Because I’m Dork

Last night was the first meeting the the Grameen Foundation-Shanghai group – minus one incredibly bitchy woman, it was an awesome group of people who all really shared an interest in microfinance and developing it in China. Although microfinance is something that really wasn’t even legal here up until a few years ago, it’s something that the Chinese Gov’t is looking at as a viable possibility… they’re also pretty skeptical too 1) it’s worried that this is just a way to funnel money to more democratic causes; 2) it’s a way to defraud organizations , and 3) this is still “a social welfare state” so bringing in outside resources and organizations like the GF is sucking it up and taking a small loss of face. Notice how I didn’t mention the fact that in practice GF really supports small (cough:: capitalistic::cough) entrepreneurs – supporting democracy and money laundering or the gov’t’s bigger concerns at the moment.

This group has some great potential and hopefully will get off the ground. Wihth people from so many different backgound (finance, IT, advertising, teaching, etc.) we’ll be able to make a difference. Check out the Grameen Foundation China site.