Clash of Civilizations

I have begun reading (listening to audilbe) a book called 'Clash of Civilisations and The Remaking of World Order'. In this book the author proposed a new paradigm (system) to look at the world in the Post Cold War era. The world can be view and analyse in terms of different 'civilisations' and the primary conflicts are between the division of the these civilsation. Wikipedia has got a nice little summary of the whole book. It probably would be 18hrs of challenging listening for me, but suffering Post Holiday Have a Good Life Disorder, I just need some challenges, any stupid challenges to occupied myself.

More on the Microfinance NGO that I spoke to over the weekend. Basically Microfinance is a recently emerged way to alleviate poverty. To put it plainly these NGO's lend small loan to poor people so that they can buy a cow or invest in some seeds which hopefully will enable them harvest some money to help themselves, eventually escape the poverty cycle. Of course there is a lot of technical stuff on how to make them repay the loan which I can go on. It has just started in China with lots of government support. The NGO, Planet Finance, was an international organisation that promotes Microfinance around the world. I spoke to the director in China last saturday to find out what they do and if I want to be involved, how can I? Well it is kind of a long term plan in life and I am not even sure if I will have the guts to do it eventually. Money is a concern after all, no matter how little I feel I can live by.