I’m a big believer in Karma. Not Karma like, ‘if I behave well this time around there’s less of a chance that I’ll reincarnate as a male praying mantiss next time.’ No, my version of karma goes something like this: good begets good.

The nitpickier of you might be raising the red flag - ‘but wait, aren’t you the self-proclaimed moral relativist? The disbeliever in Good and Bad?’ Fine, so what I’m talking about are those good ol’ social mores that have developed over millenia and have become part of both social and human behavior. Generosity is good, greed is bad. Honesty is good, lying is bad, etc, etc. You know, the things that do - or are ’supposed to’ make us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do exactly that, to feel warm and fuzzy inside. And so I gave away my cell phone and my mp3 audio recorder to a group of really incredible social activists called Repacted Kenya (more about them soon.) Now, before you go thinking I’m generous - by getting rid of my cell phone, it makes it easier to justify the $400 I will soon spend on an iPhone (I know, I’m a sucka.) And before you start thinking I’m writing this to brag about my act of semi-charity, I’m really trying to illustrate a point: sometimes our money and our material items are much more useful when they are given to other people. With the cell phone and audio recorder, Repacted Kenya is going to be able to document all the great work they do in Nakuru. (again, more soon) Had they stayed with me, they would have gotten little use.

Now comes the time to ask for help. Our friend and colleague Juliana Rincón (AKA ‘medea’) has been invited to Pop!Tech, one of the most popular (and expensive) conferences in the world. She’s been invited to help cover the conference on her blog. But iw will also give her the opportunity to share with others the amazing work that she, Jorge, Alvaro, and others have been doing in Medellín.

Though her conference registration has been waived by the conferences organizers and though she’s been given some stipend money to pay for food and accomodation, she’s having to pay the $1,000 it costs to get from Medellín, Colombia to Camden, Maine all by herself. (No small amount of money for an orthodontics student who volunteers all her time to helping others.) Unless, that is, she gets a little love from the blogosphere. As soon as I’m on an internet connection fast enough to do so, I’m throwing down $10. After all, that just means one less gourmet sandwich at Gregoire’s. Or one less gin and tonic at some swanky club. Or, god forbid, one less retarded t-shirt from Urban Outfitters.

And it means that Juliana will be able to get the word out on HiperBarrio to a group of influential thinkers, policy makers, and business people.

You can help Juliana get there by donating $10 - $20 here.

I don’t believe anyone can change the world. (And, in fact, those who think they can probably have a Jesus complex.) But I do believe we can change individuals. We can help them become and do even more. And I believe that doing so multiplies - that they become inspired to help change the lives of others. $10 isn’t much to help turn the gears of that process.