People following my recent del.icio.us links may have noticed my tendency towards trying to keep this planet of ours in a good condition. In addition to climate change and peak oil, there’s of course the whole of human suffering that is mainly caused by the uneven distribution of wealth. In the last 100 years the rich countries have become richer, while the poor have become poorer. The ratio has grown from 30:1 to 85:1.
Two things that I’ve done to help make a difference were joining Kiva and Ripple. Kiva is a microloan service that allows you to loan money, starting from $25, to someone in need, and get paid back when the loan (usually under or around a year) terminates. I’d warmly recommend everyone to participate in a few microloans – the risk is quite small, but the benefits are remarkable.
Using Ripple is even simpler – they provide a clickable banner which I’ve added to my blog, which anyone can use to support charity – with no cost! You just get to see an advertisement, and the revenue from that ad view is funnelled to a charitable cause. I’ve actually disabled by AdBlock extension for the www.ripple.org domain so I see the ads. You can add the banner to your site, or just replace your normal Google search page (or search bar) with Ripple, which makes sure that all ad revenue that your googling generates will go to charity.
And yes, this is related to psychology and technology: We can use new technologies such as these to alleviate the psychological suffering in the world. If you want to “fight terrorism”, help balance the scales. It’s people being exploited that get mad. Buy some fair trade bananas or coffee, if nothing else.
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