Shleifer on Bauer on Aid

Interesting article by Andrei Shleifer on Peter Bauer, the original Dambisa Moyo (if she had been a white man writing in the 1970s). Shleifer's conclusion is that it doesn't really matter that foreign aid is a bit rubbish, because "foreign aid is a sideshow" to the worldwide embrace of markets, trade, and better policies which are stimulating economic growth - the only sustainable way of raising incomes and eradicating poverty.

The trouble is, if this is true, where does it leave concerned Western citizens and developmentistas?

Specifically where does a young development careerist who wants to make a difference go work if all the jobs are in the sideshow?

Answers on a postcard please.

Free-riding

I took a matatu from the Ministry to Central Pub Lebanese restaurant yesterday after work. Twice on the way there I noticed a policeman get on and then off 5 minutes later without paying. "It's alright for some" I thought. Is this common practice by all drivers? Is it to avoid being hauled off the road for some minor offence?

Anyway, upon reaching my destination the conductor says "three" to me. Ha! I'm no sucker, I know the price is only one pound ($0.50), so I offer him a one pound note. He waves me away - no "you go - it is free." Huh? Presumably there is something deeply suspicious about a khawaja getting into a matatu, to the extent you don't make him pay just in case... what exactly?

(I still gave him the pound)

Fun & Games

via Ugandan Insomniac - A new story by DC Comics set in Northern Uganda. More images here

Sudanese People's Liberation Dancers

Living in Juba, you start to get used to seeing the police and soliders carrying AK47s everywhere, you just stop noticing them. It's only when you see a guy with say an Uzi casually wandering down the street, or a huge machine gun on the back of a truck that you actually look up.

On Saturday we went to Juba's premier (only?) nightclub, and there on the stage in front of the dance-floor, overlooking the crowd, were 2 serious-looking SPLA military police. Sadly not showing us their moves.

Quote of the Day

Comes from Matt at Aidthoughts.

All articles/comments about America must now be appended with the following background description for those who can't find America on a map: 

"America, with a population of 300 million, is one of the fattest countries of the world, with a frighteningly awful perception of poor countries, aggregated by a befuddled, profit-driven media."

Monday Links

1. New African Literature

2. If there's one thing you can always buy in Africa no matter how remote you are, it's Coca-Cola. So why not leverage their distribution network?

3. I might start having Morning Meetings for Roving Bandit

99 Problems but the metrics ain't one

The genius Berkeley phd students behind "Stronger" and "I can't get no dissertation" have a new video up. I'm tempted to apply to go study at Berkeley purely so I can try get in the next one.

Karaoke and Corruption

This morning had the potential to go quite badly. Hungover (Karaoke at Global Camp on Fridays is truly awesome. Ended the night with the whole bar singing "We are the World"), I was stopped by the police not once but twice for having the wrong licence plate. First time I haggled them down to $20. Second time I was pissed off, and as it's a Saturday I thought, sod it, I have time to kill so I'll argue with the guy. And guess what it worked! I shouted at him long enough that he just let me go, and this after I'd already seen a Sudanese guy pay him $20. I'm more Sudanese than the Sudanese!

And as I drove off in glory, Top of the Pops (cancelled in 2006 in the UK) comes on the BBC World Service with Michael Jackson. Score!

Markets not in everything

DHL are being fined almost $10m for breaching sanctions to Iran, Syria and Sudan.

Companies are allowed to ship "documents and informational material" but heinous, evil, nasty, DHL, slipped in some "personal items or consumer goods."

That is clearly the rational response to nasty undemocratic governments, punish their citizens by stopping their engagement with the outside world. Wait...

Making Unity Attractive

So the idea behind the CPA was that both govenments (GoNU and GoSS) should work to "make unity attractive" to the voters in the South ahead of the referendum on independence.

Quote of the Day

"There must be a force somewhere, a force that keeps arming these militias, a force that keeps sending ammunition to the militias. There is not another force in this way that can keep arming and sending ammunition to the local population apart from the Sudanese army" - SPLA's Maj-Gen Kuol Deim Kuol, 04 August 2009. (via Sudan Watch)

Migration-Watch-Watch

This is a new series keeping tabs on idiotic statements by the likes of these guys.

Frank Field, a member of the cross-party parliamentary group on balanced migration (funded by MigrationWatchUK: "an independent and non-political body established to KEEP OUT THE DARKIES!"), is an idiot. Someone please kick him out of the Labour Party?

He argues that we must cap British citizenship because otherwise Britain's population will increase. THAT IS NOT A REASON. It is a truism. Now you have to tell us why a higher population is bad.

I've been meaning to get around to answering the Open Left questions, but I've just realised that it's actually pretty simple. Being on the left is about defending the interests of the poor, not the interests of the rich.

Opposing immigration is defending the interests of the (global) rich (Brits) against the (global) poor. If you want to defend the rich I suggest that you join the Tories.

More on rationality

From the comments: Michael Kevane disagrees with me about rationality.

My first reaction is "wow! Michael Kevane is commenting on my blog! He's a proper economics professor and everything!".

My second reaction is "Michael shhh, stop disagreeing in public, the non-economists might be listening! You're just making #9 worse!".

My third, substantive, reaction, is "umm, err, yeah kind of." I mean, of course the rational actor model should not be the ending point of social enquiry, but this is a fighting the barbarians situation where critics think the rational actor model is completely useless because it is unrealistic, when in fact it isn't that unrealistic, and in any case the realism of the model's assumptions don't really matter if it is any good at explaining reality (ala Friedman), which it quite often is.

These people are crazy (this isn't you in particular Kelsey, more anti-economists in general), they aren't well-versed in the rationality approach and have moved on to do interesting research into areas where rationality isn't good at explaining phenomena, they're baying for economist blood because it is evil, and neoclassical economics is equivalent to neoliberal imperialism, and all economists believe in some absurd caricature of homo-economicus, and are evil money-grabbing scum-bags who are probably autistic, and what we really need is a return to socialism, yeah that was good wasn't it, and who needs money anyway, money is evil, wouldn't it be better if we just decreed that everyone had to live in trees and grow our own food, yeah that'd be nice wouldn't it, then we could all just barter instead of having to have money, and live in happy little socialist villages of equality and read Marx all day.

I think I did have some more sober thoughts but I got a bit carried away.

More Markets Not in Everything

I'm trying to put a facebook gift on Karuna's wall (a pie - she likes pie. This is a direct quote from the invitation to her birthday barbecue: "Friends are welcome as long as they're cool (pie may be accepted in lieu of coolness)".

Bizarrely, Facebook is telling me that "This action cannot be completed due to international trade restrictions."

!&*%?!#*!!

Happy Birthday Karuna xxx

Sorry there was no pie, in either actual pie-form or in facebook picture-form. I owe you 1 pie.

Markets Not in Everything

The global economy is a wonderful thing. Even in Southern Sudan it is possible to buy an amazing array of goods produced all over the world.

However this week Juba ran out of Zain airtime. The whole town. Nobody has any. Apparently the latest supply from Khartoum never arrived. A little intrusion of chaos into the cosy cocooned life of the expat.