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Women’s group in Phrao starts its own village bank

More on Abs and Core Strength

Bureaucracy runs riot!

Women’s group in Phrao starts its own village bank

Women in Baan Pa Thuum Hong, Phrao district, celebrate the opening of their own village bank.

With the economic health of their community in mind, a women’s group in Phrao has decided to open its own village bank. Supported by the Common Interest Foundation, the Improving Life Women’s Group of Baan Pa Thuum Hong has established a local alternative to help them expand their small businesses and farms.
This innovative scheme operates as a simplified credit union. Women from a village form a group, choose leaders and make their own rules. They then agree to save together on a monthly basis. The money is then immediately re-lent to its members at rates considerably lower than in the commercial sector, and all decisions, collections and records are made and documented by local members. The Common Interest Foundation assists by providing training, record-keeping materials and also by providing additional funds to groups who have a proven track record.
Besides the financial benefits of lower interest rates, Village banks promote co-operation and independence in rural communities - especially amongst women. In some villages, women have been so successful that their village bank has been able to begin to provide life and medical insurance free of charge.
The concept of village banking, or micro-credit as it is often called, is about providing small loans to poorer people to support their income generating activities. Rather than creating dependence on handouts, micro-loans promote entrepreneurship and hard work. Since 2005, the Common Interest Foundation has been working in many rural villages throughout Northern Thailand promoting micro-credit. Nearly all of its 600+ members are women and many are from ethnic hill-tribe villages. For more information visit www.commoninterest.org.

More on Abs and Core Strength

John Bailey
Last week I wrote about the basic principles of abdominal muscle development; a reminder might well be a good idea. First exercise - Lie flat on your back and, whilst breathing out, press the small of your back against the floor. Hold for 5-10 seconds, relax, and repeat. Second exercise - Same as above, but once you feel your entire spine flat against the floor, draw your knees up to your chest, rolling your hips slightly, hold, then slowly straighten your legs end extend back to the flat position.
Repeat at least 8 times; slowly increase the repetitions to 25 as your core strength increases. If at any time you can’t keep your back against the floor, relax, then try again. Third exercise (advanced stuff!) - Second exercise again but when your knees are drawn up to your chest, extend your legs upwards at 90 degrees to the floor. Now the good bit - keeping your back against the floor, lower your straightened legs slowly until you feel your spine beginning to lift away from the floor. Raise your legs to 90 degrees again, press your spine back against the floor, bring your knees to your chest, then extend and lie flat. Relax, breathe in and repeat. Important points to remember are keeping your spine pressed against the floor, and not holding your breath whilst you are doing the exercise.
Of course, the abs are not the only muscles in the “core strength” area. There is an entire matrix of muscles between the ribcage and the pelvis, many of which are connected to the spine, which give you stability and assist in bending, stretching, twisting, etc. As your weight piles on and you become less active, these muscles become weaker, your posture and your ability to manoeuvre deteriorate, you burn fewer calories, and the downward spiral begins! Unfortunately, once your core strength has been reduced or lost, it’s a long haul back to regain it, but it does become easier as you lose weight. Your attempt to regain that strength begins with abs work; you should initially focus on the above exercises. I will return to the subject of core strength at a later date.
In the meantime, please, please, remember that it is regular exercise which works best; the fitter your muscles the more calories you burn during any given activity, and the more weight you lose. Don’t worry, there is no way you are going to develop a visible “six-pack”; you wouldn’t want one anyway! What you do want is to feel your abs working for you in right way, even if they are under a “slight” layer of tummy fat…The above exercises may, at first, be slightly uncomfortable and frustrating, but, please, (again!) don’t give up, you will get used to the rhythm and effort quickly if you persevere. At that point you will truly feel the exercises doing you good!
A useful and helpful technique used in many gyms is to alternate abs work with upper body work, either seated or standing. The trick here is to maintain good posture all the time, and then continue to do so in everyday tasks like sweeping the floor, carrying shopping, and even walking. More next week on upper body exercises, diet and motivation, (yes, it’s that word again!).

Bureaucracy runs riot!

A letter sent to a UK cabinet minister prompts the comment, “And we think we have problems here!”

Dear Minister,
I’m in the process of renewing my passport but am at a total loss to understand, or believe, the hoops I am being asked to jump through.
How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?
How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?
How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government’s lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time? Do you people do this by hand?
You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30 years. It’s on my health insurance card, my driver’s licence, on my last four passports, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Staines on the 9th of April 1959, my mother’s name is Alice, her maiden name was Greenhalgh, my father’s name is Michael, and I’d be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!
I apologise, Minister. I’m obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to activate the Fifth Reich - I just want to go and park my weary backside on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week’s well-earned rest away from all this crap.
Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND you’ll charge me to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that’d be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You’d rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some idiot to confirm that it’s really me on the goddamn picture - you know... the one where we’re not allowed to smile in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can’t smile? ‘Cause we’re totally jacked off! I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London. I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor…who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN.
Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen

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