[impunity]

I've read that in some countries, a single person with a cell phone can act as a money transfer office for an entire village. Here's how:

1. A friend or family member in the U.S. wants to send $50 to someone in the village. The friend buys a $50 prepaid minutes card and transfers the minutes to the cell phone in the village.

2. The cell phone owner in the village checks his minutes, sees that he now has $50 worth of minutes and gives $50 to the person the minutes were for, minus his fee.

It's amazing how ingenious people can be when you let them.