Dante Godinho's Blog

I walked out of today’s class feeling compelled to learn more about Kiva, a social enterprise founded by Matt Flannery who, much like Muhammed Yunnus, saw potential in utilizing microfinance as a means of solving poverty, and furthermore brought the idea to an online platform. The reason that I feel Kiva will continue to gain popularity and bring about it’s desired impact is that, in my opinion, there is a plethora of people that would like to join in the battle against poverty yet have no idea where to begin. We are bombarded by charities seeking our support, yet the benefit seen by the beneficiaries is rarely sustainable and therefore we, as donors, do not feel that our contributions are making a long-term impact.

Kiva provides a solution to both these issues because it introduces a self-sufficient, sustainable alternative and, given minimal loan amounts and an impressive payback rate of 98.99 percent (Kiva 2012), almost everybody can participate. It seems to me that if we are serious about helping out those in need we should focus much more of our attention to Kiva and enterprises like it – I certainly plan on lending money in the near future.

Click here if you’d like to make a loan.

Being an avid hockey fan, the news of the NHL lockout this season has been, to say the least, devastating. I began to think of ways in which this scenario applies to something we’ve learned so far in Comm 101 – seeing as, after all, the entire lockout rests upon a financial disagreement. It then occurred to me that the dispute could be, in a rather unconventional manner, be broken down into concepts we learned in Class #9: Planning and Strategy. Essentially, the dispute is a collective bargaining disagreement between NHL owners, who are demanding a greater share of the league revenue, and the players, who aren’t willing to budge under the current division. Similar arguments have arisen in the past, resulting in three separate lockouts within the last 15 years, all of which have ended in the players receiving a lesser share. So why might this one be different? Enter buyer power. In the past, the “suppliers” (owners) have been in a position of great power due to few alternatives for NHL players, or in this case, “buyers”. With the emergence of the KHL (“new entrants”), however, we are seeing more and more star players, including the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin, make the switch across the Atlantic. Although most players are sure to return to their NHL team upon the culmination of the lockout, I’d take caution if I were an owner. While the KHL isn’t quite up to par with the NHL yet, it is certainly well on it’s way.

National Post article

Browsing through blog posts from fellow classmates, one that I can relate to is Gianluca Camerin’s post “IKEA’s One Problem”.  IKEA in late August is a haven for university students and, in accordance with Gianluca, it is the place to go if you’re looking for sleek and modern furniture and would rather spend some time on assembly than forfeit your bank account. We differ, however, on our opinion of the floor plan. IKEA has devised a way in which to use the layout of the store as a marketing scheme – funneling customers through segmented sections, each designed to adhere to a specific area within the house, in a particular order. Where he sees “problem”, I see convenience. While some may argue that this process is confusing and tiresome, I believe it’s simple and efficient (especially for two 20-year-old college kids like my roommate and I). Others complain that IKEA tricks you into buying more than you bargained for, however, I have a quick and easy solution for these people: make a list of needs before you go in. It will save you some extra cash and might even make your IKEA experience a little less chaotic than you expected.

The result of my roommate and I playing a crafty game of furniture Tetris with our new purchases at IKEA.