Buck and Kelli Ross of FTI and David Fletcher, board member of FT UK, to Lima. For them it was an opportunity to visit the project they are funding in one of the southern poor districts of Lima called San Juan de Miraflores. For me it washttp://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/11/lima-reconnaissance-trip-in-may.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-4081823734568490869Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:07:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.467+00:00EconomyFujimoriGarciaMontesinosMRTASendero LuminosoToledoVideoIn amongst the microfinance discussion, it would be remiss of me not to mention the political dimension here in Peru. As Jeffrey Sachs repeatedly says in his rather good book The End of Poverty, you cannot think about altering the economic situation of a country without giving ample thought to all the factors which affect it: political, geographical, historical, infrastructural, personal.The http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/11/primer-on-recent-peruvian-history.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-9085482457038984873Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:09:00 +00002007-11-12T15:11:27.472+00:00ECLOF PeruHow Microfinance WorksMy WorkIt's impressive how much introspection, if not outright criticism, is going on in microfinance. Not long before I left London, and well after I'd submitted my resignation to Goldman Sachs, I went along to a meeting of the Microfinance Club UK held at the Barclays building in Canary Wharf. The talk was entitled "What's Wrong With Microfinance?" If I was in need of a reality check for my http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/11/word-of-day-opportunity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-2840024471472631614Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:03:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.468+00:00Banco CompartamosECLOF PeruHow Microfinance WorksVideoImagine if you will, Mother Teresa finding out that Donald Trump was going to take over her hospice and, although promising to continue catering to the dying, things were going to be run a little differently from now on. This gives you some idea of the shockwave that spread through the microfinance world in April of this year when Banco Compartamos of Mexico, a microfinance lender of 17 years' http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-profit-or-not-to-profit-part-ii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3010216720110720760Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:55:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.469+00:00Grameen BankHow Microfinance WorksVideoYunusI am linking to the next two videos in the same series on Grameen and Yunus. Both of these are well worth the three or four minutes they last, but my favourite is this one on creating a poverty-free world. "No matter how rich you get under the present [financial] system, you'll have poor people", states Mr Yunus. So let's change the system.The other video focuses on social business http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/10/change-flower-pot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-8779714660379129401Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:22:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.470+00:00Grameen BankHow Microfinance WorksVideoYunusMeet Muhammad Yunus. Rock star of the microfinance world. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2006 (shared with the institution he founded). This man started making loans, out of his own pocket, in the mid 70s. He first lent about $27 to a bunch of ladies in a village in Bangladesh, from whence he hails. As of his most recent update Grameen Bank had dished out a cumulative $6.44 billion (that's United http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/10/banker-to-poor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3125298737998983817Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:33:00 +00002007-10-30T20:01:17.681+00:00ECLOF PeruHow Microfinance WorksAfter two months here, it's about time I got around to explaining what this microfinance stuff is all about. This is going to require several entries, so bear with me. There are a plethora of models around in the microfinance world so in the interests of ease, here's a stab at classifying them. Perhaps the most contentious division and that which splits the microfinance world in two (not in termshttp://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-profit-or-not-to-profit-part-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-6697595472471825362Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:17:00 +00002007-09-19T02:32:40.742+01:00EarthquakeJudging by the aching in my every muscle and the sheer exhaustion that turned me into a zombie at the office on Monday, my body has atrophied after six years of sitting in front of a computer for ten hours a day. I was back in Chincha on Saturday and Sunday to assist the good citizens of that destroyed town. The trip was organised by the same lot with whom I went three weeks ago. On the one http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/09/return-to-chincha.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3216291870440798572Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:41:00 +00002007-11-26T16:19:39.471+00:00Comunion PeruEarthquakeFive TalentsHow Microfinance WorksVideoWhilst Comunion Peru's excellent work to help earthquake victims continues, I unfortunately don't have any major successes to report. At last count we had opened eight communal kitchens in the areas around Chincha, Pisco and Ica. I'll be heading back down to Chincha this weekend with Movimiento de Vida Cristiana to pack boxes of food, clothes and so on and to distribute them. This http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/09/introduction-to-microfinance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-8622883406247608223Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:52:00 +00002007-09-06T15:49:51.118+01:00EarthquakeSince Peru does not yet appear on Google maps and since I'm sure most people's knowledge of Peruvian cities and towns doesn't extend much beyond Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa and Iquitos at best (mine didn't extend at all past knowing that Lima was the capital until March this year), I'm attaching a map of the region I've been talking about to give some geographical context. Pueblo Nuevo (near Chincha http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/09/since-peru-does-not-yet-appear-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-6863727681500728296Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:55:00 +00002007-09-05T17:57:12.658+01:00Comunion PeruEarthquakeMy WorkLast week I was working with a third NGO called Comunion Peru (in case you missed the first two, please see blog entry of 10th August), started by the Anglican Bishop of Peru, William Godfrey. Comunion Peru has set up eight kitchens (so far) in the regions of Chincha, Pisco and Ica where the earthquake had its most devastating effect. My main goal has been to raise funds to keep these kitchens,http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/last-week-i-was-working-with-third-ngo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3565693291311984578Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:17:00 +00002007-09-04T23:19:31.475+01:00EarthquakeMy WorkMiraculous.This weekend I was down in the province of Chincha, three hours by road south of Lima. I was asked by a group unaffiliated with my organisation to help out with a census the government has been conducting in the last week in the three provinces of Chincha, Pisco and Ica. Several of my new Peruvian friends are members of the Movimiento de Vida Cristiana which at the government's behest http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/miraculous.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-4129536004557596617Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:50:00 +00002007-09-04T23:18:38.560+01:00EarthquakeThank you to all those who sent me emails and texts or who called (at three in the morning!) to check up on me, following the earthquake last week. Lima escaped largely unscathed from the disaster with minor damage to buildings. As nothing compared to the total destruction of the towns in and around Chicha Alta and Pisco to the south. The mayor of Pisco started to cry during a press conference inhttp://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/thank-you-to-all-those-who-sent-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-6672929067623552088Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:49:00 +00002007-09-04T23:17:16.010+01:00EarthquakeIt was my first earthquake. In the first seconds it seemed a large vehicle was driving past our office building, but the more the office shook, the more the realisation dawned that the earth was moving under our feet and the walls and ceiling around our heads. There was nothing man-made about it. My colleagues and I walked out into the street, to find that our neighbours in this residential http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/it-was-my-first-earthquake.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-3275522836642104390Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:20:00 +00002007-09-04T23:16:19.816+01:00ECLOF PeruFive TalentsMy WorkThe organisation I'm working for here in Lima is called ECLOF (Ecumenical Church Loan Fund) Peru. I've been seconded to them by the organisation that hired me in London, Five Talents. ECLOF's set up here includes a central office, where I'll be spending most of my time and three regional offices, one in the northern suburb of Lima, one in the southern and one outside of Lima down near Lake http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/organisation-im-working-for-here-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835929410572883276.post-4209886385739220100Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:08:00 +00002007-09-04T23:09:56.498+01:00Life in PeruA chocolate bar - 8p. Twenty five minute bus ride to work - 20p. A can of beer - 37p. Lunch of fresh fish with rice and veg - 65p. Taxi ride to work - ₤1.30 (and I'm more than likely being ripped off at that). Cinema - ₤2.50. 100 channel cable TV - ₤9 per month. Rent on a two bed flat on the penultimate floor of a highrise with a swimming pool on the roof in the equivalent of Chelsea - ₤http://teachingpeopletofish.blogspot.com/2007/08/cost-of-living-in-lima.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Erik)0