loans that change lives

Absolute poverty implies lack of basic human needs including food, water, shelter, clothing, health, and educational facilities. Nearly a quarter of the world population today is living in absolute poverty. 
Kiva is a non-profit organisation with a mission to alleviate world poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva allows individuals lend as little as $25 to help the less privileged to stand of their own feet. 
Further information can be found on Kiva web-site: http://www.kiva.org/
Since Kiva was founded in 2005, it has made a considerable progress. 

• It has nearly 700,000 lenders globally. 
• It has lend more than $270 million
• In more than 60 different countries
• Nearly 99% of loans returned

Action for Happiness

Action for Happiness is a global movement for positive social change. It was launched recently with the objective of bringing together people from all walks of life who want to play a part in creating a happier society for everyone. 
For more information see http://www.actionforhappiness.org

Founder Richard Layard explains the central idea behind Action for Happiness and why we need a movement for a happier society. This talk was part of the Action for Happiness launch event on 12 April 2011. Launch of Action for Happiness 

Richard Layard  is a labour economist who worked for most of his life on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He is also one of the first economists to work on happiness, and his main current interest is how better mental health could improve our social and economic life.

Helping others increases happiness - Action for Happiness has developed the 10 Keys to Happier Living based on a review of the latest scientific research relating to happiness. 

G - Give
R - Relating
E - Exercise
A - Appreciate
T - Try out 


D - Direction
R - Resilience
E - Emotion
A - Acceptance
M - Meaning

Ethic and Morality

Why Ethics
Ethical principles, if adopted, should lead to better societies where the individual actions are motivated by the common good and not selfish interests. Unlike laws of the land or religious codes of conduct, ethical behaviour is not motivated by rewards or punishments be it real or otherwise. In ethics the reward is to improve the quality of life in the present and for the future. An ethical decision should be independent of the person making the decision provided all the facts are made available to the decision maker.

There are two main approaches in ethics:

Outcome focused - an action is preferred if it ultimately leads to 'greatest good for greatest number of people'. In other words our choices should lead to increased well-being for maximum number of people most of the time. It assigns equal weight to the well-being of all and eliminates subjectivity from decision making.

In extreme circumstances, the approach is not able to provide simple solutions. For instance is it acceptable to suspend normal conventions and torture a suspected terrorist to save many lives? If so, saving how many lives (1 or 100 or 1000) makes torturing acceptable. A bigger issue in this case is will a suspect provide useful information when tortured or (s)he will confess to anything if pushed far enough?  

Ignoring extreme circumstance, the approach should lead to 'happier' individuals and communities.

Action Focused


Kant's approach

Aristotle - the purpose of life is happiness

Aristotle believes that we choose honour, pleasure, justice, and equality because we think they will make us happy. He assets that happiness can be achieved if the true nature of being human is realised. Man is different from other creatures because of his mental capabilities, therefore full development of this faculty will give him fulfillment and happiness. Once the basic physical needs met, fulfillment is achievable by leading a life of reason - moderation, self-control, clear judgement. Extremes in his opinion is a vices and the virtual path is defined by the golden mean: modesty, honesty, liberality good humour, friendship etc. These qualities are achieved through training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do.