More than a wet flannel

Here's an interview with Matt Flannery, cofounder of Kiva.org, a site which allows people in the developed world to make loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries over the internet.

Interestingly he predicts that:

"[In the future] we could allow women in Ghana to lend to women in Mexico. Increasingly you will see a general trend of blurring of the lines between first and third world. We’ve already had Mexicans lending to Mexicans. We’ve had Malaysians lending to Iraqis. We’ve had all sorts of blurring distinctions between the haves and the have-nots and that’s playing itself out on our site, which is really, really interesting to watch...Eventually I think you will see people in the global South actually lending to people in the global North. So someone in Chicago can take a loan from someone in Kampala, Uganda. That will be really, really interesting as well then all scenarios start playing themselves out."

Of course that future relies on Kiva surviving that long. At the moment they survive on 'tips' and grants from charitable foundations. I suspect that won't last long.