Superpatterns

Prompted by James' post, I just joined Kiva - a microfinance clearing house connecting individual lenders in developed countries (or indeed anywhere) with entrepreneurs from impoverished communities around the world. These are people who want to change their lives, but have little or no access to capital from traditional sources such as banks and credit cards. It's a great concept - as it's repaid, you can relend the money to other borrowers again and again and again.