Author Archive
The social impact of…pigs?
Yippie, there it is: one of the life-changing effects of microfinance- I found it on muddy paths behind Balinese houses…
Religion in a developing country
“Religion must guard us against committing sins, but more often sins are committed in the name of religion”
Let’s take a look at the role of religion and spirituality in a developing country named Indonesia…
The license to kill- similarities of being a doctor and a field officer / Die Lizenz zum töten- Gemeinsamkeiten einer Ärztin und eines field officers
Medicine and microfinance. The first impression might be that these disciplines only have the “M” in common. For comparing medicine with finance in general this may be true, but being a doctor and working as field officer for a microfinance institution has much more in common. Both professions have the licence to kill- in a more or less literal meaning…
Why do I come up with such a strange statement? Before giving an explanation, I have to give the background that brought me to comparing microfinance with my job when I return to Austria. I had a long talk with a field officer about a quite tragic story of a Kiva borrower. /
Medizin und Mikrofinanzierung. Auf den ersten Blick scheint die einzige Gemeinsamkeit das „M“ zu sein. Vergleicht man Medizin mit gewöhnlicher Ökonomie stimmt das wohl auch, aber der Job einer Ärztin und eines field officers einer Mikrofinanz Institution haben wesentlich mehr gemein. Beide Jobs haben die Lizenz zum töten- in einem mehr oder weniger wörtlichen Sinn…
7 reasons to fall in love with not-perfect Indonesia/ 7 Gründe sich in das un-perfekte Indonesien zu verlieben
Negativity, discontentment, racism, catastrophy-focusing, no interest in strangers. All this I know very well from home in Vienna but in Indonesia you can find right the opposite in the national spirit.
The Top 7 reasons to fall in love with Indonesia (for me it was love at first sight) deserve attention, because Indonesia as biggest Muslim populated country which had to face terrorist acts in past years isn’t used to good publicity… /
Die Top 7 Gründe sich in Indonesien zu verlieben (für mich war es Liebe auf den ersten Blick) verdienen Aufmerksamkeit, denn Indonesien als größtes Muslimisch bevölkertes Land mit terroristischen Anschlägen in der nahen Vergangenheit steht selten im besten Rampenlicht…
Transparency, transparency – also for borrowers?
In the long process of providing the information needed for receiving a loan through Kiva, transparency is of high priority but usually we talk about transparency for the lender. What about the borrower? Do they all know they are on the internet with a lot of personal information?
Let’s talk about …
Sex. Ok, reproductive health. Let’s talk about reproductive health in a language you don’t speak. Ok, conversational, but far from professional. And now the setting: a women’s health training for clients from the Kiva field partner Koperasi Mitra Usaha Kecil (MUK) in a village in Bali, Indonesia.
When I REALLY realized this, I couldn’t help but wear a huge happy grin before I started…
I had the chance to actively take part in this stage of empowerment of entrepreneurs at MUK. Now I want to share my thoughts during preparations for this delicate training.
The longest hour of my life- with Marilyn Monroe and 3 chickens
I was never as scared in my life as yesterday. I hesitated to write this blog entry, because I don’t want to give the impression that Kiva sends fellows into a dangerous environment. But we all chose to move to developing countries for at least 3 months – and security simply has a different meaning in industrialized northern countries…
The biggest Muslim populated country, women and microfinance
Although women’s life in Indonesia is drastically different from what you see about Muslim women in media, the situation can still be described as- let’s call it- challenging…
