A resurrection

After a doomsday post, more than two years' break, and a whole lot of mood swings vacillating between despair, what's-the-point?-it's-too-late-to-fix-it-anyway attitude and optimistic, but-we-need-to-at-least-try-otherwise-there-is-no-reason-to-wake-up-in-the-morning-and-we-might-as-well-get-ready-to-die thoughts, the blog is finally to be revived. Hopefully, this time the commitment lasts a (somewhat longer) while. What's to come: format - and naturally, content - updates. Meanwhile, here are some significant updates about the author: Firstly, I haven't been a US resident for the past 22 months. Yet, I still filed my taxes. On time. I moved to the island where the sun doesn't shine (I was originally skeptical with regards to this fact, but have recently lost all hope), the United Kingdom of Great Britain. I am currently in the final stretch of my studies towards an MSc in Urban Economic Development at the University College London, University of London's Bartlett School of Architecture & Planning's Development Planning Unit (Or MSc in UED @ DPU, UCL, UoL for short). Besides becoming proficient in acronym memorization, I am happy to share that I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from my course, didn't lose all of my accent or give up on my "z's", and continue to see no point in writing the extra "u" in colour, behaviour or neighbourhood. Secondly, in the following months, I intend to disseminate abstracts of papers I have worked on during my studies and as usual continue to sketch thoughts on current issues. Stay tuned!

Dolce far niente is a pain

August has been tough. Not even the seemingly endless summer nights, the pleasant idleness, the purposeful detachment from the outer world. Not only the life-changing, mind-boggling (or so everyone keeps on saying) decision to live with someone, to work somewhere and to dream, want, need something completely different.

Whatever that something may be, I am yet to find out.

I have contemplated canceling the blog probably at least once a month since its creation not too long ago. I have waited long enough for a revelation of sorts in what direction I should take it. I suppose no one has higher expectations from a 22 and 1/2 year-old college graduate than the graduate herself. I have decided to continue writing albeit more rarely than desired. I almost cannot believe I am admitting it, but I miss this medium of expression in a twisted way. It reminds me of my masochist paper writing during the nth all-nighter I have managed to pull off, caffeine and drug free.

The current post serves as a space-filler, as a re-evaluation if you wish. Feel free to let me know how disappointed you are I haven't covered the Gulf oil spill or that I have been silent in regards to my Dantesque experience reading Jeff Sachs. I may even be open to criticism.

May Day, May Day

I'll take the risk of being dubbed a socialist, a leftist, a commie even, and I wish you a pleasant celebration on this year's sunniest spring day. Happy May Day!*

*This holiday is not to be confused with the American version, known as Labor Day, occurring on the first Monday in September of each year. Despite (or maybe because of) history of May Day celebrations following the 1866 Haymarket Affair, May 1st is no longer a national holiday. I will not be protesting nor participating in any kind of strikes (for tomorrow is Saturday, my day off). Instead, I will be following a May tradition of my own, basking in the sun and enjoying my friends' company. Whatever your political beliefs may be, forget them all tomorrow and remember that we're all workers - from students, to stay-home moms - and we slave all week so we can loosen up on those glorious weekends.

Another Failed Attempt, Mr. Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs' newest craze (courtesy of AidWatch and wronging rights)
LINK

Sachs is all talk and no action as usual! He excessively obsesses over the round numbers - a decade ago it was the Jubilee (forgiving all foreign debt at the turn of the new millennium in 2000) and now 2020 - but he is yet to prove that it works. Gah! It makes me so annoyed to watch his smug self. Who are you trying to convince, Mr. Sachs? The average American? And of what exactly? That you're a good guy trying to end poverty? Well, where are you results? And don't give me that same old "if everyone does his or her own little bit, if everyone lends a helping hand (meaning dollar), we will conquer all evil." I'm really not sure where he stands exactly; he obviously has some ideas about environmental protection and development economics, but how do we reconcile the two? Am I missing something? I haven't watched a single interview where he gives a concrete agenda and what's more important - results, figures, data. We all thrive on those.

Either way, I am still forcing myself to read beyond Bono's foreword in "The End of Poverty"and I was much  too tired to watch the movie screening at my alma mater recently. To be completely honest, Bono's rendition of the notion of poverty and its intertwined relations with terrorism and 9/11 caught me completely off guard, threw me off, and I am finding it really hard not to feel outraged at this sly, humanistic on the surface but really just moronic argument-attempt at brainwashing. To be continued; it shall be a challenge.

The Great Depression Was a Woman

Think about it, don't most females go through a life crisis when nearing or entering their thirties? They hide their age, obsess about wrinkles and party even harder than a college freshman from Amish country. Therefore, unsurprisingly, the Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted through the mid-1930s. If it were a dude, it would happen when most men have their mid-life crises in 1940-45. If you still don't believe me, ask anyone who lived through it and they'd surely tell you that the G. D. was a b*tch.

Of Men and Leprechauns

For every drink you have tonight paid with your hard-earned money, I will donate twice as many drinks to the Society for the Advancement of Leprechaun Development (SALD).

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Census in Wonderland

As soon as I eyed the bright, clear white envelope from the 2010 Census, I rushed upstairs, tore it open and hardly contained my enthusiasm to find out what all the commotion has been about. Everyone seems dissatisfied these days and there is an inexhaustible amount of opportunities to aim this discontent at the government. Here comes the Census and before even officially having been distributed, there are already outcries far and large how race-intensively the questions are molded. I couldn't help but wonder, how did they know???

 'Tis true. There is no denying it, nevertheless I felt excited to make my tiny contribution to the population census as I do believe in the principle wholeheartedly. I filled out the shiny bluish pages with a trembling hand focusing really hard not to make a silly mistake in my DOB or to misspell my name. In less than three minutes, it was all over and I sighed proudly with a sense of accomplishment such as after a long, standardized test.

Then it hit me. Oh, no! Who's going to count me in the Bulgarian Census (the next one is to be expected next year, I presume, as the last one was in 2001) when I'm not there? The blessing and the curse of having dual citizenship strike again. Well, there's nothing I can do now. I can only hope that my poor grandmother can figure out how to add us to the official record for I do not wish to be reduced to nothing. I'd much rather be a mere statistic than a nonexistent one.

Does anyone know how such questions are settled? Is the brain drain data overly exaggerated or on the contrary, quite understated? Alice understood the situation all too well: "'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!'"

People Respond to Incentives

I just turned 22 a couple of days ago. Thus far, things have been going according to plan - I am at the final stretch, my last semester of college. As I mentally prepare for what comes next - the real world in huge doses - I find it as perplexing, anxiety-filled, exciting, and stressful as the next guy. I can no longer avoid the Big Question reserved especially for this time. Yet, I find it difficult to follow a concrete direction and complete even this short post, let alone to sort out my thoughts, hopes, and aspirations. They say a man is as big as his dreams. Well, how's a girl to dream big in today's world economy? Baby steps.
First, do a little research by your junior year and find out which and if graduate school is the most appropriate choice at this point. Preparing for LSAT/GRE/GMAT exams is not a thing to dismiss even in your freshman year. Trust me, this is not the SATs!
Second, if, like me and most of my friends, you decide to postpone grad school for a year or so and to enter the vast pool of college grads looking for jobs, do not watch the movie "Postgrad." Yes, I repeat, do not! It will not change anything - it will not inspire you nor will it disappoint you, because it is a work of fiction and only you can write your own screenplay. I am proud to have followed my own advice. Ha.
Third, after making the unwavering choice to enter the job market, you will realize that this decision will not make your life any easier. Instead, a myriad of questions begging to be answered will flood your tiny, know-it-all head. For instance, you may ask yourself where your ideal place to work might be. Why yes, there are many subpoints to this question such as:
a) Industry: If, like me, you have made the curious choice of studying economics and even more curiously you are not regretting it, would you like to become a financial analyst? Or perhaps go into consulting? Accounting? These areas seem to be the most lucrative option in terms of financial compensation. Let's suppose for a moment that again, like me, for some unexplainable reason you're more of a macro-thinker, you like looking at the big picture and especially to feel useful. So, if development economics is calling your name, should you perhaps join an NGO, IMF or the World Bank? What if you are sent to a land far, far away to do some hands-on research?
b)Location: It's all about location! Here's where we tie in the big L. Should you consider only the local job market - staying close to home and family, old friends OR close to new friends, new love and new home at the university? Furthermore, for those who have combined both of those locations in one (again... yours truly), why shouldn't you look farther - into new, undiscovered or vaguely familiar places you'd like to explore more? In this day and age, thinking globally is not only encouraged, it is a must.

The popular economic motto "People Respond to Incentives" remains strong and valid. I can't help but wonder, however, what sort of incentives there are for those of us - almost postgrads, but not quite there yet - who will devote the following 4-5 months (I sincerely hope no more than that!) boosting up and sending our curriculum vita to all corners of the world in the almost futile hope of landing the perfect job. I don't mean to sound depressed or disillusioned. I just wish the world had a little more faith in the potential and capabilities of my generation. I'm not saying that we are better than any other generation (quite the opposite, I am certain the next will surpass us), but we surely have much to offer once given the chance. The only thing standing in our way is our own insecurities. We lack confidence where our mothers and fathers had the green light and the carte blanche to go forward almost carefree. We are now burdened by undergraduate student loans, mortgage loans, insurance payments, graduate student loans, credit card fees. And squeezed in between the walls of these responsibilities, we are encouraged to remain hopeful, sunny and dancing on the streets.

Has the US economy failed us? Have we failed ourselves by living on credit for too long and now the system we took advantage of for so long is coming back to bite us in the buttocks?

Cake or Death?

Mmmmm... cake, chocolate cake.... 

It's 12:03PM. Stomach rumbling, eyes closing. Didn't have my morning coffee but had an extra early start at 3:30AM (silly jet lag!). Confined between the 4 walls in the office and everyone else going on lunch breaks... My colleagues better bring my "surprise" birthday cake in an hour or so!

Ah, expectations... The wait and anticipation make me so dependent that I was reminded of something Bill Easterly wrote about vicious cycles. A developing country sits around and waits while foreign aid donors keep dumping aid, forgiving loans. I must admit that I'm becoming quite vicious myself.

Hunger - for money, or for food in my case - can drive one to do despicable deeds. And what's worse, they will all be justified in his or her mind.

And yes, I finally had my cake and ate it too.

Quitting Is Not An Option.... For Now

In order not to fall behind on the current blog trend, I will be blog-free until mid-January or so. This is just the beginning, folks. There will be more to come once I return from my well-deserved, post-finals, three-week trip reward.

May 2010 be different.... how different and different how - all up to us.

White Man's Burden

When recycling your waste carefully separated into paper or plastic, wearing your sibling's had-me-downs or simply donating clothes to Salvation Army aren't enough.... What is the grand gesture you're looking for to satisfy the "warm glow" appetite?

Perhaps my paper on crowding out moral and social incentives to do good for the sake of doing good wasn't convincing enough. The reviews were great, but the whole time while composing it, I felt like I was cheating... One of those unwavering feelings that you don't believe your own writing, but you keep at it just because the point is clear and you'll get a good grade on it. 

"In our theory, the variable that does cause a significant hypothetical effect [...] is guilt," is what I wrote. How does one cope with guilt?  Despite what Obama and Bernanke (Times' Person of the Year! Didn't you hear?) advocate, consumption may be beneficial to some in the immediate, short run, but it is harmful to most in the long run. Over-consumption, overspending, overachieving: all words with a heavy negative connotation. Yet, this is what everyone - i.e. from your next-door neighbor to the government, the nation, the world - expects you to do. 

There should be a "How-to-Sleep-at-Night-while-Children-in-the-Third-World-are-Starving for Dummies" survival guide. I'm sorry to disappoint but I don't have the answer. I deeply admire people who passionately believe they do in one form or the other, and they follow their beliefs, realizing their potential to the fullest. Change from within, however, takes guts. No, it takes more than that. It asks for complete and utter dedication to the brink of insane conviction of the means justifying the ends, of good triumphing over evil... My disillusioned childhood drenched with teenage skepticism might have ruined me for the job, but how I often dream of being born an idealist. How much more faith I would have had in human intrinsic ability and potential to do good, to be good (however you may wish to define it). 

Many success stories to be told and many more failed attempts, lessons learned and unlearned for the sake of remaining optimistic. In the end, it's about being content where you are, doing what you do. Success is illusory and only measured by nobody else's standards but your own.

And in the End, There Was a Beginning

I promised myself that if I pass my graduate level International Trade course, I'd start a Development Economics blog, and this time, I'd be serious about it. None of those previous short-lived attempts. So here I am, blogging away, thanks to the kind professor who bequeathed his grace on me and not only passed me by some miracle, but rekindled my passion for the subject.

A few words about this project might come in handy for those of you lucky readers, stumbling upon my creation. Above all, the title sums up the project's nature. The approaches to Development Economics are unlimited as the heated debates through history have shown us. The term itself is used, misused and abused in numerous fashions. Yet, the search for societal welfare in developing countries is still on.

Furthermore, the amateur tint comes from the fact that I, the author, am no expert, nothing else but a n00b in the economic (blogo)sphere. My background is limited to the several "EC" courses I have taken thus far from the Boston University Economics Department. Somehow, I tiptoed my way into fulfilling the requirements and my expected graduation with a B.A. in Economics as one of my majors is just around the corner in May of 2010. I claim no superior knowledge or understanding, nor do I dream to ever achieve it. I merely hope to pose curious, crucial questions pertaining to the topics of aid and assistance, optimal choices of policies, evaluation of data statistics and many others in order to spark your interest, dear reader, and to open them for discussion.

Do check up on my progress and don't forget to let me know that you do it!