SLIC Media

Compare Airline Prices

sailsmart — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:10:29 +0000

Two good sites to garner best deals for airfares are Momondo and Kayak. They are, however, not always superior to talking to the airline person who may have access to not yet listed deals. Or so I’m told. I haven’t really found a deep discount from a human being working on behalf of the airline. After all, what’s the incentive to grab your business?

Best Deals and Consumer Awareness

sailsmart — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:36:43 +0000

Just found out recently that American Express card is charging an annual 150.00 fee and investigated what people had to say about it on forums. I did note that the fine print on the back of the contract states that the annual charge is 40.00 but the platinum card charges more. In the process of squirreling out this information to determine how best to work around the fee (cashing in credits to pay for it) I came across this other site which I want to save for looking up airfares. Suggest signing into the forum and going to finance for advice on how credit cards work, how to avoid the fees and perhaps learn from other people what to avoid. The travel discussions forum lists best ways to find travel deals, search engines which troll the airlines themselves and which send updates to new deals efficiently.

Does MicroFinancing Work?

sailsmart — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:27:45 +0000

Microfinancing gets the cash flow going

Here’s some reading material when I have time to get to it. Esther Duflo, a French academic has tackled the question of how to help build a financially independent country up from poverty without the result being theft, political dictatorship and usury abuse. Here’s a starting point from wikipedia.

I’ve been reading Fordlandiawhich deals with a similar philanthropic approach to business. Ford was a philosopher entrepreneur who thought that the financially independent employee was good for the company and hated the low wages that didn’t offer people the options to buy his products. His mistakes in the Amazon, where he went to build rubber plantations are instructive to us today when our globalized economy is shifting into new locals and upsetting a previous economy. In a nutshell, the story traces the transition from agrarianism to industrialism. One can look at the story as instructive about how to do it wrongly. But how do we do it right?

Meda as Microfinancer

sailsmart — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 10:56:57 +0000

I’m glad that the Toronto Star is writing about conditions in Haiti in a very up close and personal way. It brings our day to day negative stories into perspective and offers

group lending microcredit

avenues for readers to consider making changes to the very poor and desperate of Haiti. One additional microfinance organization that is making considerable charitable deeds is MEDAMennonite Economic Development Organization.

MEDA is not just a charity but also a lending institution which partners CIDA with other world wide financial investment corporations to offer a means to develop agriculture, trade and self sustaining projects. Without these means, farmers are easy prey to the mega corporations who would exploit them due to their desperation.

One can donate specifically for Zambia Irrigation Kits here. Apart from giving loans to start up businesses, I’d like to get some names and addresses where I can forward used clothing by post more directly. If anyone knows how to access such resources, let me know.

There should be a way of donating directly to charities that ship to poor countries and give us feedback as to where these items go. Something along the lines of Craig’s List Curb Alert. Too often I see good children’s bicycles thrown in the trash instead of having them distributed by our local municipal programs. If you’ve ever been to Cuba, you will know how valuable a bicycle, sewing machine or tools can be.

Restaurant Reservations

sailsmart — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:47:04 +0000

Use Open Tableto make restaurant reservations in many large cities free of charge. Gain points (1000) for choosing a designated time and redeem those points towards dollars of up to 5000 points. You’ll get 26.00 CDN for about 2000 points. Also, check the online menus of restaurants to get an estimate of their fare. For example, you may not want to patronize a Sushi restaurant if they serve endangered species on the menu. Check the online customer reviews to find out what’s best on the menu.