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By
Ed Finegold
I recently experienced the tragic passing of a close friend. He was an inspiring
person; a man who left small town southern Illinois to pursue his education on
the east coast. After phenomenal achievements in chaos math, including working
with famous mathematicians such as Benoit Mandelbrot, he chose to return home to
his family in Illinois to make a difference in the community there, building low
income housing and helping families whose lives the great recession had
shattered.
At his memorial service, his remarkable parents spoke eloquently. It
was their passion for charitable causes that fueled my friend’s desire to help
others. I remember him traveling to rural Africa with his parents’ foundation
when we were teenagers to help build schools, medical facilities, and fresh
water wells. Their foundation, the Marion Medical Mission, is remarkable in that
the family funds its operations so that all donations go to benefit people in
need. Relatively small sums of money can make a huge difference in the lives of
real people. Oddly, mobile phones can be conduits for this kind of direct and
positive change.
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Relatively small sums of money can make a huge difference in the lives of real people. Oddly, mobile phones can be conduits for this kind of direct and positive change. |
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In Europe and the U.S., when we need
cash in a hurry we are disappointed if
an ATM from our own bank isn’t the
one that’s on the corner of the block
we happen to be walking down. We
now expect merchants to accept debit
cards as a matter of course. We also
take it for granted that even in our
largest cities, so long as we don’t do
anything foolish, we aren’t all that
likely to have our wallets stolen out of
our pockets or handbags. Even in
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Four Hours to Nairobi
Another close friend – this one found through the Internet and with whom I share
an interest in writing – lives in Nakuru, Kenya. He makes his living over the
Internet as a freelance journalist, working from what is by Kenyan standards a
relatively large town, but is remote from the U.S. or European perspective.
Though he can receive funds in Nakuru via Western Union, to conduct any real
business with his bank he must travel by bus (he can’t afford a car) for several
hours to Nairobi. Cash can be difficult to come by as a result, and the buses
aren’t safe from bandits or pick pockets.
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Chicago, which is known for violent
crime, I don’t expect to be mugged at
gunpoint on the streets where I spend
most of my time.
My friend in Nakuru doesn’t have these luxuries. Crime against his person is a
daily threat. There are no ATMs, largely because there would be no way to
secure them. He can’t cash checks at the grocery store, or receive cash back
from an automated check-out station with the swipe of a card. Again, where
there’s cash, there are armed bandits. So there’s no easy way to get cash
without walking into a bank, as was the case perhaps 40 years ago in the United
States due to a lack of technology, not of security.
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