India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, stills has villages that are without power, without water and without direct government involvement.

A single man, chosen by the village elders, attended a specially designed college for those living in such villages. There he learned of ways to improve life for his family and friends back home. What did he bring them?

Solar light of course!

Many people don’t realize the impact a reliable source of light can have. If you have no light and the sun sets, the day is over. Your workable hours have been exhausted. Now with a source of “free” light, these villagers can be productive past the setting of the sun.

The college where this young man (Hanuman Ram) acuired the skills to help bring Solar power to this remote village (Gudda) has also inspired an entrepreneurial spark. A group of women, also taught at the nearby college, have formed to build & sell a solar cooker which is able to quickly and cheaply boil water.

It wasn’t clear from the article what the cost of attendance is at this college entitled the “Barefoot College” or who financially backs it but it seems to be bring about positive change; even if it is a bit slow compared to the rapid growth of capitalist India.

Ok, so I have moved around alot and I have several bank accounts. Wachovia, B of A and USAA. I dont have overdraft protection on all 3 accounts and because of my direct deposits I use my accounts accordingly.

Here is where I get angry. I recently used my Wachovia account for a “delayed” purchase for my kickball registration. It was suppose to cost 60 bucks. Somewhere along the way I became a captain of a team instead of merely joining a preexisting team. I am not sure how the issue was brought up, but it was mentioned / read somewhere that team captains don’t have to pay the registration fee. I thought WOHOOO! and thus spent a portion of that 60 dollars from that account. Well, either A) Waka messed up and charged me incorrectly (I am waiting to hear back) or B) I was misinformed / misread on this issue. In either situation I become over drawn on my account after that 60 and those other purchases came through. A charge for 20, 3 and 10 dollars all put me over. Each of them had a $35 dollar fee attached to them plus some extra random fee of $35 with comes to a whopping $140 dollars!!!! That is RIDICULOUS! These banks are out of their damn minds. Its simple really, cards get declined all the time, if the money is not in the account DO NOT APPROVE THE TRANSACTION. But of course why would the banks work that way? They would rather let the 3 dollar charge at 7/11 go through and take out their outrageous fees than to act as a prudent financial institution.

Now please, don’t get me wrong, I do think their should be a penalty / fee for over drawing your account if funds come out on the same day or while transactions are pending, but for future transactions it should simply say DENIED. Also, the fees should be a percentage of the charge, not a flat fee. Hell I could have bought a 500 dollar dinner and still had only a 35 fee. How in earth is that fair?

I think Wachovia is taking advantage of people and it burns me up! What do they think, that we are made of Monopoly money?