A group of students at UMW are planning a project to see if they can live on $2/day(as almost have the world’s population does). Our student-run portal has a story about it , and the comment thread that is developing is further refining the project planning.
There’s a mention in the story about KIVA, a site I stumbled upon a few weeks ago (Via a post at Graham Glass’ blog). I think the whole microloan concept is fascinating.
What’s the student run-portal? Are faculty allowed to know about it?
If so, how come I haven’t heard about it?
Steve–I was speaking of Middlesell (www.middlesell.com). I’m not even sure if “student-run portal” is the best phrase to describe it. Basically, it’s a Web site created and operated by a number of UMW students. They use it to share stories, video, images, host discussions, etc.
I believe there has been at least one Bullet article about Middlesell. The creator also presented it at Student Academy last year. But beyond that, people mostly know about it via word of mouth.
Is this after you buy cigarettes? Or does this mean you have to roll your own?
More seriously, I think this is an excellent experiment, and to push it community group in San Francisco made a pact amongst its members not to buy anything new over the course of a year (save for toilet paper, underwear, and other particulars). It is a really important and thoughtful experiment given our society’s inclination to frame mindless consumption as the answer to the world’s problems as well as our own.
One of my friends did something similar to this last semester in her economics class and it was interesting to watch her go through it. It is just a fascinating idea and I’m even slightly tempted to participate in this. Oddly enough this is the same friend who told me about KIVA and I agree that the microloan concept is just fascinating.
Steve,
Feel free to e-mail us if you’d like more information.
http://umw.middlesell.com/contact
Yes, you are allowed to know about it 🙂