Aye, Taybeh beer is the best in the whole Middle East beating out even Egyptian Stella and Lebanese Almaza. Moroccan Casablanca isn't all that shabby either.

Worst has got to be the Tunisian Pression.

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nly Bk f th Mnth, nly Crtv Cmmns, nd nly th hghst dwnldd wrk f fctn snc t ws ddd.

Welcome to microfinance.

Kiva is nice, but (obviously) it doesn't scale very well. Without wishing to lecture on microfinance, the "traditional" way of doing it has always involved microfinance institutions (think of them as banks) with loan officers who - instead of sitting behind nice desks - go out into the field to work with clients.

The challenge in microfinance has (at least since I've worked in open source microfinance technology) been one of outreach: there are this many underserved clients, how do we reach them?

Some microfinance schemes (I think kiva is one) also don't work clearly with interest; I understand that the charity model of international development dies hard, but this is unsustainable and simply perpetuates the social and economic conditions which led to poverty to begin with.

Kiva is a great way of getting the Average Joe involved in microfinance, but in terms of impact? I can name many microfinance institutions in the Middle East alone which outstrip it for outreach.

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Th Bnj Plyrs Mst D