A Mothers Debt

This is a true story from deepest Africa. In 1954 a healthy baby girl is born in unusual circumstances and her mother dies, never regaining consciousness. Neither is able to make even the briefest eye contact with the other despite having been as one for nine months. The little girl's father, distraught at his wife's death, cannot bear to take his daughter home and she is left in the care of the hospital authorities. She is technically an orphan, and officially becomes one, when her father dies 5 years later. During this 5 year period the father remarries and makes amends by taking the young girl home and bonding with her and, in this brief period, they grow to love each other. However, the stepmother feels no affinity towards her and a fractious relationship between the two females descends into real hate. This is exacerbated by the fact that, in Nigeria, the girl is considered to be a witch and, worse, the murderer of her mother. She must work for anyone but belongs to no-one and is fed, accommodated, and educated only on the whim of numerous relatives, aunties, uncles, and the grandfathers whom she loves the most. But when the grandfathers die she is cast into the abyss of African custom and predatory males and, while developing great beauty, builds incredible tactics and defences to enable her to survive, against the odds. Ironically, she is saved by a brutal war when, at the tender age of 13, she becomes a child soldier spy and an active service heroine to her comrades, who reward this by discharging her after wrongly accusing her of being a saboteur (turncoat) following her capture and torture by the enemy. This war, so detrimental to most of the population of Biafra, finally shapes her future and, surviving where a million have died, she goes on to struggle through many more adversities (complicated by a web of pagan beliefs, superstition, Christianity and the vestiges of colonialism) to find temporary security on many occasions, but inevitably returning to the seemingly unequal contest. Five well-balanced and variously successful children will testify that their place in the world was fashioned by the dedication, love and sense of purpose of this extraordinary woman. But it doesn't end there.....

From one of Nielsen’s top 50 power moms comes advice you can take to the bank—literally! Crystal Paine, who has helped busy women everywhere take control of their finances, presents her most effective strategies designed for families of all sizes and income levels. With hundreds of inspiring “why didn’t I think of that?” tips, plus worksheets, Paine breaks down your goals into easy, manageable steps so you can: • Achieve a complete financial makeover • Set up a realistic budget • Never pay retail • Slash your grocery bill • Organize your time and your home • Use coupons wisely • Pay with cash only • Live simply • Become debt free • Choose contentment • Make every dollar count

In her debut book Dear Debt, personal finance expert Melanie Lockert combines her endearing and humorous personal narrative with practical tools to help readers overcome the crippling effects of debt. Drawing from her personal experience of paying off eighty thousand dollars of student loan debt, Melanie provides a wealth of money-saving tips to help her community of debt fighters navigate the repayment process, increase current income, and ultimately become debt-free. By breaking down complex financial concepts into clear, manageable tools and step-by-step processes, Melanie has provided a venerable guide to overcoming debt fatigue and obtaining financial freedom. Inside Dear Debt you will learn to: • Find the debt repayment strategy most effective for your needs • Avoid spending temptations by knowing your triggers • Replace expensive habits with cheaper alternatives • Become a frugal friend without being rude • Start a side hustle to boost your current income • Negotiate your salary to maximize value • Develop a financial plan for life after debt

This simple way to manage your household income and expenses includes a stylish cover, coin purse, places for your checkbook and check register, memo pad, debit card holders, and extra cash-management envelopes.

FEATURED IN THE NEW YORKER: The Faces of Americans Living in Debt Finalist for the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize in Documentary. Featured on Politico, in the Washington Post, the Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider, Refinery29, and Fast Company. Based on the popular online photo series and now published in print for the first time, The Debt Project collects 99 portraits of debt across the United States, featuring people of all different backgrounds and stories, to recontextualize an often stigmatized experience. In 2013, Brittany Powell made the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy for her photography business. In the years following the 2008 economic collapse, she found herself in a significant amount of debt, a position many Americans across the country still share, a common yet isolating and private experience often steeped in shame. Her personal experience, bolstered by the We Are the 99% slogan that came out of the Occupy movement, brought her to start The Debt Project, an exploration of the role debt and finance plays in our personal identity and social structure. This book presents an intimate look into 99 different lives: each shares an arrestingly honest portrait in the person’s home, surrounded by all their belongings, accompanied by a handwritten note of the amount of debt that person is in and the story behind the numbers. The Debt Project, with a foreword by writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor plus resources at the back of the book to support people in debt, examines the social and personal hold financial debt has on us and invites others into a private world, while at the same empowering people to share their stories and overcome the shame they may feel.

Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

Introduction : From deadbeat to deadbroke -- Making men pay -- The debt of imprisonment -- Punishing parents, creating criminals -- The imprisonment of debt -- The good, the bad, and the dead broke -- Cyclical parenting -- Conclusion : Reforming debt, reimagining fatherhood -- Appendix : about the research.

Are you struggling under the burden of debt without a financial cushion to fall back on? Do you long for financial freedom—to live comfortably, pay for your children’s education, or retire while you’re still young enough to enjoy it? Sam and Rob Fatzinger can help you cultivate the values and virtues you need to achieve your financial goals. In A Catholic Guide to Spending Less and Living More, the husband-and-wife team shares their extraordinary story of raising fourteen children on a modest income while living in an expensive metropolitan region. Their practical wisdom, hard-won spiritual insights, and Catholic perspectives on how they have created their own plan based on the financial advice of popular experts such as Dave Ramsey, Chris Hogan, and Brandon “Mad Fientist” Ganch will help you achieve your financial goals: Break free of debt—even if your family lives on one income. Pay off your mortgage and other big-ticket expenditures. Save for long- and short-term goals. Enjoy fun family vacations without going into debt. Cultivate interior virtues such as gratitude and generosity to prevent resentment and hoarding. Help your kids become good money managers and discerning consumers. Achieve a happier marriage and family life through Catholic principles of good stewardship.

In the decade before and after independence, Nigerians not only adopted the novel but reinvented the genre. Nigerian novels imagined the new state, with its ideals of the rule of law, state sovereignty, and a centralized administration. Debt, Law, Realism argues that Nigerian novels were not written for a Western audience, as often stated, but to teach fellow citizens how to envision the state. The first Nigerian novels were overwhelmingly realist because realism was a way to convey the understanding shared by all subject to the rule of law. Debt was an important theme used to illustrate the social trust needed to live with strangers. But the novelists felt an ambivalence towards the state, which had been imposed by colonial military might. Even as they embraced the ideal of the rule of law, they kept alive a memory of other ways of governing themselves. Many of the first novelists – including Chinua Achebe – were Igbos, a people who had been historically stateless, and for whom justice had been a matter of interpersonal relations, consensus, and reciprocity, rather than a citizen’s subordination to a higher authority. Debt, Law, Realism reads African novels as political philosophy, offering important lessons about the foundations of social trust, the principle of succession, and the nature of sovereignty, authority, and law.

Generation Debt offers a truly gripping account of how young Americans are being ground down by low wages, high taxes, huge student loans, sky-high housing prices, not to mention the impending retirement of their baby boomer parents. Twenty-four-year-old Anya Kamenetz examines this issue from every angle and provides a riveting, rousing manifesto that will inspire everyone to take care of their financial future.