Debating Which Aid Works Best is to Miss the Point
The Economist debate on foreign aid and philanthrocapitalism entirely misses the point. Neither is perfect, but to switch one for the other is simply to change one benevolent patriarch for another.
Featured Posts
Two articles on economics from leading development economists, one from the last century and another from our times, show the state of economics and the direction it should take if it is to help solve our problems, rather than simply becoming an ideological battleground.
The WSJ promotes a World Bank proposal to create a new "vulnerability fund" for poor countries to offset lost remittances. But such a fund would do more harm than good. A better idea would be to just pay the migrant workers this money and let them send it to their home countries.
Education
The state of the US primary education system has important lessons for Indian policymakers. India’s goal should be to decouple educational performance from socioeconomic background. But this requires treating the problem of access to, not just quality of, education.
A 10-year survey of elementary education reveals the good, the bad and the ugly of India’s education system. Since 1996 much has improved yet teaching quality remains abysmally low, it seems. And privatization is an illusory solution.
Politics
Sri Lanka has finally defeated the LTTE and declared victory. But to secure the peace it may learn from the experiences of Palestine and India. Building a unified state will require the government to make some sacrifices too.
The fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia has reached a new stage, with a more muscular approach being propogated by the US. Yet, any such approach ignores past experience and the real exploitation of Somali marine resources by the international community. To find long-term solutions, addressing the root socio-economic causes is critical.
Environment
Ecuador’s new constitution grants nature legal rights and humans the ability to sue as proxies. Environmentalists hail this as a major step towards conservation. But is this anything more than a principle that is practically unenforcable and legally meaningless?
Population-growth environmentalists assert that immigration threatens Earth’s scarce resources. Yet, a close scrutiny reveals that there is no inherent “absorptive capacity” of the earth. If they are concerned about the environment, these “environmentalists” would do better to focus on consumption, rather than on the immigrants that will pay their pensions.
Health
Health policy and practice continue to be key issues on the development agenda. A short introduction to Global Health Ideas - a blog that has been following changes in that agenda and now has a new home.
Google Flu Trends generated excitement on the possibilities of tracking and predicting disease outbreaks. But the swine flu outbreak illustrates key limitations of this methodology, and also areas where it could be enhanced.
Welcome to The Discomfort Zone
The Discomfort Zone is an online magazine presenting critical and objective opinion and analysis on issues pertinent to the developing world and to international development. It brings forth a global perspective to question the policy and practice of development.
Recent Posts
A new survey by the Poverty Action Lab on the impacts of microfinance raises as many questions as it answers.
Sri Lanka has finally defeated the LTTE and declared victory. But to secure the peace it may learn from the experiences of Palestine and India. Building a unified state will require the government to make some sacrifices too.
Health policy and practice continue to be key issues on the development agenda. A short introduction to Global Health Ideas - a blog that has been following changes in that agenda and now has a new home.
Google Flu Trends generated excitement on the possibilities of tracking and predicting disease outbreaks. But the swine flu outbreak illustrates key limitations of this methodology, and also areas where it could be enhanced.
The state of the US primary education system has important lessons for Indian policymakers. India’s goal should be to decouple educational performance from socioeconomic background. But this requires treating the problem of access to, not just quality of, education.
The fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia has reached a new stage, with a more muscular approach being propogated by the US. Yet, any such approach ignores past experience and the real exploitation of Somali marine resources by the international community. To find long-term solutions, addressing the root socio-economic causes is critical.
