The federal government pledged more than $40-million on Sunday towards microfinance projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America that help poor people access financial services.Foreign Minister Peter Mackay said the money will be dispersed through Développement International Desjardins, Canadian Co-operative Association and Oxfam Québec.
He made the announcement to about 2,000 people from around the world, who gathered for a four-day summit in Halifax to discuss how to increase financial access for the poorest people on the planet.
The Global Microcredit Summit comes just a month after Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The premise of his bank is simple: providing tiny loans and training to poor people – women in particular – can create self-sufficiency and benefit whole communities.
Then I clicked to read what comments people made about the article. I always tell myself not to do it, because it gets me so upset, but I always click and I always get upset. Especially by comments like this:
dave srigley from Toronto, Canada writes: I am really very tired with my tax dollars being used for the benefit of foreigners.
James Cyr from Balmertown, writes: This money is not going to do one bit to 'alleviate poverty'. I resent my tax dollars going towards a farce like this!
Sometimes I get so very tired.
It has been a busy weekend. And I am fighting a bit of a cold. Having ginger in my tea will hopefully help.
For a long time - ok - a REALLY long time, like 15 years, I couldn't stand ginger. The smell of it would make me nauseous. I didn't want it in any of my food. Because I associated it with this time when I got sick when I was 10.
Picture it: Winnipeg, 1984. First trip to a province other than Ontario to visit Uncle R and family. I remember having my first rootbeer float. Going to the Canadian Mint where the money is made and that there was glass floors, horrifying me because then everyone would be able to see up women's skirts. Then one night we went to a fancy Japanese restaurant. It was one of those places where you all sit around a grill and the chef grills and chops everything up in front of you. Everything was so exciting and good! But so different tasting. In Sault Ste Marie, I don't think I had ever had anything with ginger in it before. It may have been too much for my bland, white-bread stomach to handle. Then came dessert, orange sherbet with chocolate chips. I'll never forget it. I was starting to feel a little woozy by this point. I had a headache and felt nauseous, initially blaming the strange combo of orange and chocolate (a combination I still dislike to this day). Once back at the house it was time for bed. My brother and I sharing a room, I had my Cabbage Patch doll Maggie with me. She had short blond wool hair. In the middle of the night I woke up sweating and feeling gross and suddenly barfed all over my Cabbage Patch kid's head (and the bed). I swear, her wool hair was never the same. My brother, being the one who usually puked, excitedly ran downstairs to tell my mom. She cleaned it up, got some new sheets and told me that the strange food probably just upset my stomach and put me back to sleep. About a half of an hour later, I woke up, feeling sick again. This time I had the insight to make a run for the bathroom. Halfway there I vomited all over the hallway, proceeded to walk THROUGH the puke and then continued my puking in the bathroom. This time, my mom brought me and a bowl downstairs so she could keep an eye on me while I slept. I woke up once again, not feeling the best but not wanting to wake up my mom by puking in front of her so I walked quickly and calmly to the downstairs bathroom before I opened the door and threw up. Only this time I opened the wrong door. It was the sauna, not the bathroom. I'm not sure if THAT smell ever went away.
2 things:
2) Kenya saved the day as far as getting me to be able to each ginger again. It was the ginger cookies and the Stoney Tangaweezi (Ginger Beer).
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