When Daphne and I began our new blog, economicus ridiculous, we didn't expect much by way of response. We supposed that, given the blog's topic - tips, tricks and tales regarding life in the poverty well -, there'd not be much interest.
While WE knew this kind of personal clearly is political, we expected that economicus ridiculous couldn't possibly match, let alone surpass the welcome Challenging the Commonplace received; it couldn't possibly achieve our popular political blog's numbers. And while we hoped for it, we didn't expect to influence people's thinking about poverty or about the people who live with poverty daily.
Well, slap me silly with a feather! We were wrong!
As I write this, economicus ridiculous looks likely to close its first month with 2,000 visits. Here I'd been hoping that by month's end, we'd have reached 20 per day or 500 for January.
We can probably thank the reputation that Challenging the Commonplace has built for part of this unexpected and welcome surprise. But there's more to it than that.
I've received communication from students who study the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on poverty. The first told me in a telephone call (thanks to SkypeOut) that I'd helped change her thinking. She'd learned things in that one phone call that her years of study had never taught. Which is no surprise to Daphne and I. For years, we've offered to talk to students in the classroom; no academic has taken us up on it.
Another student picked up on a point Daphne and I stressed throughout our work with WISE: The best thing people living the life can do for themselves is raise their voices, loud and clear. This student is contacting women in poverty in her home country, referring them to economicus ridiculous and encouraging them to follow our example.
If you haven't yet visited our new blog, we ask that you do and that you help spread the word.
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