Dambisa Moyo and "Dead Aid"

Yes, not secret that I am not a fan of Bono (neither his music nor work on aid effectiveness). But I fear the arrival of "Dead Aid" isn't going to help stimulate the debate in a good way.

The author, Dambisa Moyo, makes some good points in the interviews I have read and heard. And she's right to call on African countries to innovate during the financial crisis. But it isn't so black and white and while her critique needs to be considered very carefully in any effort to improve aid effectiveness, calling for an end to aid in Africa in "five years" is just irresponsible. Some aid keeps people alive. That doesn't mean the points are not valid, but I worry that Moyo's conclusions will only polarize.

While I appreciate her plug for www.kiva.org, that's only one solution that needs to be used and it isn't enough, which I trust even Kiva would admit (though I do hope they get more donations as a result of her work!). Kiva cannot reach some of the poorest people as a result of poor infrastructure and bad or non-existent governance. So, we have to demand that aid changes, not demand that it stops completely. Even Moyo admits, "it is not to say there are not some good aid projects on the ground", in this interview.

And she's wrong when she claims there is "nobody" who feels sorry the poor in China. I feel sorry for the 300 million Chinese people who live in substandard conditions and a lot of others do as well. We just don't here about them as much due to many factors beyond the topic of this post.

More and more, I find myself agreeing with Paul Collier. Here's his review of Moyo's book.

I think that African societies need international help to overcome these problems; it is just that the help they need is not predominantly money. Aid is not a very potent instrument for enhancing either security or accountability. Our obsession with it has detracted from the more important ways in which we can promote development: peacekeeping, security guarantees, trade privileges, and governance.

Anastasia Baburova

The Economist has long fought with Russia and its politicians. But this Why did Anastasia Baburova die? caught my eye today. As one who adores Russia, this alarmed and chilled me. I have seen the fascism in Russia during my two years in Vladimir and Astrakhan. While young thugs are chilling in any country, the complicity of authorities is different in Russia's case.

Russia's 'Open Season' of Murder Continues.

This doesn't happen in the same way in the rest of Europe.

Political Implications of the Cognitive Surplus

Via Zopa, where I think the old lady and I will invest, I realized I have a cognitive surplus.

Yikes! A Whole New Internet?

From Do We Need a New Internet? This sounds like a movie plot. Wake up Neo!

Conficker remains a ticking time bomb. It now has the power to lash together those infected computers into a vast supercomputer called a botnet that can be controlled clandestinely by its creators. What comes next remains a puzzle. Conficker could be used as the world’s most powerful spam engine, perhaps to distribute software programs to trick computer users into purchasing fake antivirus protection. Or much worse. It might also be used to shut off entire sections of the Internet. But whatever happens, Conficker has demonstrated that the Internet remains highly vulnerable to a concerted attack.

“If you’re looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships streaming toward us on the horizon,” Rick Wesson, the chief executive of Support Intelligence, a computer consulting firm, said recently.

I think anonymity on the Internet has a purpose, so I can't say the total loss of anonymity comes free of costs. But on the whole, I think most are willing to give up the right to hide for the peace of mind that comes not working about conficker and Mr. Smith.

"...first environmental activist group that 'the capitalists' DO like"

I am not ashamed to say I got there via The Economist. Carrotmob is thought-inducing and entertaining, somewhat cheeky, which always helps when pondering new ideas. Not sure what will induce all the other liquor stores in the video to change their light bulbs now, but know that I am thinking of it in a slightly different way, even if I don't find this anything like being INSPIR(RED) by Bono.

"Army Worms" Sounded Bad Enough

As if this story couldn't get any more horror movie-ish..."Pests that have ravaged crops in Liberia and sparked a national emergency, while threatening other countries in West Africa, are not army worms and remain unidentified, the ministry of agriculture said on Monday."

2009 House Cleaning

God, blogging is hard. I could have added it in my new year's resolutions, but I am tired of always have the same new year's resolutions. "Blog more", one says on January 30. Anyway, have gotten in at least one January post. Have updated all my blog roll with things that I hope will inspire me at a time needy for inspiration! Nice to have a good blog from the White House!

What I was hoping for!

Kazakh former Prime Minister, Akezhan Kazhegeldin, writing in for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty explains why he is Welcoming America Back.

Belonging to a clan makes being principled impossible as clans esteem loyalty more highly than convictions, sometimes even more than common sense. And what U.S. politics has lacked in recent years on the international arena is principles. The peoples of Central Asia have felt this especially strongly because they had expected concrete actions to follow President Bush's declarations of support for democracy and human rights.

...we can now expect there to be less national self-interest in international politics, less of a split between "old" and "new" democracies, and less willingness to turn a blind eye to violations of democratic standards for short-term gain.

(The key word there being "less", since there will never be politics without self-interest.)

Mr. Kazhegledin has very high expectations of the US now, and he may be disappointed. But he's got better ground to stand on in making his case of less clan-based politics in Central Asia. He's an idealist, but I cannot see why a shot of idealism can be bad for his region and beyond.

And for another reaction on RFE/RL related to Central Asia, Obama Victory Sparks Hopes For Change In U.S. Policy In Central Asia.

Haven't we had enough?

Yes, just cafe press being entrepreneurial, but this is rather unsportsmanlike, I have to say.

My President Obama

This is what it means to me.

It unleashes immeasurable amounts of creativity. Whether you liked will.i.am's Yes, we can! as a musical composition or not, that video (made in a few days) was an indication of creativity to come throughout the election. I don't think this will be limited to music. I think we are entering a period of people opening up their minds to possibility. No speech changes the world, but if words move and inspire, new stuff, for lack of a better word, is going to come out of us all.

It is creating new energy!

It turns the cynicism about America on it's head. When Obama sits down with a Medvedev, Chavez, Ahmadinejad (without or without conditions), Hu or Bozize, it will be a completely different conversation than if it had been any other candidate. You cannot have watched that campaign and come away saying American is under the thumb of the nameless powers that be. I believe Obama's conversations will be more about the issues than about outrageous conspiracy theories simply because of what he is and because of what his campaign has accomplished.

It begins - and it is only a start - to restore some integrity of to the ideals that are woven through American history.

It is a very welcome challenge to realize that we will confront race, which remains an elephant in the room in American and around the world. And it isn't only black and white. We still live in a world where the shade of your skin, the nationality of your passport and your ethnicity in that passport matter far too much. It's not going to be an easy conversation, but we are going to make it more explicit.

To those who say, "unproven", "inexperienced" and that we should get ready for disappointment, I say give it a chance. I have risked to be inspired and I cannot tell if it will last, but the injection of inspiration has and will change my life. Of that, I am sure.

Yes, we can.

It's been a long time coming!

The Economist for...Obama!

Yes! It's Time. While not entirely unexpected, I had been waiting to read the rationale from The Economist, which again debunks this absurd soundbite about Obama being a "socialist" because some plumber in Ohio was concerned about his business when his profits might quadruple at some undisclosed future date.

There is certainly praise for McCain's past leadership and early primary victory, but that went downhill.

...the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated.

And crucially:

The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.

In contrast:

Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

"Power From the People"

Just had a conversation with my wife about the potential for connecting energy producers, so as I troll through my backlog of nextbillion.net, I was excited to see this post on the potential to have kinetic energy production in the less developed world. Maybe she'd already read this. Ah, the trials of keeping up with the blogoshpere...a topic for another post.

Thank you, Colin Powell!

Photograph by Platon from The New Yorker

Since it was said, I only read or saw the Daily Show take this on, albeit in its own sarcastic way. But they took it on...until Colin Powell, who cut through this humiliating issue and spoke to the absurdity of it all.

A column in the Times summed it up perfectly. "It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo."

But it hasn't only been the McCain campaign. It was shameful that two young women in headscarves were asked not to stand behind Obama at a speech in Detroit. I don't like that this happened, but can almost empathize with people who asked them to move. It appears to be that bad and it has to stop. All I know is that it will require leadership to address it and so far the only person I have seen to demonstrate that kind of leadership is Monsieur Obama.

"These are the kinds of images going out on Al Jazeera that are killing us around the world," Mr. Powell said. "And we have got to say to the world it doesn't make any difference who you are and what you are. If you're an American you're an American."

Thank you, Colin Powell. The whole slide show is excellent.

"A Conservative for Obama"

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Thank you, Wick Allison.

Help us, please!

What times! SNL merges with CBS news and Jon Stewart's life has never been easier.

When John McCain won the Republican primary, I was genuinely proud. His integrity showed that something can defeat cash in an election. But what a difference a few months can make. The bile coming out of the election, especially since the selection of Sarah Palin, has thrown us back into politics being no more than a screaming match at a football game. How dismal.

Is Sarah Palin that important? You betcha! Cynical. Divisive. Condescending. I wouldn't mind so much if she ever made a point that was of policy substance. And seeing her with McCain, hearing his approval of her and watching Fox News applaud her reminds me how far away we are from having serious discussions about economics, the environment, terrorism, much less places like Russia. The ultimate insult was this clip, when asked about Hamas. Oh, yes, the issue of democracy in the Middle East is absolutely a superficial question - sorry, she was impatient! Good thing the question didn't register in her brain due to it being so superficial, also, you know.

But it's between McCain and Obama. When I ask myself why, the answer is that Obama isn't being controlled by this perverse force of Fox/Rove that celebrates ignorance, American exceptionalism and Us(a) versus Them. We are digging a deep grave for ourselves if this wins the day again. What a contrast to listen to the mad rantings of McCain and Palin this week and then hear Michelle Obama today.

Obama isn't going to fix it all overnight and maybe we are too far gone. But he represents such a refreshing breathe of air that the thought of losing it makes me feel like choking already.

The New Yorker lays it out for us. The choice, this time, on every issue is very, very simple.

The Wisdom of Whores

Always wise to flip back through recent shows on Fresh Air!

I have been taken by the challenge the solving the HIV/AIDS epidemic and enjoyed the interview with the author of The Wisdom of Whores, Elizabeth Pisani. The book floats the idea that we might try "making fun things (sex, drugs) safe, instead of trying to make safe things (abstinence, monogamy) fun". The book Excerpt on the Fresh Air page has some great insight into the UN system.

Also related was a BBC Today debate about methadone (Harm Reduction) and whether it really got addicts off drugs. In grad school, I was very much interested in the concept of harm reduction, also praised in the interview with Pisani. What I thought was amazing is the need for societies to care for those people that are often most looked down upon, not only as an act of charity, but as an act of pragmatism and self-preservation. If Russians, want to stop HIV, it means rethinking the modern "gulag" and helping their drug addicts, who spread HIV; in India, it means caring for the commercial sex workers. I guess with methadone, it isn't a black and white decision, but it is so hard to tell as an outsider. I think, on a basic level, I believe it is better to get issues out in the open so they can be solved, rather than pretending that human can select absolutes (like the Bush administration's use of abstinence programs in trying to stop HIV). On the other hand, the gent criticizing methadone on the BBC had some good points about making sure methadone isn't used as a crutch.

By the way, have also discovered the BBC not uses tags and URL links, rather than just putting up entire shows! My, it is all getting easier!

Ugly still, but proud American

Yes, all of this Obama-mania is excessive and will inevitably be punctured should he win the presidency and start making tough calls or big mistakes. For now, though, what it reveals is how much many foreigners, after all the acrimony of the Bush years, still hunger for the "idea of America" — this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

So said Mr. Friedman today. I had to lay off my own Obama-mania, but, you know, it really is exciting.

What I like about Friedman's column today, Obama on the Nile is that he captures what I have been seeing for awhile. In the Central African Republic, people I met were watching (with amazement!) as America has wrestled with and actually come to terms with nominating a person of color to potentiall be president. They are inspired not out os some naive hope, but that things can change. Here in the UK, it was total disbelief among the Euro trash that the same country that re-elected W. after a fear mongering campaign in 2004 could actually elect the son of a Kenyan. The disbelief echoed Roger Cohen's column, The Good American and Monsieur Obama, as he described the French reaction:

Out in the troubled suburbs, with their large African and Arab populations and broad mistrust of a political system that has produced one black parliamentarian among the 555 representing mainland France, Obama is an urban legend.

America needs this. Even if Obama is flawed (he is) and even if politics will be politics (it will), I can't let this moment pass without savoring a little social change.

I think Clinton's campaign also was great for the US this year. People got involved. But, I stick by my inital fears about a Clinton presidency - the "dynastification" mattered. And no matter how clever and skilled she was, her campaign was always going to have too much baggage. Not her fault, but it mattered a lot. I greatly appreciated her speech on Saturday and truly hope her supporters will take her words to heart.

I want to take all our energy and all our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president of the United States.

Not "intentional or deliberate"

Does even matter if Bush et al were intentional or deliberate?

Scott McClellan seems to be everywhere selling his book. I guess one should appreciate the courage of a whistle blower, even it he certainly has some financial incentives that must be driving him. And since he won't be working in republican politics anytime soon, he better do well with book sales.

Jon Stewart, in my opinion, is doing an brilliant public service as a comedian who cuts through the political smokescreens we keep choking on. His interview (and part 2) of McClellan comes across as funny, obviously, but I see this kind of political interview like a joust with his guest. I was amazed he got the word "criminal" out of his mouth. Genius interviewer!

Terry Gross has some interesting questions about the effectiveness of these shows. Very interesting to hear McClellan's response. Yes, Terry, it would be great if we could talk and not just about talking points! Also, excellent interview.

Bob Herbert, who I have come to appreciate recently, hit a tone that most expresses my feelings about the book (which I won't read, by the way). Aside from US lives Herbert describes...

The war in Iraq, which has taken 100,000 or more Iraqi lives, and which will cost the U.S. upwards of $3 trillion, and which continues indefinitely, is a scandal and a crime. Scott McClellan is a little late to be blowing the whistle on this outrage.

The Footprint Chronicles

Patagonia, in a what I think is a sign of things to come, now has something called The Footprint Chronicles, which allow you to see four indicators for a selection of products: distance traveled, CO2 emissions, waste generated and energy consumption.

Obviously, there is no way to compare with similar products or really look behind the calculations, but it seems like it will only be a matter of time.

They issue their own caveat:

These examinations are partial and preliminary. Each season we'll examine a few new products. As we learn more, our examinations will gain more focus, and we’ll work to change our harmful practices with all the speed we can muster.

Very exciting and hope to see how others develop this idea.