Today’s Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers unite to talk about a big issue. This year’s topic: poverty.
Wait — Don’t stop reading! Many of us feel poor during this economic downturn, so my post’ll start with you. Here’s 5 steps to happily batte poverty:
1. Save yourself a little money — by nixing plastic bags, saran wrap, and paper towels. BYObag, and most grocery stores’ll give you a 5 cent credit. As for saran wrap and paper towels — it’s really time to switch to good reusable containers and real towels.
2. Give away 29 things. Depressed about the economic downturn? Giving things away’ll help. Don’t worry — They don’t have to be 29 things near and dear to your heart. Just go through your closets, and you’ll likely easily find 29 things you never did or no longer use or need — but will give you great pleasure in giving to someone else who does. Freecycle and Craigslist’ll take care of the rest.
3. Invest in Kiva. You know all that money you’re saving by nixing the disposables thanks to step 1? Once you’ve saved up $25, you can make a microloan to a small biz in need. So far, I’ve always gotten my money back — and have been so psyched ’bout it I’ve invested the funds in a new biz.
4. Opt for fair trade coffee and chocolate. Don’t perpetuate poverty with your habits, but use your daily consumer power to fight it instead. Yummy fair trade coffee’ll not only pay the farmers who grow the stuff better, but will also taste better for you than the weird Folgers “coffee.”
5. Vote. While we know the poor and undereducated population could potentially change politics as we know it, we also know those demographics tend to, you know, generally not vote. So take it upon yourself to vote for socially progressive policies. Vote to expand public transportation for those who can’t afford cars, and vote to preserve the rights of minors who aren’t yet allowed to voice their opinions on the ballot.
Happy Blog Action Day, everyone
I work for an international non profit (I’m the webmaster) and it’s just so great to see everyone getting involved.
Explore us: http://www.worldconcern.org
Comment by world concern — October 15, 2008 @ 8:01 am
i love kiva. :) am currently unable to make a donation though, so i put up its banner on my blog (as well as that of freerice and goodsearch).
saw this post via the front page of blog action day. it’s great that you’re participating. :)
Comment by kouji haiku — October 15, 2008 @ 8:11 am
I’m in total agreement that fighting poverty doesn’t have to be a grim assignment. I suggest that if you are fortunate enough to have space for a garden you share. your excess harvest with a local food bank. Few things are more joyous than gardening and gardeners are always sharing.
Comment by commonweeder — October 15, 2008 @ 8:37 am
I forgot to say how happy I was to find your excellent blog through the Blog Action Day site.
Comment by commonweeder — October 15, 2008 @ 8:40 am
Great post. Short and simple and actually uplifting. Not the first of the Blog Action Day posts I’ve read today, but definitely the first that resonates for me.
Comment by Katie — October 15, 2008 @ 9:51 am
Thanks for stopping by, new people :) Happy Blog Action Day –
Comment by Siel — October 15, 2008 @ 9:59 am
Donate blood! If you’re a healthy adult, it’s easy to do and not that traumatic. Staff will help you get over your fear of the needle. And rules have changed; for a while I couldn’t donate because I take Dilantin to control seizures. The blood bank didn’t receive gallons of my blood because I thought that rule was carved in stone, and it never occurred to me to check. (BTW, I just made my first two small loans via Kiva on Sunday.)
Comment by Ginni — October 15, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Congratulation on making it into the 37 blogs google features on this subject – not sure how they select, but you made the cut. Mine is just s teensy weensy personal blog, but they all add up and you obviously have clout as yours was on the front page of the Google blogs!
Comment by Mainframeguy — October 15, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
Great Blog, good to see yours and so many on this subject at the same time.
I would like to add “shop local”.
We all have family owned businesses in our neighborhoods that will need our support even more in the coming months.
Comment by Jen — October 16, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
Hi, Give something to help the hungry people in Africa or India,
I added this blog about this subject:
in http://tinyurl.com/5qlbzs
Comment by cheritycall — October 27, 2008 @ 1:14 am