The Everyday Idealist

Movement Is a Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:45:00 +0000

The EI is moving to Wordpress, mostly so I can foist even more of my writing on unsuspecting friends.

This site will still be available for archives, and in the beginning, I'll probably link back frequently to posts here.

Happy Earth Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Some links:

The Earthday Network

Earthday [dot] gov

Green DC Week

In Memoriam

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:11:00 +0000

No cartoon today, but still wanted to post an image. I don't have an scanned pictures of my grandfather, who died Tuesday, or even an obituary yet (it's been hard to pull stuff together this week), so I'll have to settle for some pictures of the Air Force Memorial. My grandfather joined back when it was still called the Army Air Corps, and flew in WWII and the Korean War, then took on a more diplomatic role.

He served for 30-odd years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring to Philadelphia and becoming the man I knew as my grandfather: A man who was incredibly smart, informed, and well-read, who could be distant and awe-inspiring, but still took the time to walk his oldest granddaughter around the streets of Philadelphia to explore quite possibly every major historical building there was (and there are a lot). He's who I first remember taking me to the Philadelphia Art Museum, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's House and the Philadelphia Bourse.

He rescued turtles, got stalked by pigeons (funny family story), made the best split pea soup I've ever had (but sadly, never taught me the recipe), dressed impeccably in Brooks Brothers (although he favored Bermuda shorts and tall socks in the summer, which always amused me) and drove a Volvo which is about as old as I am (and I was honored to drive until just recently when I bought my own car).

And I loved him. Rest in Peace Grandpa.

US Governors to Plot Climate Fight at Yale

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:58:00 +0000

Is it just me or does that headline sound like the governors are getting ready for a food fight at one of Yale's dining halls?

According to Reuters, via Planet Ark, at least five governors including Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from California and Democrats Rod Blagojevich from Illinois and Jon Corzine from New Jersey will meet at Yale University on Friday to discuss 'uniting the developing markets for trading of credits representing carbon emission reductions.'

Most of the facts aren't particularly new or exciting, since the governors have been at this since the winter and many states already have their own commission on climate change, but two paragraphs gave me pause:

The reality is that the states are designing the true US climate policy," Terry Tamminen, an environment and energy adviser to Schwarzenegger, said about the meeting.
...
Tamminen said even if the federal government moved quickly to regulate greenhouse gases the states would remain the de facto makers of US policy on greenhouse emissions because a federal plan would take years to develop. "We don't have time to wait," he said. By many counts, the United States is the world's top greenhouse gas emitter.

I could be mistaken here, since I attended public schools in the US, but, isn't that how federalism works? This reminds me of the snafu at the EPA over California's emissions controls back in December.

No Words

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Torture as motivation?

From the New Republic's blog, the Plank:

Workplace Motivational Techniques to Avoid

The Washington Post has a story you don't see every day:
No one really disputes that Chad Hudgens was waterboarded outside a Provo office park last May 29, right before lunch, by his boss.

There is also general agreement that Hudgens volunteered for the "team-building exercise," that he lay on his back with his head downhill, and that co-workers knelt on either side of him, pinning the young sales rep down while their supervisor poured water from a gallon jug over his nose and mouth.

And it's widely acknowledged that the supervisor, Joshua Christopherson, then told the assembled sales team, whose numbers had been lagging: "You saw how hard Chad fought for air right there. I want you to go back inside and fight that hard to make sales."
You really have to read the whole thing, which discusses the lawsuit that Hudgens has filed against his employer. Christopherson sounds sort of like a cross between John Yoo, Bill Lumbergh in Office Space, and Kevin Kline's character in A Fish Called Wanda:
Hudgens alleged that if the 10-person sales team went a day without a sale, members had to work the next day standing up; Christopherson took away their chairs. The team leader also threatened to draw a mustache in permanent marker on the face of sales people for "negativity," Hudgens said. Christopherson kept on his desk a piece of wood, "the 2-by-4 of motivation," he said.
...
Christopherson did not know the term [waterboarding], either, Brunt said: "He thought it had something to do with water skiing."He said Christopherson told the executives that he was inspired by reading about the Greek philosopher Socrates, who is said to have once held a student's head under water, then told him he must want to learn as badly as he wanted air.
Strangely enough, under Utah law, Christopherson's idiocy may work to his benefit, since Hudgens can only collect the damages he's seeking if he can demonstrate the employer's "conscious and deliberate intent" to inflict injury.

--Josh Patashnik

The New Republic Knows Me Far Too Well

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Sigh. So true. I am stubbornly resisting the TNR bookshelf, since I just had to prune my reading list for the fifth time in four months. April's reading:

Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Walking on Water - Madeleine L'Engle
Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin (primarily because she has my sister's first name)
A Year without Made in China - Sara Bongiorni
Chasing the Flame - Sam Powers

plus whatever IR/econ pdfs I've accumulated over the past few months.

Quick Links

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:16:00 +0000

A bunch of links from the past two weeks that I just haven't gotten to writing about:

The Monkey Cage asks: Is the American Public Realist?

Making Sense of Darfur's three-part series: Wither the Darfur Mediation?
Part I
Part II
Part III

The Economist on the politics of malaria and disease.

Ann Jones' and the International Rescue Committee's "16 Days in Cote d'Ivoire", an exploration of gender-based violence.

The Irrationality of Homo Ekonomicus. Hat tip: Aquanomics

Congressional Report Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Citizens for Global Solutions has released their 2008 Congressional Report Card. On the website, the Report Card is searchable by state. A Voting Guide is available as well.

I don't always agree with CGS' recommendations (for instance, I'm not sure what exactly the point of H.R. 6 Energy Policy/Passage was, and I know I'm definitely suspicious of a 'mandate the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022') but it is a nice round up for those for whom these matters count (either to vote for or against).

Sadly, my lovely home state of Virginia didn't do all that well.

Reading List Additions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:06:00 +0000

I need more time in the day.

Hat tip: Chris Blattman

Ghana, Next Victim of the Resource Curse?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:12:00 +0000

The Washington Post today has a lengthy article in the A section about Ghana's new-found oil wealth:

Ghanaians are struggling for a way to grow one of Africa's most stable democracies into one of its most prosperous, while blunting the corrupting power that has made oil a curse for so many of its neighbors.

Oddly enough, I was just talking about the similar situation in Nigeria at dinner last night.

Many countries in Africa have abundant natural resources in the form of oil, gold and other precious metals, timber and diamonds and other gems. However, most of them also fall victim to the 'Resource Curse', the paradox by which countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth than countries without these natural resources. Primary causes include:

Conflict
Rentier State
Corruption
Distribution of Benefits (between state/investors, between state/citizens, between regions)
Distortion of Labor Markets/No Investment in Human Capital
Lack of Economic Diversification

While the last two are important, in Africa, the first four tend to dominate.

Sierra Leone is a classic example. Sierra Leone has a multi-ethnic, bi-polar demography. Out of twenty different ethnic groups, two, the Temne in the north and west and the Mende in the east and south dominate their respective regions and the other ethnic groups therein. In a majoritarian presidential system such as Sierra Leone’s, the ethno-political blocs are strengthened, becoming the final determinant of political access. Sierra Leone is also home to vast alluvial plains of diamonds. 'Mines' here are not the big, deep holes of South Africa and Botswana, but rather fields and rivers where diamond concentration is high.

From a paper I wrote at SAIS last year:

Despite the difficulty of controlling the mining and export of diamonds in an alluvial plain, the vast wealth [available] drastically increases the potential costs of losing. The unwillingness of either hinterland region to submit to another, or for either to submit to the Krios [descendants of freed British slaves] in the capital, diminishes in light of potential costs of relinquishing control of the diamond mines. Thus, while Sierra Leone is nominally a multi-party state and has held elections, the losers always fail to respect the outcome and constantly agitate to overthrow the government.

*******
The Sierra Leonean state did not act reassert its control of the diamonds trade. Under [Siaka Stevens, President during the 1970s] Lebanese merchants gained control of some of the official diamond trade, and most of the unofficial trade. As cultural outsiders, they offered little threat to his political power, and also maintained vast international networks for trade. By virtue of his office, Stevens was able to grant mining and exporting concessions, for which the Lebanese supported Stevens financially.

Stevens’ course of action had two negative results. The first is that the Lebanese merchants eventually formed their own security forces to provide protection, and lessen their dependence on Stevens. However, because Stevens had weakened the military in order to prevent against military-led coups, he could not challenge the new paramilitary groups, often made up of gangs of poor miners. The second result was the chronic shortage of state revenue. By 1988, official exports of diamonds amounted to only $22 000. In contrast, Lebanese exports had an estimated value of $250 million. The result of the under-funding was that the state was unable to provide public services or investment, and lacked the resources to take action on problems of credit, debt management, or diamond, gold and commodities smuggling. The elites were unaffected by the precipitous decline of the Sierra Leonean economy during the 1980s, but the citizen population became restive. In 1985, Stevens handed off power to Joseph Saidu Momoh, who was welcomed as a source of change.

In 1989, Momoh tried to gain better control of the diamond industry. The government approved a proposal by the Dallas, Texas company Sunshine Broulle to take over the failing state diamond firm. Sunshine Broulle fielded security forces in an extensive and exclusive mining zone, which helped marginalize rival politicians running illicit mining operations. However, Momoh used Sunshine Broulle’s operations to spare the expense of building capable but politically risky institutions to enfold and undercut political rivals and collect state revenues. By relying on foreign firms who were dependent on concessions, the central government failed to develop its own capacity and so instead weakened its ability to withstand political challenges when those firms left, as Sunshine Broulle did in 1992. Additionally, local dissatisfaction increased each time outsiders were brought in to manage economic resources, thereby perpetuating the exclusion of the Sierra Leoneans from economic gain.

Ghana itself is no stranger to natural resource wealth, due to the concentration of gold veins in the Ashanti region, but again, most of those profits benefit foreign investors.

However, there is hope. Botswana provides a good model of a state and its citizens benefiting from natural wealth. From the same paper:

Diamonds were not discovered in Botswana until after independence. The government approached the negotiations with de Beers with the goal of negotiating fiscal arrangements which would yield maximum revenue in order to fund economic growth. Initially, negotiations favored de Beers, but as de Beers made more investments, it became less able to abandon its projects. Also, neither the government nor de Beers correctly estimated Botswana’s available resources, leading de Beers to commit to longer time frames than it originally envisioned.

The Botswana government is a competent bargaining agent and so while it began with one third of the shares of the operation, it used the discovery of new mines to renegotiate the original contract in the later 1970s, eventually controlling up to 60 percent of its mining operations. The revenues from the diamond mines provide substantial revenue with which to fund development projects. These include funding health facilities, schools; provide clean, pipe-borne water to every community, and otherwise raise the physical standard of living.

In addition to its bargaining powers, the government is also a competent macroeconomic manager. Despite the downturn in diamond profits during the 1980s, the government was able to initiate new development programs, including the Financial Assistance Program which aimed to shift manufacturing jobs from urban areas to the countryside in order to boost the rural economy. While the benefits of Botswana’s economic growth are still uneven, and the government receives widespread criticism in particular for its treatment of the San people of the Kalahari, Botswana now boasts a per capita income of over $3000, making it a middle income country, and one of the richest in Africa.

Botswana isn't nearly perfect, or even very liberal; through various cultural traditions and institutional choices, it has deliberately limited the effectiveness of civil society. The kgotlas system [a process by which the community nominally decides policy, but really serves as public relations events to consolidate support for the elites’ decisions] already diminishes the expectation of citizen participation by presenting tribal, and now government policy, as fait accompli. The provision of public services further reduces any need citizens might have to lobby the government. However, it is stable and developing, and is increasingly coming under criticism from indigenous groups, and progress continues to build a strong civil society.

Ghana is not a country I know much about, but it is stable, and seems to do well in international rankings. Of course, these aren't the only factors in play: there is no local hegemon to stabilize the region (and its neighbors don't have the most promising history), it is not as demographically homogenous as Botswana, and I really can't speak on the state-civil relations at all. But, with good management and democratic participation, much is possible. I'm cautiously optimistic.

My Aim Is True

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Things that make me happy this morning:

Spring weather.
Elvis Costello on tour with the Police.
Marine Corps bumper stickers.
Cold Pad Thai.

Thursday Cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Apologies for the sparse posting. The same work overload from last week is continuing this week. Hopefully it will end this weekend (at least some of it has to).

Today's cartoon is for Sean, who's having a bad day.

Beware the Lawyers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:51:00 +0000

From 'Day in Pictures' from the BBC

Caption reads:
A car blazes in the southern port of Karachi, Pakistan, amid clashes between rival groups of lawyers.

[Update 504 pm]: I had meant that as relatively tongue-in-cheek - violence is bad, of course, but rival lawyers?, really?

However, it seems that so far seven people have died due to the resulting violence.

'And Watch Out for the Women'?

One part of the article I don't understand is this remark:

Police say that five people were killed when rioters set fire to lawyers' chambers in a building adjacent to the city court in downtown Karachi.
They say that those burned to death included a woman.

I'm sorry she, and all of the others, are dead, but is her sex really noteworthy? I thought women could be lawyers in Pakistan, since they can be Prime Ministers. Is this some lingering chivalry on the part of the BBC that women shouldn't be harmed by violence (only those nasty, belligerent men)? Did they perhaps mean to imply that she was not a lawyer?

RIP MLK

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Remember.
Picture from the article.

Hat Tip: The Plank.

I Will Be Here Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Introducing Cartoon Thursdays

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:50:00 +0000

I like cartoons - they're a great way to express an idea quickly, and they often insert much needed humor into a situation. Also, I have quite a few of them saved to my computer.

I've been meaning to start posting them for a while now, but always forgot. Plus, there was the question of making them a regular feature; would I post them whenever, on a certain day of the week, etc.? For the second option, logic would suggest Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, but I either forget, or I don't need the smile. Hence, Thursday; the weekend is almost here, but not close enough (I'm going to completely ignore all those who work for the government and have alternative leave schedules).
So here's the first edition of Cartoon Thursdays, featuring a two-for. My life currently feels like a combination of the two. Yay fun.

Thursday Cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:44:00 +0000

Anthropology in Everything, Violence Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Hmm. A new meme?

First Chris Blattman asks if peace can be instilled. He reports from a rural training center in Liberia:

The second day of our stay we woke up to a small riot. Supplies of food and soap had been delayed from the capitol, and the excoms had taken to the yard, yelling angrily with the staff and refusing to attend classes. Johnson stood in the thick of them, surrounded by two dozen angry youth, hashing it out.

Within an hour, the youth had settled back to their quarters, their elected leaders were holding a consultation, and were preparing to present a list of grievances to the school administration. Nothing was broken, few egos were bruised, and the excoms' anger and frustration was being channeled into a peaceful and institutional process. Such an outcome, Johnson tells me, would have been unthinkable just two moths ago. But they have succeeded in creating new norms of behavior and dispute.

Then, Dani Rodrik posts about a paper exploring the intersection of soccer, culture, and violence. He notes:

I must say the cultural explanation leaves me cold, even though I do not have a good alternative explanation in its place. If you have ever spent time in cabs in Manhattan, you know that it is pretty hard to distinguish the Russian drivers from the Pakistani ones, or the Israeli ones from the Koreans. They all drive like NYC cabbies, even though the "driving culture" in these countries are pretty different.

In response, I'd ask, could it just be another example of acculturation? I imagine that being a successfull NYC cabby requires certain traits for success (traversing the city in some sort of meaningful time frame and also getting a spot at high-frequency fare sites). Don't these guys depend on the number of fares + tips to make a living? What I mean to imply is, the geography, politics (or at least laws) and culture of NYC create an environment that requires certain characteristics in order to succeed. Success (money) is an incentive. Thus, there is an incentive for cabbies to adapt (turn into NYC cabbies). Environment -> Incentives (economics) -> Acculturation (anthropology).

Societal, cultural, norms, including those of interaction, can be very powerful, but like all normative teachings, can be overcome and retaught. What I really want to know is what would happen if the soccer players were faced off against the 'ex-coms'?

Breaking News!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:25:00 +0000

A US study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation proves that 'daily caffeine "protects" brain' against diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Not that I really need another excuse to drink tea, but it's nice to have options.

Overheard at Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:22:00 +0000

At Afterwords Cafe:

'It's capitalism, man! You can have coffee without caffeine, Coke without sugar, and quit cigarettes without pain!'

On a completely incidental and personal note, if I ever decide to give up development studies, I will retire to a small town in New England and open a bookstore/cafe. My main inspirations will be Kramer's & Afterwords and Charlie's from Robin McKinley's Sunshine, but I'll probably aspire to the elegance of Busboys and Poets without the elitism.

Assasinations at the Sundries Shack

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:14:00 +0000

Well, my mother will be pleased to read this, but Jimmie might not be so happy with who she defines as a tyrant.

My mother's next career aside (and I only post it because this is a long-standing family joke, my mother yells a lot but she's really non-violent), the problem of defining 'the bad guys' is one reason not to start assasinating people.

Sure, we can all agree that Saddam was a worthy candidate, as is Mugabe (although he seems to have seen the light on democracy), but who else? Putin? We might not like him, but the Russians do.

Reversing that, what about 'our tyrants'? The CIA did its best to keep Mobutu Sese Seko in power, including ordering the assasination of his rival, Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba wasn't a good guy either, but it would be hard to argue that the Congo was better off with Mobutu in power.

Kidnap and Murder of Daughter of Burmese Refugees

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Sad news for the Burmese refugee community. Refugees in this area are also pretty anxious as well. From the friend who forwarded the news: 'Imagine finally making it out of Burma just to have this happen.'

Well It's about Time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Finally! I no longer have to worry about silly things like time management, and the international community gets the patience it's long needed.

I am worried that this headline may be nothing more than a cruel joke, even if it wasn't intended as such.

How to Disagree

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:49:00 +0000

A good post on 'How to Disagree' from Paul Graham. Given the recent meme about response etiquette, it seems to have come at an opportune time. I'm also pleased to note that he reinforces my argument about expertise in his section on Ad Hominems:

Saying that an author lacks the authority to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem—and a particularly useless sort, because good ideas often come from outsiders. The question is whether the author is correct or not. If his lack of authority caused him to make mistakes, point those out. And if it didn't, it's not a problem.

Shameless plugging aside, the piece is worth the read. It has advice that I'll try to keep in mind as I argue with Sean on the List, in my del.icio.us tags, and in response posts I make here. His heirarchy of disagreement also highlights the reason why I don't tend to comment on posts, no matter how much I might disagree with them: it's hard.

The most convincing form of disagreement is refutation. It's also the rarest, because it's the most work. Indeed, the disagreement hierarchy forms a kind of pyramid, in the sense that the higher you go the fewer instances you find.
To refute someone you probably have to quote them. You have to find a "smoking gun," a passage in whatever you disagree with that you feel is mistaken, and then explain why it's mistaken. If you can't find an actual quote to disagree with, you may be arguing with a straw man.

I like actually responding to the merits of a piece, usually at some length, which take quite a bit of preparation. As a result, more often than not, I break a cardinal rule of blogging: just post already! Of course, that's why I'm also excited about this piece.

And It's Official

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:35:00 +0000

I've now made my way into the blogsphere. In the course of a Facebook debate about older men, gender roles and Karl Rove with the charming, funny, and always interesting Robert Stacy McCain, I linked my post about intellectuals. Stacy did me the kindness of taking me seriously, and replied via his blog. Of course, this linking back and forth is starting to resemble a fun-house mirror room, but if that's what it takes....