Passing Out Bread Not Lead (OR: You Should Go Here: www.kiva.org)

For those of you not yet buying it - yeah, most (no, not all - I ain't sayin' that) of Iraq is quieter. Here in Bulldog Country, we haven't been shot at, nothing's gone boom, and we've been here for over a month. Good things.

The economy, on the other hand, still stucks. Those not employed by us as Concerned Local Citizens in these parts are farmers (or both). Those that ain't, well, most have no jobs, honestly.

So, to help get the economy moving and humming - and to help remove the ugly economic conditions under which locals view digging IED holes in the road as good-paying work - the Army has a small business microgrant program, which we've recently been trying to get running in our area. Give us a copy of your ID, your relevant info, and business idea/plan, and if you're chosen, you'll get $2500 for your business. Sounds good, right? Most common business ideas (often repeated): grocery, autobody shop, electronics shop.

Yeah, so I'm kinda annoyed that the two guys (very good guys, don't get me wrong) most involved with handling our microgrant program really don't seem interested in microfinance and don't seem all that attached to how we could improve our current administration of the system. Which is, basically, open cattle call starting at 4 in the afternoon. Oh, and 99% of the applicants were men. Which, and anyone correct me if I'm wrong here, flies in the face of successful microfinance programs elsewhere (Grameen Bank - 97% women, 98.5% repayment rate overall).

And, me, I'm never pleased when people don't like to improve an existing system (probably my biggest pet peeve with the Army). So, taking advantage of my working relationship with the Company Commander (I carry his radio. B6R. R = Romeo for Radio. B = Bravo Company = Bulldog. 6 = Company Commander = CO. He's Bulldog6. I'm Bulldog6Romeo. Or B6R, for short. Having a callsign is fun), I decided to email the Boss about what I saw as a failure to focus on women. Here's a copy of the email. Enjoy.

B6R
PS. If you're still thinking that I'd want a book for Christmas, anything on microfinance would be great. Big thanks to Lois Sacks for Giving (in case you think I pulled those 97% and 98.5% stats outta thin air).

Subject: Microgrants

Sir, just wanted to make a suggestion for any future microgrant program we conduct. I'd strongly recommend setting aside a portion of loans to be distributed solely for female-run projects (similar to how a portion of Iraqi Parliament seats are set-aside for women). Microfinance in the developing world has normally focused on women for numerous reasons, including a traditionally greater degree of financial responsibility (the vast majority of borrowers at Kiva.org and Grameen Bank are women). Furthermore, while often less obvious, women play a tremendous role in shaping the views of their children and other family members. Women are also often featured in COIN literature as " hugely influential in forming social networks the insurgents use for support…Win the women, and you own the family unit" (Kilcullen, David. The Twenty-Eight Articles Fundamentals of Company-level Counterinsurgency ). And empowering women also serves to diminish the influence of the most conservative shitheads in this society – the very people who will never really work with us because deep down they regard all of us as infidels and worse (and with women, the bastards don't even have much of a leg to stand on considering the Prophet's first wife – and the first convert to Islam – was a businesswoman and his boss first).

Just my two cents on all this, sir.

SPC Munoz