Sorry for my non-activity on the blog for such a long time. Work has been grueling…. Anyways, recently I have been talking to a friend on Facebook, who is a financial trader. He has been reading up on Kiva, and looks at it with his “financial” glasse…
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January 3rd, 2008 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
¡Perú! ¡Perú! ¡Perú!
July 27th, 2007 — "prisma microfinanzas", FINCA, microfinance, microfinancing, peru, poverty, terrorism from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Finally, Perú is on Kiva. There are now two MFIs active, that Kiva has had discussions with for a while: Finca Perú and Prisma Microfinanzas. They are active in the Ayacucho and greater Puno/Juliaca regions, respectively. All very exciting.Let me add…
Compartamos or Compitamos? Comportense!
July 12th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Those that have been following the microfinance news a little broader than Kiva alone, know about the storm that has been going over this world caused by the IPO of Compartamos, a Mexican microfinance institute. The discussion, which can be followed on…
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June 4th, 2007 — Kiva, interest, kiva.org, kivafriends, kivafriends.org, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
A topic on Kivafriends that doesn’t want to die (which shows its importance), is whether to offer interest rates to lenders or not. And it’s a topic that I can’t stop pondering about– I’ve often said that I support it, but that I prefer the “feel-good…
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Where the streets have no names and the poor have no chance
May 16th, 2007 — Kiva, economy, good governance, kendall mau, latin america, microfinance, microfinancing, nicaragua, poverty, prisma from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
It’s been a while. Work has been busy (my company was just bought by our largest competitor), and although I’ve been able to contribute various posts to KivaFriends, I haven’t been as active as I’d want to.Reading through Kendall’s reports on the state…
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First loan fully repaid
May 5th, 2007 — Kiva, economy, mexico, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Yesterday, I received the following message from Kiva:From: Kiva Date: 3 May 2007 21:43:26 -0700Subject: Loan RedemptionTo: ramonDear Ramon,This email confirms that $25.00 of your loan to Venta de Mercancia por Temporada is now redeemable.This amount…
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April 30th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Kiva is considering to add new types of loans to their portfolio, in addition to their existent category if business loans. Specifically, in a thread at Kivafriends.org, Ben Elbinger of Kiva is discussing allowing MFIs to add Building loans, Educationa…
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April 30th, 2007 — Bolivia, IMPRO, Kiva, kiva.org, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Ciriaca Colque is her name. She runs a milk transport business that brings milk from the farms in the Altiplano of La Paz to the local Pil Andina diary factory, in El Alto, Bolivia. El Alto literally means “The Height”, and high it is: 4150 meters (13,…
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April 24th, 2007 — Kiva, interest, kiva.org, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Disclaimer / Challenge: please note that the blog post you’re reading is based on my personal insights and logic I think is true. As I have no economics or financial background at all, I would be thrilled to be proved wrong. Please let me know if you d…
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April 18th, 2007 — Kiva, esperanza international, google maps, kiva.org, latin america, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Following Pondering Pig’s example, I created a My Google Map (or a Google My-Map or whatever) for my investments. Here it is.Some other users Kiva Maps:Christopher from LondonFred from TexasPomerleau Family’s mapPondering Pig’s map (which we already me…
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April 13th, 2007 — ILD, Kiva, africa, economy, kiva.org, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
This post is in direct response to Richard Kent’s encouragements to keep on investing in Kiva, in a thread at the Kivaloans Yahoogroup mailing list. Richard is the Ugandan CEO/D for Children Care Ministries, a religious based charity in Uganda.My reply…
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April 10th, 2007 — Kiva, caribbean, economy, esperanza international, haiti, kiva.org, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
It all started with Ben Elbinger’s cryptic message to the Kivaloans Yahoogroup last night. A new country was coming on-line. A NEW COUNTRY!Interestingly, a new country on Kiva.org is an occasion for excitement, enticement, and loan-spending debauchery….
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April 10th, 2007 — Kiva, economy, honduras, kendall mau, kiva.org, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty, prisma from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
For those of you that haven’t visited Kendall Mau’s blog in a while, or that haven’t visited his blog at all, please do so. He recently added a WEALTH of information about the inner workings and considerations of the MFI he runs in Honduras and Nicarag…
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April 2nd, 2007 — economy, honduras, kiva.org, latin america, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty, prisma from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Since it’s a new month, I just entered by bimonthly loan, my loan number 12. This one is to Dunia Herrera, why sells cloth in Choluteca, Honduras. Choluteca, in addition to having a cool name, looks on Google Maps just like the place I’d like to spend …
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Kiva Glitch
March 30th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Looks like Kiva is having the flu… or, we all spent so much that all loans have been fulfilled!Anyways, let’s hope they’re back soon…Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how.
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March 26th, 2007 — Kiva, economy, kiva.org, latin america, microfinance, microfinancing, nicaragua, poverty, prisma from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
As I have described over and again, my believe is that in order for a micro-entrepreneur to be successful, the business (and thereby inferred–the micro-loan) needs to fulfill several objective and subjective criteria. If they don’t, then the loan is n…
Soon to be Republica Bolivariana de Ecuador?
March 15th, 2007 — Kiva, economy, ecuador, kiva.org, latin america, loans, microfinance, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
One of the advantages of investing into a local opportunity through Kiva is, that you, consciously or subconsciously, keep better track of what is going on in those countries in which you invested. And therefore, when things are happening in Ecuador, i…
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Opportunities for Kiva in Perú
March 3rd, 2007 — Kiva, kiva.org, microfinance, microfinancing, peru from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
As I must have told all of the 3 people that read this blog on an (ir)regular basis, for the last few months I have been trying to get something going between Kiva and Peruvian MFIs. My report on what I did while I was out there last month, has been lo…
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March 3rd, 2007 — Kiva, microfinance, microfinancing, peru from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Recently, Perú’s president Alan Garcia launched a campaign called “La Hora Sin Demora”(time without delay) against a perceived endemic national (or even transnational) problem: tardiness. Although campaigns like this appear to be popular in Perú, I d…
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What convinced me to make my latest Kiva.Org loan
March 2nd, 2007 — Kiva, economy, ecuador, latin america, loans, microfinancing, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
I just invested my bimonthly installment of $25 into a cattle and rice farm called Hacienda la Maria, owned by Ivan Romero in Ecuador. What made this one stand apart from all others?First, I should say that I am overinvested in Ecuador. Initially, I th…
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(off topic) Reading up on Perú
March 1st, 2007 — books, economy, literature, peru from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
As should be well-known by now, I’m turning a bit into a Perú-o-phile or whatever you want to call it. As a result, I have been reading books about this country, both fiction and non-fiction. There is one writer you really cannot get around: Mario Var…
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March 1st, 2007 — microfinance, peru, poverty from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Our trip to Perú made painfully clear what I already knew, but it is always good to put things to the front of the mind.Many times, developing countries are defined by their gap between rich and poor. While this gap is real and existent, it’s by no me…
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February 21st, 2007 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
I added AdSense (Google) ads to my blog. No, I am not out to make money off you, the poor visitor. I hereby pledge that anytime I have $25 in AdMoney, I will straight away convert that into a loan at Kiva.So PLEASE, do your Third World enterprising fel…
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February 11th, 2007 — latin america from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Today, we came back from Perú, with a ton of experiences, both Kiva related (trying to get Peruvian MFI’s involved) and family related. After unpacking and sorting laundry, I’ll post more in the coming days…Change the world one loan at a time - visi…
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January 26th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
I came across this lender (or here for another instance of the same lender) while browsing lending opportunities on Kiva. This must be the first sighting of a new trend: small, corporate entities in the “First World” helping small, corporate entities i…
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January 22nd, 2007 — Kiva, latin america, loans, microfinancing from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
Interestingly, my entrepreneurs in Ecuador appear to be paying back faster than the ones in Mexico. I guess to sample is too small to take any statistical conclusion…Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how.
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January 22nd, 2007 — Kiva, ecuador, loans, microfinancing from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
As I wrote before, I’ve had quite a lot of troubles finding a new investment opportunity for the second half of January. The offer of Latin American businesses was quite low, often even zero. I even emailed Luis at Mifex to ask if there were new busine…
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January 17th, 2007 — Kiva, latin america, loans, microfinancing from Ramon @ Ramon's Kiva Blog
We passed the 15th of the month a few days ago, and I have been frantically looking for a good Latin American business to invest in to fulfill my promise of “a new business every paycheck”. I need to diversify a little, as the only opportunities that a…
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