This lens used to promote Kiva !!!

There is a new Kiva Team calling themselves Pissed of Kiva Lenders and in just 3 days or so, has about 340 members.

One of the messages that was posted there is:

Kiva, you've jumped the shark.

By lending to greedy Americans who have learned nothing from this Great Recession, you are perpetuating the social and cultural problems in this country that helped get us to this place. You are asking members to support a bored architect who can afford to buy decorative orchids for his stylish home but is asking others to pay for his new computer, a woman who needs more glittered dog harnesses and fashion sweaters for pets, and a guy who wants DJ equipment for his reality TV show dream (I suggest he start by selling his fancy watch and stop buying expensive clothes).

It's not that these people are simply from the US that is so disturbing, I would never lend to anyone in the world who asked for money for these purposes. It is counter to what I understood the intention of Kiva to be and embarrassing to me, someone who has been a strong supporter and participant in your efforts for nearly four years.

Posted by T Wells Trust
Jun 20, 2009 - 11:55 am PDT

On Kiva, you will find many people from many countries asking for loans of many different amounts. You might find someone in Cambodia who request $150 (for fertilizer) to be paid back in 14 months or an American who wants $6,000 (for a beauty salon) and 27 months to repay.

Now, in my opinion, someone who needs a mere $150 is in much dire straits then someone who asks for $6,000. Especially given the fact that there are very little (if any at all) opportunities ro raise extra money in a poor country. However, in the USA (the land of milk and honey) there are many opportunities. One just needs to get off their butt and find them. This is not a choice that someone in a developing country has.

And to make matters worse, Kiva put the US loan requests in amongst all the other loans. There are some American requests for $10,000 on the Kiva site. Something just does not add up to me. Is Kiva saying that all these loans have the same urgency? Are they saying the decison to fund these loans should be weighed the same? Perhaps, they should have segregated them to a distinct Kiva site rather then "lump" them in with more impoverished nations.

Bad enough that recently Kiva has run into a heated debate with some Kiva lenders over cock-fighting loans that they promoted. Now we have Kiva asking the world to lend money to citizens of the richest country on earth. It's a Non-Brainer for me ...time to find other organizations to help those really in need.

My biggest most single issue with Kiva is the "sprinkling" of US loans in with all the other loans. I feel that it is wrong that, as a potential lender who wants to browse available loan requests, I must encounter requests from the United States. Yes I can browse by country but what if I want to do a General Browse? There is no filter whereby I can exclude the United States - if there was, I would not find this an issue.

I have been advised by my spouse (another Kiva lender) that most of the US loans are being funded by Americans. That I can understand - they do have a right to help their own people. I just feel that Kiva should have set up a separate web site specifically for these loans.