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Nicaraguan Instituto Henry George loses funding |
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The IHG was recently informed by its founding and long-time supporter, the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, that there will be no funding for the IHG available from the RSF in the forseeable future.
 In an e-mail received by the IHG on September 20th, Clifford Cobb, President of the RSF, explained that "the reason has little (or perhap even nothing) to do with the quality of your program. No one has criticized it. The board simply does not want to maintain continuous funding of any programs." Despite the unexpected setback, the IHG will be able to continue on with its mission thanks to generous although limited funding from the Henry George School of New York, personal donations from individual supporters, and the continued contribution of the IHG's aging but tireless Director, Paul Martin (pictured).
"Sometimes I get to thinking that all the time and effort I take off from my business to run this project is just too much," reflects Mr. Martin, "but then I find myself in front of 40, 60 or 80 people teaching Henry George's remedy, or I observe scores of people pass through our office in the hot sun soliciting information on the course, or I hear the phone ringing with dozens of calls that come to our office inquiring the same, and I remember that the reason I got into this is the same reason that the IHG must and will continue: there is a worldwide, human demand for Henry George's explanation and the remedy he offers, and we cannot, in good conscience, turn our backs on the people who need the freedom and healing of this knowledge, as much as I needed it when first I found Lindy Davies' 'Understanding Economics' online course.
I think that when there is more funding available, and the good people at the RSF again reviewe the impact of even just the course we teach here, they may decide to restore some meaningful support to our project. Until that time, the IHG will continue with its work of revealing the Georgist paradigm to the Nicaraguan people using whatever support and resources are available from the Georgist community."
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