It's Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees!

Today I read a report on the current state of community organizing by the Loka Institute. This report was dated a bit (1998), but one aspect of the report peeved me.

The report outlined the great results that community organizing produces everyday, and that the only thing that the field needed is a bigger investment of resources. The next several pages should've been tissue paper for all the tears I had from its sad sob story about how government and businesses have 50 million dollars for Doritos chip research but can only muster 10 million dollars to fund all of the research endeavors within community organizing.

You know, for a field that is so proud of getting communities to stand up for themselves, we sure don't mind begging for pennies to help pay for our work. I think instead of always complaining about what other people aren't giving us, we should spend that time and energy devising ways to get the money that we feel is much needed. When it comes to funding, I think every organizer should take the advice of the great Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata,"It's better to die upon your feet than live upon your knees!"

A Question of Ownership

It's becoming all too apparent that one of the biggest problems everday Thais face is lack of ownership. Everywhere I go and with everyone I speak with it seems that either villagers work for the profit of another or are working for the profit of the bank.

Most villagers are under heavy debts. People owe money to the bank for motorcycles, educational exspenses, property, etc. while others may owe smaller "gentleman's agreement" style loans for seed, farming equiptment, or even a new car stereo. The heavy debts people face make it virtually impossible to build wealth. Combine this with an ignorance of basic financial management and you have a wicked brew called generational poverty.

Interestingly, villagers do have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. It seems like every other day someone is opening a new noodle stand, restaurant, or shop. Unfortnately, lack of planning and other basic business skills leads to a higher than usual business failure rate. If villagers could learn to manage their debts and implement good business practice I believe many villagers could turn their financial fortunes around.