Sometimes it IS about the money

There’s widespread agreement that more aid and?more NGO donations are not a simplistic panacea to solve development problems. Judith Tendler ?35 years ago wrote about the paradoxical phenomenon of aid abundance, in which donor agencies have trouble finding enough ways spending the money they already have; it’s still true today.

Yet things look very different at the other end of the aid delivery system. During a July trip to northern Ghana, I talked to a community leader in a? small farming hamlet outside of Bolgatanga, Ghana about availability of bed nets. The nets are working to prevent malaria for those who sleep under them, he says, but the town does not have enough nets to go around. “Everybody cannot sleep under one net,” he says.

When you reach the end of the road, it IS about the money. More money that reaches the end of the road means more malaria nets, fewer cases of malaria, fewer tragic deaths. The debate has never been about THAT,? it is about WHETHER the money reaches the end of the road.

So it comes to how likely it is that different official aid agencies and NGOs are to make the money reach the end of the road. This is a bit different than whether different aid interventions “work” according to randomized evaluation (RE). Even if the interventions pass the RE test, how do you know that one hundred additional dollars given to?one particular?agency will translate into additional?interventions??

My visits in northern Ghana were with local volunteers from the international NGO Nets for Life . Their basic idea is to use the trustworthy network of the Anglican church, including??local bishops, priests, and church workers?to deliver the?life-saving bed nets. I have been involved with Nets for Life at both ends now: both in board meetings in New York and at the receiving end in northern Ghana. I can’t claim to have performed any kind of systematic evaluation of Nets for Life, and even if I had, it would hardly be cost effective to for every concerned individual to perform their own time-consuming and costly evaluation of every small NGO program.??We need a much better system for identifying who is doing better reaching the end of the road, where it IS about how much money the agency can raise.?

Until then, I have a very favorable opinion of Nets for Life, based on hearing about their mode of operation,?seeing them in action in the field in visits to their intended beneficiaries in northern Ghana,? and also based on?the impressive attitudes, knowledge and dedication of everyone I have met involved with Nets for Life.

So to bring closer the day when we know more about NGOs, get to know your NGO as well as you can, using every method possible,?and share the information you collect with other actual and potential donors to that NGO (which is what I am doing in this post).? Again, this is all to assess the essential question: do donations reach the end of the road?

If the answer is yes, then yes it really IS about the money.

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Feng Shui Wedding Gift – Feng Shui Gifts For Activating Wealth and Maximizing Money

Feng Shui Wedding Gift

You know how there are just those people who are impossible to shop for? They are either never satisfied with what they get, don’t even acknowledge your gift, or they already have it. Well, why not give them a gift they are guaranteed to love; the gift that keeps on giving…the feng shui gift of wealth. Feng Shui Wedding Gift

In feng shui, there are many popular and powerful prosperity symbols or objects that if placed in the right location, can help energize your wealth luck and attract money to you over and over again. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t want that? The wealth and prosperity direction in your home or any room in your house, is the south east corner or wall. This means that any of these objects can be placed here to help attract money to you.

Let’s talk about the 4 most popular feng shui gifts for never-ending wealth and abundance.

Golden Rice Bowl

In Chinese culture, being well fed, being healthy and having an abundance of food often translates to an abundance of wealth. This is because eating well, results in greater well-being which results in a more balanced life. If more food equals more wealth, then it makes sense that the golden rice bowl is a symbol of prosperity and subsequently a great feng shui gift to give. Make sure this is displayed in the south east corner of your room for full effect of wealth energy.

Chinese Jade Plant

Going to a housewarming or trying to find that perfect gift for the green thumb in your life? A great feng shui gift for them would be the Chinese Jade Plant.

Plants are of the element wood which also happens to be the element associated with the wealth and prosperity area of your home or room, i.e. the south east corner. This means that placing any healthy green plant in this corner will activate your wealth luck, but having a Chinese jade plant will make the attraction even more powerful. Its succulent thick green leaves are synonymous with the color and gem jade and some households even have real jade gem tree ornaments for this purpose in their home. It is most important that if you have the real Chinese jade plant that you keep it healthy. Any dryness or wilting of the plant will instead attract stagnant bad energy which would be very bad on your finances. Feng Shui Wedding Gift

The Chinese Gods of Wealth

You may have seen these statuettes in Chinese supermarkets, Chinatown or in Chinese family homes. They are the 3 old and wise Chinese gods of wealth, Fuk, Luk and Sau. They are often found together with Fuk, the god of wealth and happiness in the center, Luk, the god of high rank and affluence on the right and Sau, the god of longevity on the left. You may have also come across the laughing Buddha statue. In feng shui, he is another symbol of wealth and luck. These are believed to be very powerful wealth objects for your home and make an ideal feng shui gift.

Ancient Chinese Coins and Red Ribbon

Another popular wealth symbol or symbols rather, in feng shui are the Chinese I Ching coins. These are traditionally round, gold colored coins symbolizing the unity of heaven and earth. They have squares cut out of the middle with one side representing Yin and one Yang and Chinese characters featured on each. They act as money magnets in feng shui and you’ll usually find them in batches of three and tied together with either red ribbon or red string and placed Yang side up (the side with four Chinese characters). They come in threes as one coin symbolizes luck from heaven, one coin luck from earth and one coin luck from man. These make the perfect feng shui gift because they are small enough to keep in your purse or hung in your south east corner for wealth luck without being too protruding.

You can also tape three coins to your work table or sales invoice books in the south east corner or bury 9 of them under the entrance to your home or place them under the entrance mat to your apartment. This is a very powerful wealth activator and will attract money to your doorstep and into your life.

You can find these feng shui gifts in any Chinese supermarket or if you’re lucky to have one in your city, a Chinatown. Make sure that if you’re giving any of these great feng shui gifts to others, that you mention how they should be used effectively, for placed in the wrong areas, they will not work effectively. But who says you have to give them away, perhaps you want them for yourself. Don’t you deserve a little more wealth and prosperity in your life? Feng Shui Wedding Gift

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