Thoughts: Econ, Africa, & Dev't

statistician / econometrician joke

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:20:30 GMT

A colleague at work forwarded this to me; it's not bad at all.

How many statisticians does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer A: This should be determined using a nonparametric procedure, since statisticians are not normal.

Answer B: One -- plus or minus three (small sample size).

development book review: So Long a Letter, by Mariama Ba

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:00:53 GMT

When I was in Sierra Leone recently, I scouted around for some fiction by Sierra Leonean writers. I only found one, and her books were too expensive for me. So I bought a cheap paperback copy of what is required reading for Sierra Leonean schoolchildren (and Gambia schoolchildren, I learned later in the trip). It was very well done and - at 90 pages - a pretty swift illustration of some of the challenges faced by women in polygamist households in West Africa. Polygamist households are not a thing of the past nor of poorly educated or rural persons. When I was in the Gambia, I met major government workers who had two or so wives.

Here is what I wrote for Amazon on this book:

sad, powerful illustration of women's struggles in West Africa

A recently widowed Senegalese woman (Ramatoulaye) writes a diary in the form of a letter to her best friend, in which she recounts both her and her friend's experience with their husbands' taking a second wife. Through the narratives, the author explores the roles of women in society and the differences between the sexes (as she does here, "whereas a woman draws from the passing years the force of her devotion,...a man...looks over his partner's shoulder. He compares what he had with what he no longer has, what he has with what he could have"). Underlying the narrative is the power and value of friendship between two women who have seen each other through years of trial.

The two stories are saddening and compelling. The protagonist is nuanced. Even after being burned by polygamy, she considers becoming a second wife herself. She and her friend made very different choices in the face of their marital trials, and each must find what peace she can.

Occasionally the narrative structure bothered me, only because it is easy to forget that the book takes the form of a letter but is in fact a diary (as is stated in the second sentence of the book). If mistaken for a true letter, the detailed recounting of the letter addressee's experience feels contrived.

That is a small critique, however, of what is overall a powerful illustration of the trials of West Africa's women. I can see why the book is currently required school reading in several African countries (Sierra Leone and the Gambia at least) alongside Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

[And it's short: just 90 pages. What do you have to lose?]

pictures from Sierra Leone

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:27:22 GMT

Here are a few pictures from my recent trip to Sierra Leone. I didn't have time to take photos in Tanzania, and in the Gambia I was going to take photos but then my batteries died and when I went to buy new ones, almost all the shops were closed because of the holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan (the Muslim fasting season) and the one open shop sold me batteries for 15 cents which lasted exactly 1.5 seconds in my camera. So I'll get a few in those countries next time.

finally back home

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:44:43 GMT

Yesterday afternoon, after

· 20 days

· time in three countries (Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia)

· time in airports in five more countries (the Netherlands, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Brussels)

· flying on five airlines [United, KLM, Kenya Airways, Bellview (a Nigerian airline), and Lux Air (a budget Portuguese airline)]

· lots of runs on beautiful beaches

· and some work

I made it back home. Safe and sound. I'll get some pictures up in the coming days...

my fake name and homeland

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:31:53 GMT

Around my hotel in the Gambia, guys (I call them "touts") are constantly trying to get you to buy something or come to their restaurant or whatever. But they always start with a couple of friendly personal questions to get to know you. Unfortunately, they all ask the exact same questions, so at this point dozens of men have asked me, What's your name? and What country are you from?

At some point, I began to feel fatigued and defensive (since no one really cares about my name or home, it's just an unoriginal sales intro) and didn't like feeling that way, I decided to have some fun. My new name would be The Magic Man and I come from Brigadoon. Here is a real conversation (as far as I can remember it) from Friday afternoon as I'm walking along the beach:

Tout: Hello my friend, what is your name?

Me: They call me the Magic Man.

Tout: Oh, but I am the most magic man, my name is Aladdin!

Me: That is awesome!

Tout: And what country are you from?

Me: Brigadoon.

T: Where?

M: Brigadoon. You haven't heard of it? You know, [singing] Brigadoooon... It's very small, like Luxembourg.

And tout goes on to invite me to his bar and I pass. The great thing about this exchange is that I couldn't help but smile and be good-natured the whole time. (Unless you think it's inherently bad-natured to use a fake name, but I don't in this case: Everyone in the situation is being disingenuous, so I think everyone is playing by the same rules.)

still got it OR getting hit on by hotel staff AGAIN

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:40:06 GMT

This evening I was changing after a walk on the beach when my phone rang.

Me: Hello.

Lady's voice: Hello, how are you doing?

Me: I'm fine. How are you?

Lady: Fine.

Me: Who is this?

Lady: It's Mary. I just wanted to make sure you got back okay.

[Mary is a beautician from the hotel spa. A couple of times as I've walked past the spa, she has invited me to come for a massage. I believed (and still mostly believe) that she and the rest of the spa staff make most of their money in tips and so hawk their services. I don't get massages very often because I'm cheap and they're expensive and because I'm wildly ticklish.

About half an hour before this call, I saw Mary walking along the beach with a friend as I was out for a stroll.]

Me: Well yes, I'm fine.

Mary: So you work here?

Me: Just for a week. I'm leaving tomorrow.

Mary: You're leaving tomorrow? Let's go out tonight!

[Whoah, Nelly.]

Me: Thank you for the invitation, but I already have plans to go out tonight with some friends. [True, incidentally. Not that I needed that. No, I'm happily married and don't date other ladies.] But thank you.

When I title this "still got it," it is the pivotal word. Still got ... a skin-color that signals relative wealth and a friendly demeanor.

I think it might be time for me to dial down the friendly, what with today's experience, the one last year, and the time a clotheswashing lady left me a love note in my clean laundry in Kenya back in 2000.

the capital city without a cinema

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:42:56 GMT

Early in the week, a waiter at my hotel informed me that there is just one cinema in the capital of the Gambia, in an area called Serakunda. All week I've planned to go on Friday night and partake of the offerings, whether they be outdated Hollywood, fresh Bollywood, or wildly over-dramatic Nollywood. But today a driver informed me that the lone Banjul cinema has closed down. [There are video shows, little rooms where you pay a few cents and watch a movie on a ... tv screen. Although I've frequented those many times in Kenya, the draw has faded.]

Billboards everywhere proclaim that the president is leading the Gambia to be an economic superpower in the 21st century. Can we please get some popcorn and fake butter with that?

holiday surprise!

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:55:48 GMT

When I returned to my hotel room at 9:30 on Tuesday night, I received a call from a colleague that Wednesday had been declared a public holiday! Wednesday was the celebration of the day that the angel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Qur'an to the prophet Muhammed. Normally it's a school holiday here, but apparently the president was in a good mood yesterday and decided it would be a public holiday. We re-scheduled a few meetings (and still held a few), and it all played out okay...

Mr. Bush, I'll be returning to the United States on Sunday and am ready for my surprise holiday!

stray dog development index

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:58:04 GMT

When I got to Sierra Leone last week, one of the first things I noticed was how many stray dogs there are. Loads of stray dogs! Same thing here in the Gambia, and I remember the same from my time living in the Dominican Republic. I see dogs sleeping, dogs fighting, dogs barking at me.

I'd like to construct a stray dog development index (kind of like the Human Development Index except gimmicky and not useful).

õõõõõõõõõõ Sierra Leone

õõõõõõ The Gambia

õõõõõõõõ Tanzania

õ United States

Now I can start an NGO to adopt stray dogs, since that would reduce poverty, right? RIGHT?

(What else could we do with the dogs? Take a lesson from Dunderbeck and Soylent Green. Before we make any rash moves, let's have a little talk about correlation versus causation.)

beach run from heaven

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:39:14 GMT

This afternoon after work I went for a run on the beach (now in the Gambia: it would be easy to get my beach runs mixed up, as I've been grateful to enjoy them in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and now here in the Gambia). After about ten minutes I had left all of the tourist hotels behind and was in wide open, beautiful beach, alone but for the dozens of ghost crabs scattering at my approach and the variety of unfamiliar birds. Peaceful and awesome!

[But, you say, haven't you learned anything? Jogging all alone on a quiet part of the beach? What if a mugger jumps out? No problem. I swim out from the shore - right hand suspended above the water holding my ipod - using the superior swimming skills I honed over several ... weeks in L.A. and back to the beach just in front of my hotel. I'm a man with a plan!]

my favorite fact about the size of the Gambia

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:19:22 GMT

slightly less than twice the size of Delaware

from the CIA World Factbook

super-size my snail

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:48:01 GMT

This morning I walked out of my beach-side hotel room and met the largest snail I've ever seen: by far! This guy was 3/4 the length of my hand (and I don't have small hands). In the USA, if you want snails like that you have to flush them down the toilet and wait for them to become monsters in the sewer.

A little later, I saw the largest lizard I've ever seen (not in a zoo): at least a foot and a half, maybe two feet long. He was crawling around the children's playground (still not really big enough to enjoy the big-kid swings). I didn't stick around to see some kid come to play: Look mom, I found a gigantic lizard!

the cash economy

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:19:24 GMT

Before I went to Sierra Leone, I was warned that credit cards are not used. So everything, from seven nights in a decent hotel to seven days of a car and driver to food, had to be paid in cash. I've never carried out around that much cash (lots of hundred-dollar bills), but apparently Sierra Leoneans do it all the time. They cart around gigantic wads of bills, as no one has a credit card.

I'm glad to have that load a little lighter now that I'm in the Gambia!

cholera outbreak and the wrong treatment

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:22:10 GMT

On Wednesday, the UN posted this bulletin:

A deadly cholera epidemic has broken out in several regions of Sierra Leone.

Since the first week of September at least 523 people have been infected in Kambia district in northern Sierra Leone close to the border with Guinea, and in the eastern town of Kenema, and Newton on the outskirts of the capital Freetown, according to the Ministry of Health.

Thankfully, cholera is easily treatable:

Cholera can be easily treated with a course of dehydration

What? A course of dehydration? If you have cholera, you might try rehydration first and see how that works for you before the UN’s proposed course of dehydration. Just a thought.

i saw the new president’s land rover … probably

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:18:32 GMT

Just a couple of weeks ago, Sierra Leone had (almost completely) peaceful parliamentary and presidential elections. The opposition presidential candidate won, and power was transferred peacefully. Many people in Freetown are excited and hopeful.

This morning on the drive to work, my driver pulled over to the flashing lights of a motorcycle. The motorcycle was followed by a second motorcycle, and then an alternating line of three trucks of soldiers and six SUVs, one of which apparently carried the president. Pleasure to meet you, President Koroma!

running late, an acronym i won't be using at home (or anywhere else)

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:39:27 GMT

The other day I sat in a meeting with a number of government employees and we decided the time of the next meeting. As everyone got up to leave, the chair of the meeting called out, "That's 11 o'clock sharp! No BMT!" I asked, What's BMT? Chuckle, chuckle. "Black man's time."*

Later I sat down with the same colleague to sketch the agenda, and after we had about eight agenda items, he commented "Don't forget Item 13." Refreshments! [In the actual meeting, yesterday, Item 13 was a big hit with all of the attendees. I even enjoyed my sealed can of orange Fanta...]

* I think many groups establish time zones to jest about their habitual tardiness. Growing up, I always heard about Mormon Standard Time (very late), and I think I've heard others. So who's on time?

local language: krio OR how to get a girlfriend in Freetown

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:55:20 GMT

The lingua franca in Sierra Leone is Krio. It is the native language of the Krios, a community descended from freed slaves repatriated from the West Indies, the UK, and the USA. It's also the lingua franca used by about 4 million Sierra Leonean of other ethnic groups, who have their own languages but speak Krio to communicate across tribal lines. Krio draws significantly on English and Portuguese, but it also uses words from at least 12 African languages (from Wolof to Yoruba to Arabic).

Yesterday I purchased the Peace Corps - Sierra Leone Krio Language Manual (1985), and my local colleague Ibrahim and I immediately jumped to the dating section (just because I love that the Peace Corps manual has pointers for dating language in Krio):

Jehf go waka na tohn. [Jeff goes walking to town.]

I mit fain fain titi na trit. [He meets a fine, fine girl in the street.]

I lehk di titi tumohs. [He likes the lady too much!]

Now read through the dialogue phoenetically and you'll pick up most of it.

Jehf: Boo, mohnin-o

Titi: OO, brohda mohnin yaa

Jehf: We yu man? [Jeff, could you please be a little more direct?]

Titi: A noh geht an; A noh mared

Jehf: Boo, a lehk yu [Things are warming up...]

Titi: Foh wetin?

Jehf: A go want mehk yu bi mi gal frehn

Now you know all you need to hit on ladies in Freetown. I was tempted to practice these lines last night around the hotel, but I have a history of giving the wrong impression to hotel staff, so I kept my dialogue to myself.

* The background info is from Wikipedia on Krio, on the Krio people, and from the Peace Corps Manual.

the admiring crowds

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:57:31 GMT

This afternoon I went running. I donned my "Kenya dig it?" t-shirt, long shorts, and my running shoes and set off on the paved road from the hotel. Soon I turned off onto a road that was once paved but was now more gravelly...which then turned to a little path...which then almost disappeared but a man beckoned to me and so I had faith and came out on the other side.

Some people jog here in Sierra Leone, but not many, so it's interesting to watch people's reactions as I pass. Some look down at my shoes (which are still quite new, a birthday gift from my parents), some little kids yell out basic English greetings like "How are you?" and "Hello!", one guy jokingly encouraged me both times I passed ("Good job!"), some smile or laugh (presumably at the spectacle), some stare. Whenever I hit a dead end or decide to turn around, people ask, "What's wrong?" "Are you lost?" "Where are you going?" to which I try to be polite but brief (it's running time, not chatting time).

loud noises: car horns and cell phones

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:50:48 GMT

In the last few days here in Freetown, I’ve spent a fair amount of time walking around, and I’m impressed by the amount of honking. Cars honk for what seem to be a broad array of reasons; perhaps the Sierra Leonean car-honk dialect is a variation on that used in Cameroon, characterized by Tim Harford in The Undercover Economist:

Beep = You don’t see me, but I have spare seats in my cab.
Beep = I see you, but I do not have spare seats in my cab.
Beep = I cannot take your fare because I am going in a different direction.
Beep = I can take your fare; get in.
Beep = In a moment, I will swerve around a pothole and knock you over. Move.

Another distinct custom I’ve noticed involves cell phones. Everyone (not just most people: everyone) puts very distinctive rings on their cell phones (the kind that are cute the first time you hear them), and people answer their cell phones everywhere. I was in a meeting with significant government people the other day and people were taking calls. The top guy in the meeting had some silly pop song as his ring and received a couple of calls. Last night at the hotel restaurant, I eventually moved because someone or other at the table next to me received a call – no exaggeration – every 30 seconds.

number of "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts I've seen in Sierra Leone

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:53:44 GMT

Two!

If you don't know what's that's from, you're missing out. See here.

encountering a barracuda and some surprising dvd collections

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:41:06 GMT

Yesterday after church services, I went to the beach to have lunch and walk in the sand for a couple of hours. I ate a barracuda steak, which was delicious but felt strange, as I'm sure a barracuda could take me out easily in hand-to-hand combat (unlike a chicken or salmon; I'm not sure about a cow or a pig).

As I was leaving the restaurant, a peddler was selling DVDs to some guests, and I took a look. Most were collections of films on a single DVD, presumably low quality so as to fit them all. Some collections seemed reasonable ("12 Action Films!" or "9 Oscar Winners") but others plunged into the bizarre ("Sexual Abuse in Japanese Drama": no joke, there were at least 8 films on this DVD, none of them - to my credit - familiar to me).

I walked along the beach and saw lots of groups of men playing soccer, from kids (around 10 or 11) to adults. One of the groups of kids gave full literal meaning to the old "shirts vs skins."

dar es salaam to nairobi to lagos to freetown: a postcard or a book?

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:59:55 GMT

1. I had a few hours in the Lagos (Nigeria) airport this afternoon and wanted to write a few postcards, so I went to one of the curio shops and asked for a post card.

- A what?

- You know, a card with a picture and then you write words on the other side and mail it?

- One of these? [The vendor gets out a painting the size of a large book for me. Unfortunately, I don't have that much to write on any of my postcards.]

- No, it's a small card with a picture...

I guess Lagos isn't where people stop to purchase captures of the natural beauty. (There were plenty of little statues, necklaces, paintings, and other knick-knacks for tourists, but no images.)

2. Early this morning, waiting for my flight at the Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) airport, I finished Malcolm Gladwell's Blink (good, but if you haven't read The Tipping Point, read that instead, it's better). Suddenly, because of my failed efforts to find a book by a Tanzanian author yesterday, I had no book! By the time I got to my hotel this afternoon, I was going through withdrawal. I wandered the local groceries and general stores as night fell here in Freetown, asking everyone, Do you have any books? as Lebanese merchants snickered (no, no). I desperately asked Reception if they had any novels left by other guests, and he took me to the bartender, who had a few paperbacks under his counter. I took two (and appreciate the bartender's kindness), but they smell bad, are poorly written, and are laced with tacky sensuality. I'll have to hold out.

back to jogging on the beach

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:22:41 GMT

After two long days of meetings (much of it spent standing in front of people in a tie), yesterday I threw on my pink tie-dye shirt and shorts and went for a run. After passing loads of walkers, I came to the seafood market where a gentleman explained to me* in Kiswahili that I should buy his tiny shells instead of the gigantic conch shells and petrified blowfish so that I don't have the stuff confiscated at customs. Then I came to the area where all the locals worked on their fishing boats, at the beginning of the beach.

Here I felt a little nervous because I was surrounded by men, especially lots of adolescent men. When I'm around all different kinds of people (men, women, children), I don't worry too much, but with teen boys, I feel apprehensive. I don't like it, but maybe it's the accumulated experience of being mugged, strangled and mugged, and drugged and mugged (the last one not by an adolescent boy). Still.

But everyone was friendly and saying a few words in Kiswahili always wins goodwill. And then I was jogging along the beach, just like being back in L.A. Okay, the beach was completely different, with a buffer of 20 feet of algae between me and the clear water, but it felt good.

This evening I went for a walk and encountered a gospel choir singing in Kiswahili outside their church. I sat and listened; it was good for my soul.

* Okay, I think this is what he said. I know enough Kiswahili to convince people that I know it and to catch the gist of the story (I'm a skilled affirmative grunter), but I miss much of the detail. Whenever given the choice between admitting the fault (and actually capturing a higher percentage of the content) versus playing along and catching what I can, I blunder along in Kiswahili. I love trying, and I'm probably vain about seeming more fluent than I am.

where are the tanzanian writers?

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:19:29 GMT

This afternoon I stopped by a sizeable bookstore and asked where I could find the books by Tanzanian writers. (I'm 15 pages from finishing Malcolm Gladwell's Blink). Nothing! Another patron sent me a distinct bookstore a few blocks away, which turned out to be a textbook store. Still, for literature classes? This store had a significant African literature section: Achebe (Nigeria), Th'iongo (Kenya), p'Bitek (Uganda), as well as some from elsewhere. The best they could find was a 25-page short story. (I bought a wall map of Tanzania instead.)

Part of the challenge is that whereas Kenyans speak Swahili (actually called Kiswahili by everyone who speaks it) and English, Tanzanians really speak Swahili. So most Tanzanian writers write in Kiswahili, and I suppose it doesn't make sense to sell it in English when everyone knows Swahili. (Still, I didn't see any in Swahili either.)

We'll see if I have better luck in Sierra Leone.

the craziest story i've heard

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:42:03 GMT

Hello from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! The other night at dinner, a friend of mine told this story about her friend, a young professional woman from Sierra Leone. This woman flew to the Lagos Nigeria airport and was standing around, waiting for her bags (or something). She noticed a man shouting and pointing at her, but she ignored him and he stopped. Shortly thereafter, another man approached her and said, Let's go! She resisted, he grabbed her arm and said, "I paid $300 for you, let's go!" The shouting-pointing man had claimed to be her "manager" and had sold her "company" for $300 (and then had disappeared). Then the client refused to let her go, as he'd spent $300, until he got his money back (which neither she nor anyone in the room had). Finally, word got to her driver and he came in and gave the man a small payment and the woman got to her destination safely.

I'm very much looking forward to flying through the Lagos airport tomorrow, but I'm not planning on standing in one place for long.

off to africa

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:29:25 GMT

I'm at the airport, about to head off on a three-week trip to Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia. I've visited Tanzania before (but never for work), and I've never been to the other two countries. Time and internet access permitting, I'll post something about what I see and learn.

In preparation, I had to get extra pages to my passport, the first time I've ever had to do that. Since I got it in 2005, I've accumulated visas or stamps from Canada, Brussels, Uganda, the Philippines, South Africa, Kenya, France, the UK, and China.

Right now, one of the highlights of the trip promises to be hovercraft that I'll be taking from the island airport in Sierra Leone to the mainland. When I was a boy, we subscribed to Boys' Life magazine, and there was always an advertisement in the back for a build-it-yourself hovercraft power by a vacuum-cleaner motor. Living the dream!

why economists use so much math

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:47:25 GMT

My favorite economics blogger, Dani Rodrik, posts on why economists use so much math. He tells a great little story, and here's the moral:

The moral of the story is that if you are smart enough to be a Nobel-prize winning economist maybe you can do without the math, but the rest of us mere mortals cannot. We need the math to make sure that we think straight--to ensure that our conclusions follow from our premises and that we haven't left loose ends hanging in our argument.

In other words, we use math not because we are smart, but because we are not smart enough.

We are just smart enough to recognize that we are not smart enough. And this recognition, I tell our students, will set them apart from a lot of people out there with very strong opinions about what to do about poverty and underdevelopment.

He then responds to those who find him overoptimistic. I agree with Rodrik. When I see the math used well, it can be clarifying and illuminating. Some use it to obfuscate or ornament, but some of the best thinkers I know use it to enhance thinking.

best economics TV commercial of all time!

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:00:31 GMT

Ghana is changing to a new currency and has a marvelously zippy television commercial to help people understand what it all means. Absolutely brilliant; I've been singing the song for days (a good thing, with this song).

Here it is.

development book review: The Darling, by Russell Banks (narrated by Mary Beth Hurt)

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:08:32 GMT

I just finished this thriller which largely takes place in Liberia. It has some interesting elements that I enjoyed, but I wouldn't really recommend it. A number of professional reviewers disagree with me and loved it, so...your call. Here is what I wrote for Amazon:

two parts fascinating Liberian political drama, three parts unengaging navel-gazing

Hannah Musgrave is a former revolutionary (bombing targets in the U.S. in protest of the Vietnam War, that sort of thing) who gets intimately wrapped up in the Liberian civil war with Samuel Doe, Prince Johnson, and – of course - Charles Taylor. Through a series of events best left to unfold on their own, she ends up working with chimpanzees in Liberia and earns a fictional role in the real-world drama of Liberia’s political disintegration. (The book was published before Liberia’s recent election of a competent, democratic president and the hope that has ensued.)

Banks, to his credit, lets Africans and African politics become significant characters and elements of the story rather than leaving Africa as the backdrop to which it is relegated by many Western writers. The unfolding of the Liberian political disaster is the most compelling, exciting part of the story.

Hannah’s personal story is not so interesting. Whether that is more because she is an unsympathetic protagonist – emotionally cold and more in love with her chimpanzees than her children or her husband – or because her frequent musings about her wonderful chimpanzees and ideology are simply not that interesting, I’m not sure.

I’m not sorry I read this book: It portrayed true elements of the Liberian civil conflict in an engaging and memorable way. But the book never really drew me in: Too much of it was wrapped up in Hannah’s navel-gazing, and her navel just wasn’t that interesting to look at. If I could go back in time, I’d probably look for another book with more parts Liberian drama and fewer parts washed-up revolutionary. (A book with the right proportions – but for the Dominican Republic - is Mario Vargas Llosa’s Feast of the Goat.) Although I’m not sure which book that is for Liberia, let me recommend an excellent, excellent [yes, TWO excellents] novel about Nigeria’s civil war of the 1960s: Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.

The professional reviewers were mixed: Metacritic, a website which collects professional published reviews, lists 5 outstanding reviews, 7 favorable, 5 mixed, and 3 unfavorable.*

Note on content: There is a fair amount of strong language, several descriptive sex scenes, and some brutal torture. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Mary Beth Hurt; she delivers a solid reading.

zimbabwe's 200,000 dollar bill

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:59:11 GMT

I'd love to have a $200,000 bill. Zimbabwe unveiled its new note yesterday. Of course, the bill is only worth $13 (U.S.) at the official exchange rate or $1 (U.S.) at the most common exchange rate, which comes from the black market. Zimbabwe is in a major economic crisis! The Associated Press says

Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, blamed largely on disruptions in the agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket after the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000.

I don't know whether seizures of the white-owned farms per se are the cause or not. What has happened with the farmland since then probably matters just as much: I don't believe that whites are better at running farms than blacks. I do know that the Western press loves to hate those seizures, probably because they involve white people being attacked (in some cases). Don't get me wrong: I'm not in favor of white people or any people being attacked. But I'm also not against some form of land redistribution when a tiny ethnic minority owns a massive majority of the land.

My impression is that President Mugabe's management of the economy more generally has not been stellar, although I'm not a Zimbabwe expert.

food aid to Africa: what?! buy THEIR corn?!

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:22:02 GMT

The United States gives a significant amount of foreign aid (depending on how you count), but a major weakness of its aid program is that it ties an immense amount of its aid (72%, more than 18 other rich countries*): That means it requires that 72% of its "aid" be spent on U.S. goods and services! That's 72% that you cannot spend paying local experts to build infrastructure or buying local food crops.

The New York Times today had an article on a farm bill currently being debated in the U.S. that would allow some food aid to be purchased overseas, rather than shipping it all from America. The goal is to speed up the response in emergencies. Here's the best line:

Across Africa, the United States is more likely to give people a fish — caught in America — that feeds them for a day than to teach them to fish for themselves. Since last year, for example, the United States has donated $136 million worth of American food to feed the hungry in Kenya, but spent $36 million on agricultural projects to help Kenyan farmers grow and earn more.

Although this new potential legislation has potential drawbacks (driving up local prices for food), I believe those are likely to be outweighed by the advantages (faster delivery of emergency food and creating a market for local food when it is available). I vote yes!

* Here is a great graphical breakdown of US aid.

"development" book review: A Passage to India, by EM Forster (narrated by Sam Dastor)

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 09:03:02 GMT

This novel from 1924 gave excellent insights into the relationship between colonizers and colonized in India. I got the recommendation, once again, from the list in the appendix of this paper on fictional narratives of developing countries. Here is what I wrote for Amazon:

the fruits of colonialism

Set in India during the British colonial era (and published twenty-some years before Indian independence), Forster tells the story of an Indian surgeon, Dr. Aziz, and his sometime gratifying, sometimes harrowing, and always complicated interactions with the British. He also gives the perspective of several of the British residents and guests, and through this ensemble assembles a compelling picture of how colonialism affects the colonialized, the colonializers, and the relationships between the two. Some of the ideas remind me of Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in which he explains the dehumanizing impact of an oppressor relationship on both the oppressor and the oppressed.

The prose is beautiful, and Forster contextualizes his message with lively dialogue, beautiful images of rural India, demonstrations of the difficult relations between Hindus and Muslims, and other elements of conflict within Indian society as well as between the Indians and the British. The story isn't fast-paced, but with a little patience it draws you in. And the language is delicious. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sam Dastor, and he does a very good job with distinctive voices and accents in a book filled with essential dialogue (except in the one paragraph when an American missionary makes an appearance; his accent was unlike that of any American I've ever met).

A reviewer for The Guardian wrote when the book was first published in 1924 to "congratulate him [Forster] upon the tone and temper of his new novel. To speak of its `fairness' would convey the wrong impression, because that suggests a conscious virtue. This is the involuntary fairness of the man who sees." Forster's vision is well worth reading.

[The Guardian review is available online: C.M., "A Passage to India," Guardian Unlimited, June 20, 1924.]

Africa’s similarities

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:18:42 GMT

With forty-some countries and many more ethnic groups, the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa exhibit some strong commonalities:

Nearly all of Africa’s nations are fairly young, just a few generations since independence… After widespread establishement of one-party states, a wave of political openness swept across the continent in the 1990s leaving few countries untouched (if many far from fundamentally changed). The attempt – and failure – of state control of the economy has also been a nearly universal postindependence experience. Almost all African countries have since undergone some attempts to free up the economy and reorient the government’s activities over the last two decades.

from African Development, by Todd Moss (2007, p. 6).

"development" book review: Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:48:31 GMT

While in Nigeria last month, I read an excellent, sobering novel that takes place during Nigeria's civil war (the Biafran war) in the 1960s. The name, "Half of a Yellow Sun," refers to the flag of Biafra, the secessionist nation that Nigeria fought to hold onto. It was likely the best novel I've read this year. Here is what I wrote for Amazon:

enthralling human story in the midst of civil war

In 1967, a significant portion of southern Nigeria declared independence as the nation of Biafra. An ugly civil war (what other kind is there?) ensued, ending with Biafra's defeat. Adichie recreates the feeling of that period as she follows three fictional characters on the Biafran side of the conflict: Ugwu, a little boy who works for a Nigerian mathematics professor; Olanna, the professor's partner; and Richard, an Englishman and aspiring writer whose partner is Olanna's twin sister. From these three viewpoints, we follow this family from soon after independence to the end of the war.

Although Adichie makes no claim that she is recounting history (in her author's note, she writes, "I have taken many liberties for the purposes of fiction; my purpose is to portray my own imaginative truths and not the facts of the war"), the book really feels authentic, like it captures the hope, the passion, and then the exasperation and disillusionment that evolved in the course of the war. I was left sobered. Upon finishing, I reached to pick up another book and had to put it down, needing time to process Adichie's powerful illustration of her father's adage: agha ajoka (Igbo for "war is very ugly").

The characters are well developed and the plot is engaging; I couldn't put the book down. There is some war violence (although for a truly graphic portrayal of African war violence, read Alexandra Fuller's Scribbling the Cat), but mostly the book describes the war experience for those not on the front lines. [For those concerned about this kind of content, there is also some language and some sex scenes (portrayed, says the Guardian, with "a rare emotional truth").]

The professional reviews have been very favorable. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "profoundly humanistic." The Guardian says that Adichie brings to the history of this war "a lucid intelligence and compassion, and a heartfelt plea for memory." They are correct: Read this book.

[The San Francisco Chronicle review is from Martin Rubin, "The birth and death of an African nation," September 5, 2006. The Guardian review is from Maya Jaggi, "The Master and his Houseboy," August 19, 2006.]

Here is the Biafran flag for which the book is named.

[Picture from www.africaresource.com]

US health care reform and Michael Moore's new movie

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:17:05 GMT

Economist Austan Goolsbee wrote this interesting review of Michael Moore's new movie Sicko, including where Moore has got it right and where he has got it wrong:

So, how does the movie stand up on policy grounds? Moore is right in his indictment of the American health-care system but overhasty in his readiness to blow it up.

I recommend the whole review: even if you don't plan on seeing the movie, it covers some US health care reform issues well.

[Thanks to Greg Mankiw for the heads up.]

"development" book review: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It? by Paul Collier

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:21:14 GMT

I just finished Paul Collier's Bottom Billion. It was completely refreshing, an antidote to all of the recent overstated books in economic development (Sachs, Easterly, DeSoto). Here is what I wrote for Amazon:

finally, a compelling, nuanced, evidence-based treatise on how to help the very poorest

Collier has two recommendations for helping the poor: "narrow the target and broaden the instruments." Narrowing the target means focusing not on the five billion people in the "developing world," for four billion of those people live in countries that are already growing, many of them very quickly. One billion of the world's people (70% of whom are in Africa) are in countries that are going nowhere fast, except - in some cases - down. Broadening the instruments means shifting focus from aid to an array of policy instruments: better delivery of aid, occasional military intervention, international charters, and smarter trade policy.

The most frustrating element of recent books on economic development is that they wildly overstate. Jeffrey Sachs, in The End of Poverty, promises that we can eradicate poverty with a few simple (if not easy) steps; and William Easterly, in The White Man's Burden, tells us aid is a disaster (with some tiny caveats at the end). Collier offers the nuanced voice that has been missing. He draws on decades of his and others' careful research to explain four traps that keep most of the bottom billion in captivity and why globalization as it is currently configured will do little for these poorest nations.

He goes on to explore how each of a whole array of policy instruments (including but not limited to aid) can play a key role in helping the bottom billion get on track towards growth. He explains what kinds of aid are most likely to help post-conflict societies and corrupt societies, how the WTO could actually play a useful role in helping the poorest, how to credibly increase private investment, and where military intervention might actually work. Collier's recommendations feel the most plausible of any out there.

Collier brings credibility to the table with non-technical descriptions of many of his studies as well as anecdotes of challenging Kenya's ex-President Moi on his corrupt agricultural policies or asking Nigeria's finance minister about obstacles to reform. The research is not unassailable (for example, when he calculates the cost of a failing state), but he has spent years using the best data and methods available to get at answers to completely intractable questions: the results are at the very least worth weighing carefully.

The book has no notes except a heavily abridged list of Collier's studies at the end. Some endnotes with better references for those who would like to examine the research more carefully would improve the volume.

Despite that minor critique, this is a readable volume (under 200 pages) with some of the best analysis on economic development that I have read. Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist, calls The Bottom Billion "the best book on international affairs so far this year." He's right.

[The Kristof quote is from "Africa's World War," New York Times, June 14, 2007. If I haven't convinced you to read the book, then read Niall Ferguson's review in the New York Times ("The Least Among Us," 1 July 2007) or Martin Wolf's review in the Financial Times ("How the bottom billion are trapped," 13 May 2007). Both are available on-line.]