Global Moral Lipodystrophy & the Micro Revolutions -- Volume II

*****

Population expands to eat the food available

By 2050, another 2 billion astronauts on Spaceship Earth ?

Norman Borlaug -- Father of the "Green Revolution" dies at 95

Monkeys with shotguns awarded laureate for marksmanship.

New Nobel Prizes ? -- for Meteorology, Agronomy, Ecology, Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, Forestry, Astronomy, Family Planning, Micro Economic Paradigms and ...... Gastronomy ?

---------


Since this seminal Christmas-Day post a year ago today, not much has changed in the world:

Global Moral Lipodystrophy & the Micro Revolutions

The World is Fat [ sic ] -- some parts anyway

December 25, 2008

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/global-moral-lipodystrophy-micro.html

---------

Indeed, a year later, the moneyed flabby in the Developed World have gotten fatter, and the un-moneyed Poor in the Developing World have gotten skinnier. And not a single NGO, charity, foundation, government agency nor corporation worldwide has stepped forward to financially support any of the Micro Revolutions advocated a year ago by Carbon Manna Unlimited in San Diego, even though over 1,000 of them have been contacted 1 by 1. So there are no fatsos at Carbon Manna either.

Lamentably, today, 700 million to 1 billion+ human beings are malnourished and experience hunger daily. But the body mass indices of 100s of millions of the wealthy in the Developed World continue to balloon.

Feted agronomist Norman Borlaug recently joined the pharaohs, and 1,000s of news sources laud his contributions to crop science that allowed "billions" more people to burden the Earth. But were the peta-calories or exa-calories that Norman created evenly distributed across the waistline of Mankind ? No. Did he successfully photoshop or Botox the creased Face of Global Hunger ? No. Did his work mitigate in any way the matricidal environmental externalities inflicted on Mama Gaia by these new billions of mouths ? No.

So today, 100s of millions more human beings are hungry. And Mother Earth still suckles us excess billions though we kick against Her shins daily. So why the accolades for Norman Borlaug ?

Rather, Mankind should anoint anyone who could PREVENT billions more people from being born into a bleak existence in the Maw of Despair (or, as they might say in Kenya -- in the Mau Forest of Despair). And Womankind should praise anyone who could invent sustainable, markets-based systems or paradigms to redistribute existing wealth and calories more equitably across time-space barriers and national and international borders.

Just as work expands to fill the time available, population expands to eat the food available. Mortifying projections call for another 2 billion astronauts on Spaceship Earth by 2050. But should allll these new people even be born? Cannot the current 6.6 billion Homo sapiens on Earth fulfill all our needs ? Will crop science produce new "miracles" to unevenly "feed" even more mouths ? And are the externalities imposed on Planet Earth by each new human being offset just because that person is "fed" ? -- however poorly ?

No, rather, each incremental human life kills Mother Earth a little bit more. Technology will never innovate fast enough to mitigate the incremental environmental externalities inflicted by each human born.

"...and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the Heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore..." -- Genesis 22:17.

Easter Island is the Future of this Blue Dot in the Heavens. In the end we will eat our seed corn, and then eat our own seed -- a la Leningrad, medium well, cooked over broken furniture...

Would you like fries with that ?

Therefore, for the Redemption of Mankind, and for the Salvation of Mother Earth, I propose the inauguration of new Nobel Prizes or Kyoto Prizes or X Prizes or ..... Palella Prizes !? -- for the following fields:

* Meteorology
* Hydrology
* Agronomy / Crop Science
* Food Science / Nutrition
* Ecology
* Oceanography
* Atmospheric Sciences
* Forestry
* Astronomy / Space Sciences
* Family Planning / Population Management
* Animal Husbandry & Fisheries Management
* Green Energy / Alternative Energy
* Markets-based/Sustainable Philanthropy
* Conflict Resolution (historical, not projected. Duh.)
* Micro Economic Paradigms [ my favorite ], and
* _________...? <<-- add your favorite here.


Accelerated innovation in all these fields is now more important to Mankind's and Earth's survival than the current prize categories. Time is of the essence to save Ourselves. Philanthropists ! -- if you love Mankind as your name says -- step forward now and richly incentivize and reward innovators in these other fields as well.


"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

[ "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- written December 25th, 1864. ]


Merry Christmas ! -- December 25th, 2009

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Santa
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
email (backup): dpalella@gmail.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/CarbonManna
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1065919.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1033328.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1007638.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html


~~~~~~~~

Carbon Manna -- Two Novel Cell-phone-based Microfinance Mechanisms

*****

Carbon Manna -- Two Novel Cell-phone-based Microfinance Mechanisms based on reduced use of non-renewable biomass fuel

Carbon Manna Unlimited's reduced-fuel-expense Micro-Savings Program, and separate Carbon-Micro-Offset Monetization System will provide timely and sustainable liquidity to the savings poor in East Africa

Daily Cash Savings on fuel of 15 - 40 U.S. cents/day will Sustainably Fund
Micro-Savings Programs in Kenya/East Africa and Allow Faster Repayment of Traditional Microfinance Loans

[from ideas conceived during November 2009]


We at Carbon Manna Unlimited in San Diego (a non-profit corporation) have developed two novel, universally-applicable, cell-phone- and NON-debt-based, highly-scalable forms of microfinance that we call the Carbon Manna(sm) System. They are:

(1) the Carbon Micro-PROFIT-Sharing System -- comprising monetization of 1,000s of aggregated carbon-micro-offsets via the European GS-VER market (Gold Standard - Voluntary Emission Reduction market); and

(2) the Reduced-fuel-expense Micro-Savings Program -- an SMS-based behavior-modification program that teaches families to bank their daily cash savings on fuel of 15 - 40 U.S. cents/day.

Both mechanisms are based on reduced combustion of non-renewable biomass fuel and employ a highly efficient, low-cost cook-stove custom designed by our for-profit sister company in Kenya, Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. The stoves are serialized and matched uniquely with each family's cell phone number.

Broadcast SMS messages and customized content regarding personal finance, public health, women & children's rights, nutrition, etc., will be sent to all families.

Monetized carbon offsets and cash fuel savings may be banked and converted back to cash as needed using existing MMT (Mobile Money Transfer) systems such as Safaricom's M-Pesa or Zain's ZAP systems in the case of East Africa.

The two mechanisms can be implemented sequentially -- the Micro-Savings Program immediately, and the Carbon Micro-PROFIT-Sharing System later as paperwork is completed for the carbon-offset market.

Our large-scale, pilot cook-stove project in Kenya (managed by Carbon Manna AFRICA Ltd.), which includes the ancestral hometown of President Obama, is in late-stage planning. See:

-->> http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1065919.html

We plan to scale the Kenyan effort up to 100,000 - 250,000 families within 5 years.

Most notably, we believe these two novel microfinance mechanisms have a number of advantages over, and will scale much faster than, micro-debt, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Finally, in the case of corporate sponsors in the wireless or consumer products industries, Carbon Manna(sm) offers an auditable "ROI on CSR" investments, a rare result in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) field.

In the case of individuals, donations to Carbon Manna Unlimited in San Diego (a California-incorporated public charity) are 100% tax-deductible through our umbrella 501c3 status with The GlobalGiving Foundation in Washington, DC.

We hope you will support our efforts in Kenya and/or some other part of the Developing World of interest to you. Being cell-phone- and markets-based, Carbon Manna(sm) is universally applicable.

More background about Carbon Manna(sm) may be found by visiting the links below. We look forward to hearing from you.

Globally & warmly yours, David Palella

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
SAN DIEGO, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
email (backup): carbonmanna@gmail.com


http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/CarbonManna

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/


http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1065919.html

Carbon Manna Unlimited to Present at Kenyan Business Conference
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1033328.html

"One Cell Phone per Child" Grand Challenge Announced by CarbonManna(C) Unlimited
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1007638.html

Carbon Manna(C) Unlimited Announces Solar Manna(C) & Forest Manna(C),
and Filing of a U.S. Patent Application for the Cell Phone-Based
Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing System
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

World's First Cell-Phone-Based Carbon-Micro-Credits Implementation
Progressing in Kenya
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html

--------------

Want an extra $250 a year? Adopt fuel-efficient stoves
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/629584/-/r1ooaez/-/index.html

Kenyan farmers could reap from carbon trading
http://www.eastandard.net/mag/InsidePage.php?id=1144016370&cid=457

Personal carbon trading
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144016369&catid=476&a=1

--------------

I will be/was a speaker or keynote speaker at:
------------------------------------------------------

2nd Kenya Diaspora Int'l Conference & Investment Forum

20-22 August 2009, Atlanta, GA

http://www.kenyaopen4business.com

---------------------------------------------------------------


"Microfinance for Institutional Investors"

21-23 Sept. 2009, Washington, DC

http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microfinance-for-institutional-investors/index.shtml

---------------------------------------------------------------


Green Business Africa Summit & Expo

June 2010, Nairobi, Kenya

http://www.greenbusinessafricaexpo.com


---------------------------------------------------------------

Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. Announces Collaboration With the Town of Kogelo, Kenya -- the Ancestral Home of President Barack Obama

*****

Mama Sarah Obama Welcomes Introduction of the Cell-Phone-Based Carbon Manna(SM) System to Kogelo to Address Copenhagen Consensus Challenges


SAN DIEGO, CA and KOGELO, KENYA--(Marketwire - October 27, 2009) - Carbon Manna Unlimited in San Diego, California, a non-profit standards-setting organization popularizing the world's first form of non-debt-based microfinance -- the highly-scalable, cell-phone-based Carbon Micro-PROFIT-Sharing system -- announced today an exclusive agreement between its affiliate, Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. (Nairobi, Kenya), and the Kogelo Community Development Foundation (KCDF) in Kogelo, Kenya. Kogelo is the childhood hometown of U.S. President Barack Obama's late father.

Carbon Manna Africa and KCDF will jointly utilize the sustainable Carbon Manna(SM) Micro-PROFIT-Sharing System to address various healthcare, nutrition and education challenges common to the Developing World as enumerated in the Copenhagen Consensus.

"The self-funding Carbon Manna(SM) System is now in the ancestral home of President Obama through a collaboration with the Kogelo Community Development Foundation (KCDF), whose patroness is Mama Sarah Obama -- President Obama's paternal grandmother," announced the Chairman of KCDF, well-known Kenyan movie star Mr. Joseph Olita. He further remarked: "Through the stewardship of Mama Sarah Obama, KCDF will harness the carbon markets-based economic engine of the Carbon Manna(SM) System to address in particular Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT), funding of nutrition programs in grade schools for at-risk children, and reductions in the incidences of malaria, cholera and illegal child labor."

To the delight of Mama Sarah Obama, on 25 October 2009, representatives of KCDF and Carbon Manna Africa (CMA) visited Kogelo and presented her with the first CMA-designed "Mulindi Stove," engraved with the now-historic campaign refrain of her grandson: "Yes, we can!"

Geoffrey Kiringa, President of Carbon Manna Africa Ltd., noted: "Our Carbon Manna(SM) System implementation in Kogelo will also sensitize the 10,000 residents to proactively reduce environmental degradation by encouraging reforestation and conservation of other natural resources such as rivers and lakes, thus empowering the community to fully participate in Income Generating Activities (IGAs) such as fish farming and beekeeping."

Companies interested in purchasing the GS-VER credits (Gold Standard - Voluntary Emission Reduction credits) to be produced in the ancestral hometown of the Obama Family and in the surrounding Kenyan countryside, should contact Carbon Manna Unlimited or Carbon Manna Africa. Inquiries from accretive strategic partners in the healthcare, nutrition and education areas are also encouraged.

The Carbon Manna(SM) System employs mobile phones, SMS (short message service) and unique stove identifiers that will allow millions of families in the Developing World to claim and monetize on a monthly basis the validated carbon micro-offsets they produce by utilizing more efficient cooking methods such as well-designed charcoal or wood stoves, instead of using an inefficient 3-stone fire burning excessive non-renewable biomass. As a result, each family becomes a self-reliant micro-PROFIT center and is able to monetize directly its own contribution to reducing CO2 emissions, while also slowing regional deforestation.

The highly scalable Carbon Manna(SM) System is one of the few extant and tenable markets-based mechanisms that will allow attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. By tapping the US$ 125 billion annual carbon-trading markets and transferring payments directly to each participating family via SMS message and existing mobile money transfer (MMT) systems, Carbon Manna(SM) eliminates multiple levels of bureaucracy that to date have economically hobbled all large-scale, family-level economic empowerment programs in Africa.

After Kenya, in 2010 and beyond the Carbon Manna(SM) System will expand to Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana and South Africa.

For corporate social responsibility (CSR), philanthropic, sponsorship or collaborative opportunities with Carbon Manna Unlimited and/or Carbon Manna Africa; or for speaker requests or celebrity inquiries; and to co-opt a sustainable and universally applicable micro-paradigm that can indeed quickly scale to benefit the "Next Billion" at the Base of the Pyramid, please contact:

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://www.carbonmanna.org

Or:

Geoffrey Kiringa
President
CARBON MANNA AFRICA
Nairobi Kenya
cell: +254-721-922-135
email: gkiringa@gmail.com
Skype: geoffrey.kiringa
http://www.CarbonMannaAfrica.com


Visit these links for the original release & a picture of Grandma Obama:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1065919.html

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/mmframe?prid=551940&attachid=1098813


-----

Carbon Manna(SM) Update-o-rama

*****

Hello Carbon Manna(SM) Aficionados,

We just made a completely new PowerPoint presentation for Carbon Manna -- only 16 slides. Please send us your email address if you would like to see it.

We also sent out a news release on 19 August 2009 -- see:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1033328.html


We're on Twitter now too:

-->> http://twitter.com/CarbonManna


And our pilot project in Kenya's Siaya & Mbeere districts continues to advance daily (which includes President Obama's grandmother's hometown of Kogelo, Kenya, which I purposely included in the project).

Your brutal feedback about Carbon Manna(SM) is always highly appreciated.

Globally & warmly yours,

David A. Palella & Hong Ma

Co-Founders
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/CarbonManna
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714


http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1007638.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html


http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/629584/-/r1ooaez/-/index.html

http://www.eastandard.net/mag/InsidePage.php?id=1144016370&cid=457

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144016369&catid=476&a=1


I will be a speaker or keynote speaker at:
-----------------------------------------------

2nd Kenya Diaspora Int'l Conference & Investment Forum

20-22 August 2009, Atlanta, GA

http://www.kenyaopen4business.com

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Microfinance for Institutional Investors"

21-22 Sept. 2009, Washington, DC

http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microfinance-for-institutional-investors/index.shtml

---------------------------------------------------------------

Green Business Africa Summit & Expo

June 2010, Nairobi, Kenya

http://www.greenbusinessafricaexpo.com


-------------------------------------------------------------

Philanthropy Net - San Diego -- started on LinkedIn.com

*****

Hello Friends & Neighbors,

Due to a screaming unmet networking need here in San Diego, we were forced to start a new in-person socializing group. Spreading the word & promoting meetings will be done on-line via LinkedIn.com:


-->> Philanthropy Net - San Diego

-->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2185731/


If you have a sincere interest in Philanthropy, pro bono work or charitable giving, please sign up today, whether you're really in Southern California or not. We'll be liberally sharing pithy information via the group, which will also enrich the out-of-towners.

And if you prefer highly structured social engagements, don't come to our human-level Brownian motion-like near-random networking events. Rather, go to a yoga or square-dancing class. Equality, flat organization, and semi-organized social chaos -- that's the American way. Or, the corollary in China is: "Better to rumble like rocks, than to tinkle like jade."

Very leptonically yours,

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

&

Co-founder
PHILANTHROPY NET - SAN DIEGO

San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com


http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1007638.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html


Join our Carbon Micro-Credits/Carbon Manna discussion groups:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714


I will be a speaker or keynote speaker at:
-----------------------------------------------

2nd Kenya Diaspora Int'l Conference & Investment Forum

20-22 August 2009, Atlanta, GA

http://www.kenyaopen4business.com

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Microfinance for Institutional Investors"

21-23 Sept. 2009, Washington, DC

http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microfinance-for-institutional-investors/index.shtml

---------------------------------------------------------------

Green Business Africa Summit & Expo

June 2010, Nairobi, Kenya

http://www.greenbusinessafricaexpo.com

---------------------------------------------------------------

Fund-raising campaign for Carbon Manna AFRICA / Kenya pilot project

*****

Our first and large-scale implementation of the Carbon Manna / Carbon Micro-PROFIT-Sharing System (CMPSS) in Kenya is progressing well, but they need beer money for the start-up costs, which are mainly allll the documentation/audits required to pre-sell offsets on the European VER (Voluntary Emission Reduction) carbon markets.

Us folks on the U.S. side here at Carbon Manna UNLIMITED in San Diego have already contributed about US$ 20,000 cash. Our team in Kenya needs another US$ 100,000 - 150,000 before their operations become self-sustaining via pre-selling the carbon offsets from their large-scale cookstove projects.

Flush and visionary donors should contact me for more details about kicking in for the next keg in Kenya.

Nota bene that Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. is a for-profit company because it is tooooo difficult and expensive to form a charity in Kenya. Hence, if you file your tax returns in the U.S., you may not receive a deduction for your donation. We didn't and won't receive any deductions.

Our intrepid Carbon Manna leader in Nairobi, Geoffrey Kiringa, may be able to accept donations via an NGO or official charity based in Kenya, but this is not assured. And even so, it may not qualify you for a tax deduction here in the U.S. Consult first with your CPA if you have tax sensitivities.

For allll the reasons above, then, donations below about US$ 2,500 are definitely not cool, and we won't even remember to call you the next morning. So think BIG ! before contacting us.

So for anyone who sends more than US$ 10,000 to Carbon Manna AFRICA in Nairobi, we will add you to the guest list whenever Bono finally realizes that he can't live with or without Carbon Manna and says, "Hey, let's do lunch in Santa Monica next time I'm there!"

For cash transfusions over US$ 20,000 -- ditto whenever Angelina Jolie finally calls us for brunch.

Brash cashed-up donors should wire money directly to Carbon Manna AFRICA in Kenya; we here in San Diego don't need to touch the money. We'll fund our own keggers all by ourselves via major corporate sponsors based in the U.S., Europe & Japan.

Contact me or Geoffrey Kiringa directly for wire instructions.


Finally -- quick ! -- name the 13th Apostle !

Can you? Almost no one can. Why?

Because when you join a winning team late, no one gives you any credit and no one remembers your name.

Hence, support Carbon Manna early, before its Fame overshadows us all.

Globally & warmly yours, David

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, Calif.

tel: 858-793-0741
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com


http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-1007638.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html


CC:

Geoffrey Kiringa, MBA
President
CARBON MANNA AFRICA
Nairobi KENYA

cell: +254-721-922-135
email: gkiringa@gmail.com
Skype: geoffrey.kiringa
http://www.carbonmannaafrica.com

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/9/105/b7b
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1370029560

http://www.eastandard.net/mag/InsidePage.php?id=1144016370&cid=457

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144016369&catid=476&a=1


----------

Conference participation by Carbon Manna Unlimited

*****

Hello Folks,

I will be speaking at these upcoming events, which may interest many of you too. I hope to see you there.

Globally & warmly yours, David

David A. Palella
Carbon Manna Unlimited
San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://www.carbonmanna.org

-------------------------

2nd Kenya Diaspora International Conference & Investment Forum

20-22 August 2009, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA

http://www.kenyaopen4business.com

---------------------------------------------------------

"Microfinance for Institutional Investors"

21-23 Sept. 2009, Washington, DC

http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microfinance-for-institutional-investors/index.shtml

---------------------------------------------------------

Green Business Africa Summit & Expo

June 2010, Nairobi, Kenya

http://www.greenbusinessafricaexpo.com


---------------------------------------------------------

"One Cell Phone per Child" Grand Challenge Announced by Carbon Manna(C) Unlimited

*****

Our latest press release...

SOURCE: Carbon Manna Unlimited


"One Cell Phone per Child" Grand Challenge Announced by Carbon Manna(C) Unlimited

Carbon Manna(C) Programs in Africa to Subsidize the Cost of One Handset per Child for Micro-Education and Micro-Healthcare Initiatives


SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - June 23, 2009) - Carbon Manna Unlimited, an international non-profit standards-setting organization, announced today a new Grand Challenge for Carbon Manna© project developers worldwide to provide one handset for every school-age child of families enrolled in cell-phone-based Carbon Manna© carbon-offset monetization programs. Starting with the oldest child, profits realized by each family from their produced carbon offsets should be used to buy low-cost handsets that include a built-in calculator, keyboard, LED flashlight, and FM radio (already a common feature in mobile phones sold in Africa today).

"In contrast to other announced programs featuring intractably expensive devices, a 'One Cell Phone per Child' goal is patently tenable, and an appropriately designed solar-powered handset serves many of the same educational functions in a much more portable and theft-proof package. Whether using push or pull technologies, micro-education initiatives based on the cell phone are the only currently actionable strategy for educating the Bottom Billion children intellectually shackled in the basement of pharaoh's pyramid," remarked David Palella, Founder of Carbon Manna Unlimited.

"The asymmetrically wealthy in the Developed World habitually underestimate not only African cell-phone penetration rates and cellular-signal coverage, but also the educational, public healthcare, and personal-safety functionality of a simple cell phone with built-in torch," said Geoffrey Kiringa, President of Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. in Nairobi, Kenya. He further observed: "In the case of newer handsets featuring FM radios, combined with the standard SMS (short message service) capability of all current phones, even simple handsets with low direct manufacturing costs of $15-20 offer children in Africa a hall pass to savannahs of knowledge, especially very poor children unable to attend schools."

Dr. Hong Ma, Executive Director of Carbon Manna Unlimited, also noted: "Our proprietary, cell-phone-based Carbon Micro-PROFIT-Sharing System provides a sustainable, carbon-markets-based financial engine for subsidizing or completely funding the purchase price of low-cost handsets in the Developing World, in stark contrast to all other Child empowerment programs that rely excessively on self-limiting charity and/or government subsidies to buy much more expensive and power-intensive electronic devices. Thus, the mobile money transfer-enabled handset in Africa is now not only an ATM and bank, but will also become the public library, the school and teacher, and an economic lucky charm of hope for poor children."

Dr. Sergey O. Sablin, a Board Member and major benefactor of the Carbon Manna© organization worldwide, encapsulated the announcement by saying: "Once again Carbon Manna's quantum innovation and revolutionary self-funding 'micro' paradigms offer the prospect of accelerating the emancipation of millions of poor families in Africa from pandemic poverty and ignorance. I am very honored to be affiliated with Carbon Manna© and to contribute materially to its success."

More details about the benefits of Carbon Manna's "One Cell Phone per Child" Grand Challenge may be found at this blog entry from November 2008:

"One Cell Phone per Child / The Cell Phone is the School"

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-cell-phone-per-child-cell-phone-is.html


For corporate social responsibility (CSR), philanthropic, sponsorship or collaborative opportunities with Carbon Manna Unlimited and/or Carbon Manna Africa; or for speaker requests or celebrity inquiries; and to co-opt a sustainable and universally applicable micro-paradigm that can indeed quickly scale to benefit the "Next Billion" at the Base of the Pyramid, please contact:

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://www.carbonmanna.org
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

Or:

Geoffrey Kiringa
President
CARBON MANNA AFRICA
Nairobi Kenya
cell: +254-721-922-135
email: geoffrey.kiringa
Skype: geoffrey.kiringa

http://www.eastandard.net/mag/InsidePage.php?id=1144016370&cid=457

*****

Papal Encyclical Divine Illumination on Carbon Manna ?

*****


The Pope's upcoming Encyclical due to be released on 29 June 2009 echoes many of the key themes detailed in this blog the past year, in particular:

-->> New micro-economic paradigms that benefit the Poor are needed

-->> New ways of thinking that eliminate the gap between Rich & Poor in today's unfavorable world economy are needed

-->> Micro-property rights of the Poor must be respected

-->> Environmental problems unduly affect the Poor compared to the Rich, and

-->> Just men with pure hearts are the prerequisite for economic justice for the Poor.


Carbon Manna is an apotheosis (perfect example) of these themes in action for the Benefit of Humanity.

Carbon Manna cook-stove projects in Africa, in particular, will vastly improve the standard of living of the rural Poor -- 5,000 - 20,000 families at a time. This is the scale needed for economic efficiencies. So only 100 projects over 5 years would comprise about 1 million families, or 6+ million people. Although our Carbon Manna Africa Ltd. team in Kenya is thinking even BIGGER than this.

And being open source, any other groups worldwide are welcome to implement Carbon Manna projects in their countries or territories. Within the next year we will publish on our web site all the documentation needed to undertake a cell-phone-based Carbon Manna project. Anyone will be welcome to download it and adapt it to their own projects.

Our goal ? -- within 5 - 7 years have at least 5 - 10 million families enrolled in cell-phone-based Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing programs worldwide, which approximates about 30 - 60+ million people.

In sum, if he knew about Carbon Manna, we're sure the Pope would find it, well, like Manna from Heaven.

Very religiously yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Evangelist
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html

Join our Carbon Micro-Credits/Carbon Manna discussion groups:

-->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

-->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

---------------------------------

Main Reference -- begin quote from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caritas_in_Veritate


"On February 26, 2009 Pope Benedict met with parish priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome for a question-and-answer session. In response to a question concerning how the Catholic Church should respond to injustice and continue in its defence of vulnerable persons, he outlined key themes from the upcoming encyclical:

[...]

What is needed is the reasonable and reasoned denunciation of the errors, not with great moral statements, but rather with concrete reasons that prove to be understandable in today's economic world. [...]

To realize that these great objectives of macro-science are not realized in ***micro-science*** -- the macroeconomics in the microeconomics -- without the conversion of hearts. If there are no just men, there is no justice either [...]

Justice cannot be created in the world only with good economic models, even if these are necessary. Justice is only brought about if there are just men. And there are no just men without the humble, daily endeavor of converting hearts, and of creating justice in hearts.


On June 13, 2009, the AP reported:

Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday his new encyclical on the economy and labor issues will focus on ways to make globalization more careful to the needs of the poor amid the worldwide financial crisis. The document will outline the goals and values that the faithful must "tirelessly defend" to ensure "true freedom and solidarity" among humans, Benedict said in a speech. He said the global downturn shows the need to "rethink economic and financial paradigms that have been dominant in the last years."

[ End of quote ]

-----------------

Secondary Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical

*****

Kenya press coverage of Carbon Manna

*****

Hello Folks,

Here are 2 articles about our cell-phone-based Carbon Manna™ Micro-Profit-Sharing System that appeared in "The Standard" last week (the largest- or 2nd-largest-circulation paper in Kenya):


http://www.eastandard.net/mag/InsidePage.php?id=1144016370&cid=457

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144016369&catid=476&a=1


Questions? Comments? Please contact me in San Diego or Geoffrey Kiringa directly in Nairobi (his full contact info appears down below).

Globally & warmly yours, David

David A. Palella
Founder
Carbon Manna Unlimited
San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html


Join our Carbon Micro-Credits/Carbon Manna discussion groups:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714


CC:

Geoffrey Kiringa
President
CARBON MANNA AFRICA
Nairobi KENYA

cell: 011-254-721-922-135
email: gkiringa@gmail.com
Skype: geoffrey.kiringa
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/9/105/b7b
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1370029560


-------

Carbon Manna(C) Unlimited Announces Solar Manna(C) & Forest Manna(C), and Filing of a U.S. Patent Application...

*****

Here is the Carbon Manna news release that came out on MarketWire on 19 May 2009:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-991442.html


Carbon Manna(C) Unlimited Announces Solar Manna(C) & Forest Manna(C), and Filing of a U.S. Patent Application for the Cell Phone-Based Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing System

Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Reforestation, Micro-Entrepreneurialism, Women's Empowerment, Micro-Property Rights and Improved Family Health -- All Features of the Carbon Manna(C) System


SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - May 19, 2009) - Carbon Manna Unlimited, an international non-profit standards-setting organization, announced today new uniformity initiatives for solar-power projects in the Developing World -- Solar Manna©, as well as for reforestation projects -- Forest Manna©, which make use of the Carbon Manna© cell phone-based Micro-Profit-Sharing System.

Moreover, to exclude profiteers who would manipulate Carbon Manna projects for personal or corporate gain, a detailed provisional U.S. Patent application has been filed to provide a future legal framework for safeguarding the micro-property and micro-profit-sharing rights of poor families participating in Carbon Manna-certified programs.

The Carbon Manna system employs SMS (short message service) and unique identifiers that will allow millions of families in the Developing World to claim by mobile phone on a bi-weekly basis the carbon offsets they produce by converting to more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient 3-stone fire burning biomass. As a result, each family becomes a micro-profit center and is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global climate change, while also slowing regional deforestation and desertification, which are metastatic ecological scourges in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

Cell phone-based Carbon Manna projects may also include reforestation programs that sequester CO2 (Forest Manna©), as well as solar-powered lighting and village-level phone-recharging stations that reduce green house gas emissions (Solar Manna©), thus allowing entrepreneurial families to claim via cell phone two or three types of Carbon Micro Credits or Profits at the same time.

Most importantly, the Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing System is NOT a form of self-limiting, debt-based microfinance; rather, courtesy of the US$100 billion global carbon-trading markets, it provides potentially unlimited and definitely immediate micro PROFITS to the Poor, and therefore is similar in concept to frequent-flyer miles, which are an asset, not a liability. Thus, Carbon Manna programs produce micro-assets (profits or savings) that may be used as micro-collateral in a traditional microfinance (loan) setting. In short, Carbon Manna provides a tenable basis for supersizing debt-based microfinance, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Moreover, Carbon Micro Profits or Credits may be easily converted to cash, e-money, cell phone minutes/airtime, or any other non-inflatable store-of-value. And where mobile money transfer systems are available such as Safaricom's M-Pesa and Zain's ZAP systems in Kenya and Tanzania, every handset becomes an ATM, and cash may be withdrawn at thousands of stores and banks nationwide. Hence, Tanzania and Kenya, plus the other East African countries of Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Ethiopia, realistically offer a fertile ground for the rapid growth of Carbon Manna to the level of millions of families over the next five years.

"Because of the power and uniqueness of the Carbon Manna System and the potential for carbon-offset carpetbaggers to maliciously exploit it to violate the micro-property rights of the Poor, especially in Africa, on 24 April 2009 we filed a provisional U.S. Patent titled: Micro-Credit / Micro-Profit Sharing Method and System for Claiming and Monetizing Personal Emissions Reductions," remarked Tom Ichim, a board member of Carbon Manna Unlimited in San Diego.

For the same reason, Dr. Hong Ma, Executive Director of Carbon Manna Unlimited, stated: "To further ensure the fair treatment of poor families in the Developing World, in a white paper titled 'Carbon Manna Economic-Rewards Allocation Guidelines,' we have detailed economic and accounting ground rules for equitably sharing monetary gains from Carbon Manna programs. And because we directly and efficiently transfer payments wirelessly to participating families, we disintermediate all middlemen, minimize chances for graft, and maximize cash flows to the Poor."

Finally, David Palella, the Founder of Carbon Manna Unlimited, highlighted: "The cell phone-based Carbon Manna System represents an entirely novel form of microfinance, let us call it GigaFinance X.0, that uniquely utilizes markets-based mechanisms to address multiple topical themes including sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), reforestation, micro-property rights, women's empowerment, micro-entrepreneurism and improved family health -- all in one elegantly scalable vehicle."


For corporate social responsibility (CSR), philanthropic, sponsorship or collaborative opportunities with Carbon Manna Unlimited and/or Carbon Manna Africa; or for speaker requests or celebrity inquiries; and to co-opt a sustainable and universally applicable micro-paradigm that can indeed quickly scale to benefit the "Next Billion" at the Base of the Pyramid, please contact:

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
tel: 858-793-0741
email: Email Contact
http://www.carbonmanna.org

Or:

Geoffrey Kiringa
President
CARBON MANNA AFRICA
Nairobi Kenya
cell: 011-254-721-922-135
email: Email Contact
Skype: geoffrey.kiringa
http://www.carbonmannaafrica.com

-------

Carbon Manna creates Micro-Profits, Micro-Assets & Micro-Collateral to salvage Microfamineance [ sic ]

*****

NOTA BENE:

### This post has been edited & expurgated for political correctness.

### And names have been changed to protect micromoaners from a horrible self-discovery.

### Even so, "professional" micromoaners may not want to enter this site without parental guidance.


*********** FOR YOUR EYES ONLY ! ***********


Micro Assets & Micro Collateral -- courtesy of the Carbon Micro Profit Sharing System (CMPSS)

Now every Poor Family qualifies for a Microfinance Loan ! -- whether they need it or not.

Here ! -- take my micro-debt, please !

Micro-savings = no save for microfinance -- Yurrrrr out! -- of money!

MicroDebt & MicroSavings = rental Port-a-Potties in a construction famine?


The cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Profit Sharing System (CMPSS) described at length in this blog enables poor families in the Developing World to directly monetize their carbon offsets realized from more efficient cooking equipment without the intervention or intercession of any intermediaries, except for their local CMPSS Project Manager.

All other parties such as charities, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and MFIs (micro-finance institutions) are disintermediated, and all profits therefore rightly and righteously fall to the bottom line of the "Bottom of the Pyramid".

All profits that is, save for a reasonable project management fee paid to the local CMPSS Project Manager. And this fee scales down over the life of each project (3 - 5 years), such that a larger percentage of the money is paid directly to the participating families each year.

As a result of this ultimate, cell-phone-enabled, micro-trickledown economic model, every family participating in a Carbon Manna project now has micro-ASSETS -- assets from two sources:

(1) profits realized from their sold Carbon Micro Offsets, and

(2) even greater "profits" realized from savings on fuel from using their more efficient cookstove, which creates the offsets (50 - 70 % more efficient versus an open-pit fire).

The sum of these 2 cash flows for a typical family amounts to approximately US$ 90 - 150 per year. For folks living on US$ 1/day, this money is a godsend. A godsend called Carbon Manna.

But as a bone for the now disintermediated microfinance professionals worried about their careers -- take heart ! -- now every family participating in a Carbon Manna / CMPSS project has ...... Micro-COLLATERAL!

Bingo ! Ka-ching ! Ka-ching ! -- Now you can indebt them with little fear of default ! .......... Heavenly !

In short, courtesy of MFIs (microfinance institutions) desperate to preserve their now-archaic business models, I foresee a future, booming, unregulated MFI market in:

-->> Carbon Manna equity loans

-->> Carbon Manna pay-day loans

-->> Carbon Manna pawn shops

-->> Carbon Manna loan collection agencies

-->> Carbon Manna-backed micro-credit cards

-->> Carbon Manna collateralized debt obligations, and

-->> Carbon Manna credit default swaps.


Forgetting for now the MFI loan sharks and their usurious debt instruments, and looking at MFI's much-trumpeted micro-SAVINGS concept, the cash flows from each family's participation in a CMPSS program will now allow them for the first time to actually fund their micro-savings account. Previous efforts to establish giga-scale micro-savings programs for the proverbial and hallucinated "Next Billion" were effete and flaccid -- how can people living on US$ 1-2 / day set aside savings ? Duh !

Or how can they, even if their accounts are initially seeded with a few dollars by The Gates Foundation? Double duh ! The poorest Poor must often eat their seed corn to survive another day or week. Seeds in a Time of Famine are called "Food", and they no longer lead to growth. Nor to savings.

But now, in sum, the fruit of Carbon Manna is the saving grace for both microfinance/micro-debt and micro-savings. Carbon Manna will repay the first (debt) and fund the second (savings). For a very real, not imaginary, "Next Billion" (just as approximately 1 billion frequent-flyer-mile accounts now exist in the Developed World). All this without charity or debt. Courtesy of the US$ 100 billion global carbon markets.

Will MFI "professionals" drinking vintage-1980s group-think Kool-Aid wake up anytime soon to the Miracle of Carbon Manna ? And will their crippled business models of MicroDebt and MicroSavings become rental Port-a-Potties in the coming economic famine? -- unwanted, unused, un-rented -- empty thrones for long-dead kings wearing no clothes?

I challenge them all to look in a mirror and reflect deeply.

Ahhhhh ! -- I love the smell of Carbon Manna in the morning !

Very frankly yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Manna Visionary
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com


Join our Carbon Micro-Credits/Carbon Manna discussion groups:

-->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

-->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

*****

Carbon Manna Unlimited updates for April 2009

*****

Provisional U.S. Patent filed on the Carbon Manna System

"Carbon Manna Economic-Rewards Allocation Guidelines" finalized

The "CarbonManna" channel on Youtube.com -- now in studio production


(1) Provisional U.S. Patent filed on the Carbon Manna System:

On 24 April 2009 we filed an 18-page provisional U.S. Patent on the Carbon Manna / Carbon Micro Credit system entitled:

"Micro-Credit / Micro-Profit Sharing Method & System for Claiming and Monetizing Personal Emissions Reductions"

Our sole reason for filing the application is to exclude copy cats who might implement bogus “Carbon Manna” programs with the surreptitious aim of exploiting the Poor. Malicious copy cats will be prosecuted to the full extent of the Law.

On the other hand, we don’t mind if copy cats do indeed copy us faithfully. That’s welcome. We want Carbon Manna to be an “open source” solution to global poverty.

And don't ask us if we profit from Carbon Manna programs worldwide. Manna is God's gift; it cannot be sold or bought.


(2) Carbon Manna Economic-Rewards Allocation Guidelines finalized:

In a related vein, detailed economic and accounting ground rules for sharing economic rewards in a Carbon Manna program have been finalized in a white paper entitled:

"Carbon Manna Economic-Rewards Allocation Guidelines --

Fairness Standards for Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing Projects".

For the time being, this paper will remain confidential, but it is available upon signature of a 5-year CDA / NDA (secrecy agreement). If you are deadly serious about imminently implementing a Carbon Manna program in your country and you are a knowledgeable accountant / economist or have access to such expertise, please contact us to receive our draft CDA / NDA.

No idle eco-Looky Lou's or drive-by microfinance gawkers with Carbon Manna venus envy need apply. Only serious and seriously-qualified inquiries will be entertained. Be prepared for an FBI background check and breathalyzer test. All microfinance "professionals" that cannot "get it" within 5 minutes due to previous non-profit group-think Kool-Aid will get the Neuralyzer.


(3) "CarbonManna" channel reserved on Youtube.com:

The "CarbonManna" channel has been reserved on Youtube.com, so watch for our upcoming video series on how Carbon Manna and Carbon Micro Profit Sharing will drive a 32-ounce marbled steak into the calcified and cholesterol-filled heart of microdysfinance [sic, sic]. And finally:


(4) Carbon Manna web site updated:

The web site has been updated extensively by Ms./Dr. Hong Ma, the Co-founder of Carbon Manna Unlimited, so please visit us again at:

-->> http://www.carbonmanna.org


Globally & warmly yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Manna Architect
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com


Join our Carbon Micro-Credits/Carbon Manna discussion groups:

-->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

-->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

*****

"Carbon Micro Credits" -- A Genealogy & Ontogeny

*****

Hello Everyone,

On 11 April 2009, Otto Newhouse made a nice and informative post on our Facebook page about my using the term "Carbon Micro Credits" first, which I reproduce down below, and which I replied to there. But I also reproduce here my response to him for your information:


Hello Otto !

Thank you for your kind post. Great minds think alike.

And to be fair and transparent, to my knowledge two other people/groups used the term, or a variation thereof, of "Carbon Micro Credit" before -- some academics at the University of Wollongong in Australia, and one blogger who made a one-paragraph post 18 - 24 months ago, about the same time I was registering a few hundred domain names related to carbon credits, including: http://www.CarbonMicroCredit.com -- which I still own.

The academics sole line of discussion was that supercomputers or the expansion of computing power would make it possible to keep track of micro carbon credits. But their focus was on micro credits for rich consumers in developed countries who changed their energy-consumption level, such as by adding insulation to their homes.

And the one-shot one-paragraph blogger said utility companies in the U.S. would offer carbon micro credits to customers who, for example, bought an energy-efficient refrigerator. But that's all he wrote; end of story.

So, to emphasize, none of these people/groups ever mentioned using Carbon Micro Credits in the Developing World, where only a "micro" something has real value to the recipients (the Poor) anyway.

No one else ever proposed to use a cell phone and SMS messages as the information technology base to lower transaction costs almost to zero.

No one else ever proposed to redeem/monetize Carbon Micro Credits with cell phone minutes as the payment form or currency.

No one else ever took a markets-driven approach based on PRE-selling Carbon MACRO Credits -- the aggregated and crowd-sourced Carbon Micro Credits -- in order to secure all the needed start-up capital to fund a large-scale carbon micro-offset program including 1,000s or 10s of thousands of families.

Etc. Etc.

In sum, Carbon Micro Credits as defined under the Carbon Manna paradigm are very very unique. And close to large-scale implementation in 2 districts in Western Kenya. Not to contradict King Solomon in Ecclesiastes, but there are some new things under the sun.

Thanks again for posting here. If you send me your email address, I will forward our Carbon Manna PowerPoint presentation to you.

Globally & warmly yours, David

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://www.carbonmanna.org

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

-------------------------------

Otto Newhouse wrote at 8:19pm on April 11th, 2009

Hi David, ---

Recently started a discussion on openmoney.ning with folks who develop platforms for targeted complementary currencies:
http://openmoney.ning.com/forum/topics/micro-carboncredit

The idea that is developing there is to apply a bottom-up micro-market for ANY type of energy efficient verified deep ecology micro-act and we use the term "micro carbon-credit" for a want of a better term, such as "micro resourcefulness-credit" which is a tad tedious to get used to and might still not give the full picture.

Since then I have been actively seeking out complimentary ideas, stumbled on your carbonmanna and find it pretty inspirational. It is my duty to admit your primacy to the term of Carbon Micro-credit, though non of us I believe knew about your initiative before. And it may serve as a matter of pride for your innovative concept, that others independently came to the same conclusion, that such credits can only really work from the bottom up in small but growing measures.

Warmly, Otto Newhouse

From: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

*****

Welcome to CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

*****

Home of CARBON MANNA & the Cell-phone-based:

--> Carbon Micro Credit (CMC)

--> or the Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing System (CMPSS)

And:

--> the Foreign-Aid Micro Credit (FAMC)


Please visit our web site & related web pages:

http://www.carbonmanna.org


The Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna groups on:

-->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

-->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

-->> http://www.cooltribe.com/member/david-a-palella


http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html

http://sustainableenergyinafrica.ning.com/profile/DavidPalella

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella


Primary Contact:
--------------------

David A. Palella
Chief Micro Carbon Megalomaniac
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

*****

The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit (FAMC) -- Micronizing Foreign Aid for Mega Impact

*****

Concepts Foreign to Foreign-Aid Jingoists -- & Micro-moaners ! -- Disintermediation, Self-determination & the "Invisible Hand" of the Poor "Consumer" in Africa

Now you see it, now you don't ! -- "A billion here, a billion there, before you know it, you're talking about real money." -- Ronald Reagan


A recent article in The Wall Street Journal vindicates again my "other invention" -- the cell-phone-based Foreign-Aid Micro Credit (FAMC) -- about which I have written at length in this blog before:

"The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit (FAMC)"
[ 13 December 2008 ]
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/foreign-aid-micro-credit-famc.html

"The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit in a Time of Famine"
[ 19 December 2008 ]
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/foreign-aid-micro-credit-revisited.html

"The Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC) -- U.S. Marines style"
[ 31 January 2009 ]
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2009/01/foreign-aid-micro-credit-famc-us.html


Here are some quotes from The Wall Street Journal article:

"Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa" -- 21 March 2009

By Dambisa Moyo -- The Wall Street Journal

"Money from rich countries has trapped many African nations in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth and poverty. Cutting off the flow would be far more beneficial, says Dambisa Moyo."

"Dambisa Moyo, a former economist at Goldman Sachs, is the author of 'Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa'."

"Over the past 60 years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population -- over 350 million people -- live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades."

Reference: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123758895999200083.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123758895999200083-email.html

---------------------------

My proposed cell-phone-based Foreign-Aid Micro Credit could eliminate 80 - 95 % of the opportunities for graft, theft and fraud in the dispensation of Foreign Aid. Intercepted any photons lately to steal your neighbors on-line banking transactions ? Not likely, even among the sophisticated electronic apparatchiks, digeratti, cognoscenti and uber-mobilemeisters in America & Europe. Hence, the chance in Africa of electronic interception and theft of 1,000s or 10s of thousands of Foreign-Aid Micro-Credit balances sent in-country or directly from overseas banks & governments is almost nil. Zero.

Would 1,000s or 10s of thousands or 100s of thousands of African consumers with cell phones in hand with cash balances received directly from Britain, the U.S. Government, the IMF or the World Bank make better investment and consumption decisions than Generalissimo Dictator Mbenganyakinkisosubaboboloco and his henchmen in African country XYZbia? A few percent of the families might buy beer. But most would buy the first shoes ever for their kids. Others might send their kids to school for the first time because even elementary schools charge tuition in Africa. Others might buy a goat or a cow that produces milk for years. Etc. Etc.

What would Generalissimo Dictator Mbenganyakinkisosubaboboloco do? He would steal the entire foreign-aid balance as soon as it was wired in to his central bank, as recently happened to 100s of millions of dollars of IMF loans to the Ukraine. Or, he would undertake a single infrastructure project such as damming a Nile River tributary ostensibly to produce hydroelectric power because he knows his buddies at all the cement, construction and engineering companies will pay him a 20 % kick-back. And so the Cycle of African Foreign-Aid dysKarma repeats itself, as it has for the past 60 years. As Dambisa Moyo writes above.

Not to mention ! -- You don't like dictators damming Nile tributaries ? Understood. So what is the chance that 10s or 100s of thousands of Poor African Families might make micro-investment and micro-consumption decisions that would displease you? Again, almost nil. Zero.

So how to securely deliver a US$ 20 or $100 or $250 Foreign-Aid Micro Credit to 100s of thousands Poor Africans in an afflicted country or zone ? Please re-read the 3 earlier and detailed posts above, and please note this recent photo caption from our Facebook group:

"When US Airways flight 1549 splash-landed on the Hudson River on 15 January 2009, the US Airways emergency-response team showed up a few hours later with dry clothes for the passengers and mobile phones like this Kyocera KE433 prepaid cell phone already loaded with paid airtime and a pre-assigned telephone number. Sound like a drug smuggler's dream come true? Yes, but it's also the exact delivery vehicle needed for the Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC) that I have described several times on my Carbon Manna blog: http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com. Photonic delivery of foreign-aid in "micro" amounts will frustrate graft, fraud and corrupt foreign governments. In sum, disintermediating, cell-phone-based delivery of micro credits has many revolutionary applications."

--->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714


Will the career bureaucrats at the IMF, USAID, the World Bank, the U.N., and the NGOs, charities & foundations "like dust" throughout Africa ever learn to "Think different" ? Will they instinctually yearn to disintermediate themselves out of a job, their generous pensions, sinecures, honoraria and lifetime healthcare benefits ? Hee, hee. Silly you.

Therefore:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Take action today to do your iota to free Africa from Dante's Inferno of government-administered foreign aid. History awaits you. And me.

Very historically yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Credit Micronizer
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html

Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna groups on:

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

--->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

*****

"Only believe, and the Carbon Manna shall be made well"

*****

Hello Everyone,

Just to set some ground rules, BEFORE putting up any comments on this blog, first read allll 100 ++ pages of it.

Then you have earned the right to ask an INFORMED question that is NOT repetitive.

Also, I do not want to hear from "skeptical" people. As I have written in this blog a few times, "skepticism is the luxury of a full stomach". I want all skeptical people to read, in particular, this post below:

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/all-you-can-eat-micro-carbon-buffet.html

If you lived on a calorie-restricted diet for a few weeks or months, then your "willing suspension of disbelief" about Carbon Manna would increase dramatically, and "skeptical" would not be a word you even know.

Also, no one at Carbon Manna Unlimited makes any profit on the backs of The Poor, nor do we take any food from the mouths of The Hungry in Africa and elsewhere. So, please, no more questions about any business arrangements behind this Noble & Nobel-caliber Effort.

Finally, again for the "skeptical" Doubting Thomases out there, let me echo Christ when he healed the supplicant's dying daughter at a distance: "Only believe, and the Carbon Micro Credits shall be made well."

"But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, 'Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she will be made well'." -- Luke 8:50

Globally & Warmly yours,

David Palella
Chief Carbon Evangelist
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California

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First Carbon Manna news release sent out over MarketWire

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Hello Everyone,

As earlier disclosed to you below, the first Carbon Manna news release was sent out today (24 Feb 2009) over MarketWire. Here is the link:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Carbon-Manna-Unlimited-953397.html

It was also picked up by MSNBC and Yahoo Business, etc.

Globally & warmly yours,

David Palella
Chief Carbon Credit Micronizer
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella


Join the Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna groups on:

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

--->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

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World's first Cell-Phone-Based Carbon-Micro-Credits implementation progressing in Kenya

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Our first news release below will go out over MarketWire on 24 February 2009:

-- Carbon Manna Unlimited Initiates Strategic Partnering Campaign

-- Novel Micro-Profit-Sharing plan enfranchises the "Bottom of the Pyramid"

February 24, 2009 -- San Diego, California


Carbon Manna Unlimited announced today the initiation of a worldwide strategic-partnering campaign to support the world's first roll-out of its cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system in Kenya, to include the town of Kogelo, Kenya, U.S. President Barack Obama's ancestral home town.

The cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system employs SMS (simple message service) and unique identifiers to allow millions of families in the Developing World to claim on a bi-weekly or monthly basis the carbon offsets they produce by using more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient open-pit fire burning biomass. As a result, each family is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global warming, while also reducing nationwide rates of deforestation and desertification.

Each family that cooks more efficiently may claim approximately 3 tons of CO2 offsets/year, which is worth about US$ 20 - 35 when sold in Europe on a regulated or voluntary carbon-offset market. The family also saves far more on fuel -- from US$ 70 - 150/year. For individuals living on less than US$ 1 - 2/day, these earnings and savings are very significant.

Pre-selling 10s or 100s of thousands of tons of bundled Carbon Micro Credits provides the start-up capital needed to buy stoves and cell phones for the participating families, thus making the system self-funding and markets-based. Later the offsets are crowd-sourced by the tens of thousand of families participating in the program. Lastly, validation and auditing protocols will ensure that the offsets were actually produced.

Carbon Micro Credits are NOT a form of debt-based microfinance; rather, they provide immediate micro profits to the poor and are therefore similar in concept to frequent flyer miles. They are an asset, not a liability. And like frequent flyer miles, they are a fungible, universal currency and non-inflatable store-of-value.

Companies with a strategic interest in expanding their business in Kenya, East Africa, and later in South & West Africa, are invited to contact Carbon Manna Unlimited's headquarters in San Diego for further details. Such companies would include:

-- cell-phone handset manufacturers

-- wireless carriers doing business in Africa

-- manufacturers of wireless transmission equipment

-- cell-phone accessory suppliers

-- providers of cell-phone-based information services or software

-- consumer product companies interested in co-promotion campaigns; and

-- companies from any industry interested in expanding their presence in Kenya via this highly-visible nationwide effort to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions.

Later this year and in 2010, the Carbon Micro Credits system will be rolled out in other East African countries, and subsequently in multiple West and Southern African countries. For major philanthropies that wish to extend their reach in Africa, or companies with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Triple Bottom Line (TBL) programs, the Carbon Micro Credits system provides a novel, rapidly-scalable paradigm for enriching the livelihoods of tens of millions of poor families anywhere in the Developing World.

For more information, please contact:

David A. Palella
Founder
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, California
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

Join our Carbon Manna discussions on-line at:

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/

--->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714

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Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna Group debuts on Facebook

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Today we established a discussion group on Facebook at:

--->> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52270598714


And, again, for those of you who prefer LinkedIn.com:

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/


Please join the party.

Globally & warmly yours,

David Palella
Chief Carbon Networker
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella


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The Great Carbon-Offset Gravy Train Robbery of 2009 -- The $150 Billion-Dollar Heist?

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OCOEC = The Organization of Carbon-Offset Exporting Countries?

= the CDM scamchiks, methanemeisters, hydro-hijackers & laughing-gas gamesters --> South Korea, India & China

A New Deal for Africa, a Berlin Air Lift for Africa alla carbonara?

Palella's Equation a la Drake's Equation = How Many Intelligent Carbon-Offset Projects exist in the known Universe? --->> Zero ?


In my post of 26 November 2008 entitled:

"Means Testing for Carbon Offset Originators?"

Or: "Carbon Trading -- a USD/US$ 100 billion market by 2010"

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/11/means-testing-for-carbon-credit.html

I proposed that reimbursement or payment for carbon offsets be prioritized by the level of exigency or poverty of the offsets' producer, rather than by grand-father clauses or guidelines in the current U.N. CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) rules, which often favor offset projects originated by larger companies and more economically-advantaged populations in South Korea, China and India -- Yes ! -- economically-advantaged compared to The Very Poor in Africa living on US$ 1 - 2 per day.

That post also noted the oft-stated nice-round-number projection that the carbon trading market would become a USD/US$ 100 billion market by 2010. However: "Consider this: despite the looming recession, the global carbon market grew 84% in 2008 to reach $118 billion. It's forecast to reach $150 billion this year [2009]." Cited from:

http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/carbon-cap-trade/817#rate

In short, the rush to monetize green-house-gas offsets is gaining momentum much faster than forecast.

And into whose pockets will the US$ 150 billion flow in 2009? -- into the Hugo Boss and Brooks Brothers pockets of investment bankers on Wall Street and to the 3 Louseketeers -- the CDM scamchiks, methanemeisters and hydro-project hijackers --> South Korea, India & China ? Lamentably, yes.

But considering all this carbon cash sloshing around, is it possible somehow to provide a New Carbon Deal, a Berlin Carbon Air Lift, a Tennessee Valley Carbon Authority for Africa, by implementing a universal markets-based, self-funding wealth-transfer mechanism called cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits ?

As the 100+ previous pages of this blog adumbrate or foreshadow -- yes indeed !

So what is the theoretical value on the ECX (European Climate Exchange) of allll the carbon offsets of allll families in Africa if every family converted to more efficient charcoal stoves and could monetize their carbon offsets directly via cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits ?

------ Palella's Equation a la Drake's Equation -----

The population of Africa = 935 million people.

Assume 6 people per family.

935 million / 6 = approximately 150 million families.

Assume 20 % are "richer" urbanites and don't cook with biomass =

120 million families still cooking with biomass.

Assume all families converted to efficient Uganda charcoal stoves =

3 tons of CO2/family/year offset X 120 million families =

360 million tons of CO2 offset/annually X US$ 10-15/ton sold on ECX =

US$ 3.6 - 5.4 billion = Total Available African-Family Carbon-Offset Market.

Which = approximately the annual foreign aid budget of the U.K. or the U.S. to Africa (depending on the source you can find)

= only 2 - 4 % of the worldwide carbon-trading market for 2009.


----- On the Family Level -----

US$ 3.6 - 5.4 billion = TAM = Total Available African-Family Carbon-Offset Market

= US$ 30 - 45 worth of carbon offsets/family/year.

+ their annual fuel savings = US$ 70 - 150+/year =

Net annual benefit to each family = US$ 100 - 195

= a 20 - 50+ % increase in their Standard of Living the first year

= Ka-ching !! Ka-ching !!


Moreover, throw in a few million individual families monetizing a few billion planted trees and a few million 2-stroke motorcycles converted to more efficient direct-injection engines and -- voila ! -- the Standard of Living of the average African family could rise 25 - 60 % in just a few years. And this large-scale wealth transfer equal approximately to the annual foreign aid budget of the U.K. or the U.S. to Africa would still represent just a single-digit percentage of the global carbon-trade market.

And most importantly, these savings/earnings/micro profit-sharings would be beamed photonically directly to the Poor Families' cell-phone-based savings/credit accounts with no middlemen trying to skim/scam/score their share of the financial benefit.

Cut out the middlemen -- that is the essence of cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits and Carbon Manna. Empower and enrich The Poor Directly. Respect their Property Rights. Reduce transaction costs to Zero via SMS messages sent via cell phone (only 4 cents/message in Kenya today, for example).

Send the middlemen-tals and middlemidgets to the unemployment line. Disintermediate the intermediators. Zero out the micro-moaning zero-summers. Convert debt to equity, and micro-loans to micro-profits. The Next Generation of Microfinance is here, and it is called Carbon Micro Credits and Micro Profit-Sharing. Intelligent Life can indeed been found in the carbon markets, and it will revolutionize the standard of living of The Very Poor.

So can Carbon Robin Hood steal a single-digit portion of the worldwide carbon markets for the benefit of The Poor?

Can Carbon Samurai Tailor slice off a prosciutto serving of fatty green-house-gas wealth for the Developing World ?

Can Human Compassion combined with the rational microtome of Common Sense vibrate off a négligée-thin serving of U.N. CDM spam for Africa?

To find out -- stay tuned for the next week's episode of Carbon Samurai Tailor !

Very calculatingly yours,

David Palella
Karbon Kagemusha
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

Join us on LinkedIn.com:

--->> Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna Group

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/


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The Carbon Manna Corps

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An Amway-style Hierarchy to Validate Carbon Micro Credits?

Nationwide Universal Eco Public Service

Ding dong! -- Avon calling! Did you use your Uganda stove today?

Getting the Religion of Carbon Manna


Many folks ask me about the mechanics of validating the Micro Carbon Offsets produced by millions of families taking part in a countrywide cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits (CMC) program. The answer ? -- Generating and claiming Carbon Micro Credits or Carbon Micro Offsets will become a nationwide social movement in many countries in the Developing World. Or, an Amway-style monitoring hierarchy will form to make sure that:

"Larger fleas have smaller fleas

Upon their backs to bite 'em

And these in turn have lesser fleas --

And so ad infinitum!"

In short, all families in the country will participate and all families will watch their neighbors to make sure they are not gaming the system.

But if you read this blog in its grand totality, you will see that no family in their right mind would try to cheat. If they were foolish enough to cook the old way, they would spend much more money on fuel (25 - 60% more), or spend much more time gathering biomass-based fuel from the surrounding countryside. Even the roundly uneducated can do this math.

Moreover, in our under-construction Carbon Micro Credit implementation in Kenya, we are planning to co-opt 1,000s of high school and university students in a nationwide "Carbon Manna Corps" to go into the field, into every town and village, to verify that families are indeed using their efficient Uganda-style charcoal stoves daily and properly. It will be a nationwide program to teach all Kenyan children the importance of religiously producing carbon offsets, and the need to reduce the rate of desertification of their Homeland.

There may be cultural reasons why this kind of nationwide civil service or public service program -- or Universal Eco Public Service -- will not work in some countries, but that's OK, their populations will be poorer as a result. Thus, I think eventually every country will overcome public lethargy and/or government inaction and implement a cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits Program. Otherwise, they are ceding the carbon offset markets to other more organized countries in the Developing World, and to the investment bankers on Wall Street (NY City) and in "The City" (London).

In sum, human creativity can overcome any challenges that may arise when implementing a cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits program, and when validating its output, even if millions of families are involved. Moreover, if your stomach is usually empty and you live on US$ 1 - 2 / day, you would be surprised how quickly you would religiously, methodically and scrupulously embrace production of Carbon Micro Offsets.

So instead of being skeptical all of you Doubting Thomases with full stomachs, why don't you get the religion of Carbon Micro Credits today? Think of solutions, instead of asking me questions about validation.

Children are full of questions because they are so easy to make. But only Women and Men of Great Mind ideate solutions. Only Heroines and Heroes then take Action. Believe in the eco-religion of Carbon Manna -- Carbon Micro Credits that directly enrich and empower the 2 billion Poor at the "Bottom of the Pyramid". They -- and Heaven -- will smile on you.

Civilly & publicly yours,

David Palella
Founder
Carbon Manna Unlimited
San Diego, CA
cell: 619-787-5767
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna group on LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/


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Updates re Carbon Micro-Credits & Carbon Manna Unlimited

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Hello Everyone,

A discussion group to serve as a more open forum for Carbon Micro Credits debate and information exchange has been established today on LinkedIn.com. Anyone may join -- no approval needed:

--->> Carbon Micro-Credits / Carbon Manna Group

--->> http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1794312/


And starting March 17, 2009, don't forget to vote for the Carbon Micro Credits entry in:

--->> Google’s Project 10 to the 100th power Contest

--->> http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html


Globally & warmly yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Dreamer
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

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The Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC) -- U.S. Marines style

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Airdropping an Emergency Banking System, Currency Base & ATM Network into disaster zones

The FAMC 1st Air Calvary ("Airmobile") feeds & liberates The Poor via the Profit Motive

The Disintermediation of Foreign Aid

Manna from Heaven updated for the 21st Century

"...for God maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain to fall on the just and on the unjust." -- [ Matthew 5:45 ]


During the current 2nd Gulf War in Iraq, to quell rebellion, to buy allies on the ground in hot zones, and to pay reparations, U.S. Marines would often walk around Iraqi villages and cities handing out almost randomly US$ 100 or 20 dollar bills to all passersby. Voila ! -- fiat paper manna from Uncle Sam ! -- delivered directly and rapidly to populations in need with no intervening bureaucratic layers.

But where's the traceability of this kind of U.S. Government Foreign Aid? Or, likewise, where's the accountability for this dispensing of tens of millions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer ? Apparently in a Time of War on Terror, accountability and traceability are optional. Fancy that. Metric- and benchmarking-focused bureaucrats around the world must shudder at the thought.

But is the War on Hunger in the Developing World any less urgent than the War on Terror? Any less important to the strategic interests of the U.S. Government or the European Union? Clearly no. Or so most human hearts would murmur. So shouldn't a similar level of less traceability and less accountability likewise be tolerated in a Time of Hunger and during other Humanitarian Crises? Clearly yes.

Moreover, how can U.S. Foreign Aid or any foreign aid be delivered paratrooper-style, when the U.S. Marines or other national rambo forces from Europe or Japan are otherwise engaged ? Or summarily castrated by political indecision? The answer? -- via the cell-phone-based Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC). I have already written at length about the FAMC in this blog:

"The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit (FAMC)"

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/foreign-aid-micro-credit-famc.html


"The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit in a Time of Famine"

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/foreign-aid-micro-credit-revisited.html

The above posts mainly discussed electronically transferring small amounts of e-money or mobile money to 1,000s or 10,000s of existing cell phones in an afflicted area to rapidly provide a large population with e-cash to buy food and water. Because, as pointed out before, Food & Water migrate towards Money, regardless of physical, legal, governmental or temporal barriers to trade.

Skeptical? Again, skepticism is the luxury of your full stomach. The proof that goods migrate to cash? -- At the unethical extreme of the scale this concept is called Smuggling. Think heroin, cocaine and cigarettes. At the other, ethical end of the scale, we have the cell-phone-based Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC), which may be used to buy food and water with e-money transfers between cell phones using text-based SMS messages (simple message service). In the case of both extremes, the customer with money is able to buy the desired goods.

How would Foreign-aid Micro Credits (FAMCs) be distributed in a war zone or after a major earthquake or cyclone? -- By broadly airdropping cell phones and portable solar-powered battery chargers into the afflicted area, along with operating instructions in the local language, or instructions "written" in pictograms, icons and other universally-recognizable symbols. The cell phones would be pre-loaded with US$ 100 - 200 of e-cash, transferable by SMS.

At the same time, outside the disaster area, advertise broadly by radio or leaflet drops that the afflicted Poor are now "rich" and liquid, comparatively speaking. Courtesy of the profit motive, an influx of food, water and goods will immediately begin migrating towards the e-money. Going the other direction, at the perimeters of the disaster zone where social infrastructure is still intact, the e-cash could be converted to real cash, either U.S. dollars or the local country currency. The U.S.$ is already the de facto hard currency and store of value, or the main black-market currency, in dozens of countries in the Developing World.

Would some cell phones and e-cash end up in undeserving hands? Did the U.S. Marines in Iraq inadvertently hand out US$ 100 bills to some insurgents and Al-Qaeda operatives, or to their children who were sent into the streets to greet the Marines? Surely yes. Did the Marines waste taxpayer dollars, then? History will deliver that verdict in the Distant Future. So yes, some cell phones and e-cash will "fall on the evil and on the unjust". But the great majority will fall on the Good and on the Just.

As usual, small-minded micro-moaners and disintermediated bureaucrats will raise petty objections against this application of The Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC), but they can all be neutered easily like stray cats:

--(1) The phones will be used by terrorists and criminals -- Then monitor or "wiretap" the phone conversations randomly and disable phones being used for criminal purposes

--(2) There won't be cell-phone transmission towers in the afflicted area -- Wrong, coverage is extensive throughout the Developing World, or just drop in portable towers

--(3) Cell phone transmission towers will be destroyed in the crisis -- Then, again, airdrop in new towers too

--(4) There is no electrical grid to charge the phone batteries -- Right, but don't forget the portable solar chargers

--(5) Foreign governments will prevent the airdrops -- Then don't ask for permission, like U.S. military drones over Pakistan & Afghanistan. That was our mistake in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 -- we foolishly asked the junta's permission to enter the country to provide humanitarian aid. Americans are far toooo polite. We should have just sent in the U.S. Army, Navy & Marines with the aid and shot any Myanmar junta forces that got in the way

--(6) Bureaucrats and "little shits & crooks" will steal the phones or the e-cash in them -- Sorry, the phones will be distributed sooooo broadly and have such small amounts of e-cash in each phone (US$ 100 - 200) that theft, graft, embezzlement and/or confiscation of the phones and e-cash will be almost impossible, or very negligible on a percentage basis

--(7) The national or regional mobile carriers won't cooperate -- Why wouldn't they ? All they have to do is assign telephone numbers to the 10,000s or 100,000s of phones and instantly they have that many new customers with pre-funded accounts. The carriers will be ecstatic. They can start charging the Poor immediately for every SMS message, every call, every cash withdrawal at any bank or store, etc. Woohoo!

--(8) National central banks will not allow, or are not equipped to handle, such an instantaneous engraftment of another banking system and currency base onto their own sovereign financial systems. If so, then forget them and use instead the systems and infrastructure of the African Central Bank, the European Central Bank, or the Asian Development Bank. Or the systems of any transnational commercial bank in any neighboring country

--(9) The present system of U.S. foreign aid works just fine, thank you -- Sorry, no. Refer to the post noted above: "The Foreign-Aid Micro Credit in a Time of Famine". Thousands of children starve to death waiting weeks and months for American food aid to be shipped by truck & train & boat & bicycle & horse and cart to Lands Faraway, sadly. And, finally --

--(10) _______________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

Add your own petty objection here -- Now Google around for a few minutes and find out why it's really drop-dead dead wrong.

In this extreme example of the cell-phone-based Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC), an entire banking and currency system (or currency base) is quickly parachuted into a large afflicted area. Although barter systems usually rapidly take hold in a disaster area, those people with nothing to barter can go hungry and often die. In this case, however, a large, uniform, fungible, and recognizable currency base is quickly established to facilitate trade and commerce among 10,000s or 100,000s of people. Most of the currency will be used for daily necessities during the emergency, but as the crisis winds down, remaining e-cash balances might be used for savings or investment and thereby have an economic multiplier effect. Longer term upon the return of normalcy, as a legacy of the disaster, every recipient of a phone will have a cell-phone-based savings account and ATM access via an on-line cell-phone-based banking system such as Safaricom's M-PESA system in Kenya.

Moreover, recent history shows that once The Poor in the Developing World have cell phones in their hands, they quickly develop new uses for them that the well-fed in America and Europe could not imagine, thus leading to more efficient and additional economic activity. Also, as detailed several times elsewhere in this blog already, an established base of cell phones may immediately serve other functions such as for microtele-medicine, microtele-education, and as an emergency broadcast system to warn of or to react to further national disasters.

Finally, by allowing unfettered and largely uncontainable communication among the Common People, a cell phone is the Voice of Freedom & Truth that can liberate The Poor from bad government and military oppression.

The Foreign-aid Micro Credit (FAMC) -- Manna from Heaven updated for the 21st Century.

Semper fidelis,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Paratrooper
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com


References:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/20/usa.iraq

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/02/08//military/iraq/2705194540.txt


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"The Googlesday Book" -- A Universal Census of the Families of Man in 2009 AD?

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The Great Survey of 1086 AD for William the Conqueror --> The Domesday Book or The Doomsday Book

Every tweet a haiku ? --- Or ? --> "The Tweets, like Dust" ?

Are there Limits to Google's Granularity ? Or Grainularity ? [sic]

A Billion Points of Light on Google Earth ?

"But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." -- [ Luke 12:7 ]


A main concern about Carbon Micro Credits (CMCs) is validation of the micro offsets created by 10s or 100s of thousands of unknown families in Strange Lands in the distant Developing World. Who are all these people? What are their names? Where exactly do they live? Do they really even exist?

In order to determine assessment of taxes and conscription of labor, in the years 1085 - 1086 AD, William the Conqueror of Normandy ordered an inventory of the assets of his newly conquered territory -- all England -- as well as a census of the entire population. Books from the time commented, translated into Modern English, that not a single square yard of land nor a single beehive escaped this universal survey of every physical possession and this census of every human being throughout all the Land.

Reference: http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/domesday-book.htm

Now, almost 1,000 years later, what is the capability of Mankind to duplicate this ancient and remarkable feat ? Has technology kept pace with the growth of human populations and their physical possessions, such that a Modern Domesday Book could be written ? Could every Human Being on Earth be numbered and accounted for, and not one missed?

Sadly, no.

The closest approach Man might make today to the Domesday Book is to first apply the surveying and indexing power of Google to numbering and tallying the Families of Mankind, to write, perhaps, a Googlesday Book ?

But what are the limits to the granularity of Google ? Apparently a googol -->> 10 to the 100th power, or more atoms than present in the visible Universe. Recently, for example, Google has started indexing the tweets of Twitter.com. Hard to believe, but true.

Twitter.com is a web site for broadcasting short one-line thoughts ("tweets" of 140 characters or less) to all Humanity -- in sum, an electronic dumpster of instant-messaging nervous ticks, haiku hairballs, trashy SMS confetti, popcorn logorrhea, pseudo-intellectual crumbs, ADHD ramblings, analretentive scratchings in a kitty-litter-box diary, and verbal vacuous vacuity.

In public squares and on broad avenues, Roman emperors ordered the carving of seminal Words in marble that over 60 generations of Man have read, but this generation of children spray-paints alphanumeric flatulence on the Alleyways of Time with electrons that ultimately may prove as durable. But will your great great grandchildren and their endless progeny in the distant future read your randomly puked tweets and be ashamed of your boffo banality? Once it's indexed on Google, you can't erase it, so think deeply before you tweet.

So how could Google begin to index the Families of Man ? Especially in the Developing World where the task is the hardest ? Easy -- Home is where the Hearth is. Or, the Family that cooks together, stays together. In short, the same family unit that claims cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credits (CMCs) by reducing their cooking emissions could be the basic counting unit for a new Census of Humanity. And for the dozens of reasons documented in this blog, indeed, every family in the Developing World should be a participant in a Carbon Micro Credit program.

In the Developing World, then, what would be the unique identifier or census account number for this nuclear-family cooking unit? One option ? -- a password-protected account number based on the unique serial number of their low-carbon-emitting stove or solar cooker. Plus the GPS coordinates of the cell phone used to claim their daily, weekly or monthly Carbon Micro Credits. GPS transponders are now built into many cell phones.

With this information, then, the family unit could be plotted as a point of Light on the appropriate map on Google Earth. Fiat lux times 1 billion ? May Carbon Manna make Google Earth twinkle like the Milky Way.

So why not include the cell phone number too in the unique identifier? Because Carbon Micro Credits (CMCs) may be claimed via any cell phone. And many families in poorer areas may be using the same cell phone to claim their CMCs. And why the unique cooker serial number and not another number ? Because in the Developing World, the cook stove is the foundation of the home, the source of all sustenance and Life. No other possession of the Poor is more important. Not to mention it being a valuable profit center -- the source of their Carbon Micro Credits too. So what family or woman or man or daughter would lose their stove or forget its serial number?

The password-protected account would also be the Family's on-line bank account, their access to the Developing World's equivalent of an ATM network (e.g., Safaricom's M-PESA cell-phone-based banking system in Kenya), and their depository for not only Carbon Micro Credits earned from low-CO2 cooking, but also from any other green-house-gas offset projects the Family unit might undertake in the future such as installing a small solar panel on their roof to charge a battery to run a light bulb at night so their children could study.

Moreover, the same account number could be used to access a simple record of the family -- the number of members in the household, their genders, their ages, their names, and so on. Small incentives of cell phone minutes or micro-cash could be offered to families that regularly update their census information via text-based SMS messages, which can cost as little as 4 cents/message in Kenya.

Is such a Universal Census of Humanity beginning in the Developing World beyond the capability of Google? If Google can index the limitless tweets of millions of under-employed and over-fed twits in America and Europe, then assuredly Google could count and number the grains of rice in all the billions of bowls of the Poor in the Developing World. And likewise all the human beings holding those bowls -- bowls partially filled with the Carbon Manna of Carbon Micro Credits.

So which is a more noble cause? And a better use of limitless computing power? Indexing tweets? Or counting human beings?

Finally, a Googlesday Book would also facilitate administration and auditing of Carbon Micro Credit (CMC) programs, accelerate adoption of the CMC system worldwide, and ensure the better feeding of The Families of Man.

"Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?" -- [ Matthew 6:26 ]

Very unquantifiably yours,

David A. Palella
Chief Carbon Numerologist
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED

San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com

http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella

http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com

*****