Philanthropy strong

Microfinance money trees continue to sprout up all over Second Life, but apparently not in front of the NBC-sponsored virtual Rockefeller Center where a "bedaraggled looking avatar sleeping in a cardboard box with a crude sign asking for donations" lives. Fortunately, we can count on Mia Farrow and the MacArthur Foundation to set things digitally right.

Speaking of Microfinance, apparently one reason it hasn't become as popular in the U.S. as it has abroad is not only are operating costs typically very low in other countries, but here businesses are prohibited from charging the double-digit usury that they commonly charge the poor overseas. While Grameen Bank Noble Prize winner Muhammad Yunus calls the growing for-profit small loan trend loan sharking, others complain he is simply "doom(ing) a promising movement to failure." Do you think a course in Maimonides' 8 Levels of Charity, the less well known 9th Level, or the gifts of first fruits would help quell the profitable philanthropy debate?

Speaking of tasty treats, too bad Peace Oil doesn’t come in 55 gallon drums, for the Iraq Study Group's report this week recommended that U.S. troups remain in Iraq until that country’s oil reserves are privatized so oil companies can “get what they were denied before the war or at anytime in modern Iraqi history.” No one seemed to notice though.

Question of the week: What is the difference between Selfish Giving and Savvy Giving?