Izafat Djafarov

A little over a year ago, I signed up with kiva.org. An ingenious organization, Kiva lets you lend to specific entrepreneurs in developing countries around the world. It links people in need, micro loan organizations, and lenders. With a minimum $25, you can lend money to someone half way 'round the world. No fuss, no muss, and all with the click of a button. Brilliant.

So, I took my $25 and lent it to Izafat Djafarov, a 42 year old married gentleman with 2 kids living in Azerbaijan. He was looking for $725 to buy more cups, glasses, teapots and sugar bowls for his small coffee shop. Having a small addiction to all things Starbucks, this was a business I could understand. My $25, plus money from 24 other lenders from the USA, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, France, the UK, and Norway gave Izafat his loan and a chance to make his business more successful. And this morning, I received notice that Izafat had made his final payment on the loan.



I was a little shocked at my response to this. To be honest, the whole process of lending can feel a little impersonal. Everything is done through your computer and a credit card. Other than a short description of the person and their business, you don't really know very much about them. You've never met the person, are probably never going to meet them, and really, $25 is such a small amount that it doesn't make a big dent in your life. You also have very little concept of what their day to day life is like. While on a conceptual level you can understand that a $725 loan can make a huge difference for someone in a developing country, the lack of personal contact and any real understanding of their personal circumstances makes it difficult to become too emotionally involved in the process. And then you get the news that they've paid back every penny.

I was torn between jumping up and down for Izafat, and shedding a few tears of pride. And I also felt a surprising sense of sadness. My relationship with this person is suddenly over. The $25 is back in my pocket. Presumably, Izafat will continue on with his business. But I find myself left with a lot of questions. Did the loan help? How is his business doing? Did this in any way improve his life, his business, his prospects? I have been quietly rooting for this fellow for a year, watching every month to see if he makes the next payment. I realize that I'm going to miss getting my monthly notice about this loan. Not because I care about getting my $25 back, but because I really wanted this person to succeed.

And maybe that is why Kiva is proving to be such a successful program. Without realizing it, you make a personal connection with someone. And it isn't a handout that you are giving them. It is a hand up. In a small way, you have a vested interest in seeing them succeed. You find yourself cheering them on, hoping that your small investment results in something good for them.

You'll have to excuse me. I have $25 that I need to go and loan to someone...

What ever happened to Jane?

Parents have lost their minds and proper spelling has become unfashionable. How are these two things related, you ask? Take a look at what people are naming their kids these days. It's appalling, and frankly, I think some of it borders on child abuse.

My husband and I are both first born perfectionists, so when it came to naming our children, we approached the task methodically and with a certain set of rules. First, no names that could be shortened or bastardized into something else. No Benjamin shortened to Ben, no Samantha shortened to Sam. Second, no gender neutral names that would have people guessing. Third, something that was easy to spell, given our somewhat cumbersome/ethnically rare last name. We also wanted our children's names to be a reflection of our heritage, Irish in my case, Ukrainian in my husbands. And, being somewhat traditional, we wanted to give our children classic names that would wear well with time. Cutesy boy names don't work so well on a 55 year old man, and I'm sorry, but a woman named Candy is very hard to take seriously.

While going through this exercise, we referenced many sources, from family trees to baby books. We also checked out current naming trends. Our provincial government puts out an annual list of all the baby names in a given year. Honestly, if I hadn't been pregnant, I would have gone through the list with a glass of wine in my hand. Can't decide if it's a comedy, a horror story or a Greek tragedy.

Personally, I'd spell Hailey like this: HAILEY. 154 sets of parents in Alberta last year agreed with me. However, apparently this isn't good enough for a bunch of people out there. In 2007, the variations of Hailey include: Hailee (12), Hailei (1), Haileigh (1) , Haili (1), Hailie (1), Haily (2), Haleigh (4), Haley (34) , Hali (1), Halie (2), Haylea (1), Haylee (11), Hayleigh (3), Hayley (43), and Haylie (9). So, if my math is correct, 126 sets of parents weren't satisfied with the generally accepted way of spelling Hailey. Frankly, all these different spellings look like a mess of alphabet soup.

Even a fairly unmessable name like Elizabeth gets butchered. How about Elisabeth, Elizabith, Elizebeth, Elysabeth, and my personal favourite, Elyzabeth.

The boys don't fare much better. Last time I checked, this was the correct way to spell Michael. 109 sets of parents agreed with me. However, 18 think that Micheal is the way to go. I'm sorry, but I see that and it just makes me think that there are 36 people out there that don't know how to spell their kid's name. How about Joseph. Three sets of parents thought it is spelt Joeseph or Joesph. Butchery.

Another lovely classic boys name that gets butchered is Alexander. 205 couples got it right in 2007. However, the following just make me shake my head: Aleksandar (4), Aleksander (1), Aleksandr (1), Alexandar (1), Alexxander (1), Alexzander (1), and Alex-Zander (1). Ten little boys out there are going to spend the rest of their lives having their name misspelled. And, after all their parent's efforts to give them an original looking name, will likely just end up shortening it to Alex just to avoid the hassles.

Now, I understand that naming your children is a very personal matter, and I have no real issues with some amount of originality creeping in, atrocious spelling aside. However, there are some names that should never be allowed. Seriously, I wouldn't be too put off by a group of naming police vetoing certain names. For example, any name that consists only of initials. In my world, AJ and PR are NOT legitimate names for a child. They can be initials, but not a full name in and of themselves. If you don't believe somebody named their kid PR, check out the boys names for 2003. That kid will be scarred for life.

How about this for a boys name: Bane. If the parents had only looked this word up in the dictionary, they would have realized that it means: a person or thing that ruins or spoils, a deadly poison, death, destruction, ruin, that which causes death or destroys life. Nice. Can't even comment on that.

Cowboy, Copper, Corny, Davidgregory, Daxz, E, Furious, Gauge, Gix, Gleb, Iazzc, Jaxxon, M, Midnite, Maxxamillion, Obsidian-Angel, S, Xxavier and Xzavion were all boys names in 2007. Seriously. And for girls? How about B'Elanna, Butterfly, Carisma, Chaos, Coltanna, Dexter, Elliexiah, Emma-Star-Ulaniq, Ever, Jazzmyn, Juniper, Mersaideze, Tea, Wes-Leigh, Unique and Vintage.

If I was an elementary school teacher, I'd dread the beginning of every school year.

From lead to Lolita

So, Christmas has come and gone and we seem to have avoided any major toy recalls. My son got his racetrack, my daughter her doll house. After last summer's flurry of lead paint fiascoes, it seemed we had returned to relative bliss in the toy department. Now this.

Could someone please explain to me how this slipped through? The BBC reported that Woolworths, a not insubstantial retailer, had stopped selling a girl's bed that had been given the name 'Lolita'. Are you kidding me?

Now granted, if you lived under a rock, I could understand not knowing about the sexual connotations that the name Lolita has been imbued with in the last 50 years. But it would have to be a fairly large rock! Nabokov's novel has forever made the name Lolita synonymous with young female precocious sexuality. And some bright light at Woolworths thought this was a suitable name for a child's bed?

If it's not the lead poisoning our kids, it's the Lolitas...