I did it! I finished Sach's "End of Poverty"!
EOM
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Multi-You
As this blog continues to stray from a narrow development economics path, I feel compelled to consciously justify my choices for blog topics. As many of you out there, I am not immune to having many interests and keeping up with several of them. I am thoroughly, truly, madly, and deeply fascinated by people who manage to specialize in a certain field and follow through with it, making it their career and life calling. My own inability to control my self-diagnosed ADD has given me an insight into the multi-layered, multifaceted ways to even begin to discuss development economics. People always ask me what DevEc means to me. To me, it is a blend of cultural, social, basic micro- and macroeconomic, environmental, political, military, scientific, humanist, purposeful, engaging and informative understanding of the world on an individual, case-by-case, as well as global scale. How can we begin to search for solutions if we don't even grasp the nature of the problem? What if the problem is only a mere difference in all of the aforementioned characteristics derived from an artificially created divide we have drawn between OECD and non-OECD political entities?
Well, what does it mean to you?
Well, what does it mean to you?
Life is beautiful, albeit overwhelming
Data surrounds us. We swim in it, breathe in it. We socialize with it, share, discuss, fight over it.
The question is, how do we organize it? Information, just like life itself, can be very beautiful if looked through a reflecting prism, at a particular angle. Moreover, overflowing stats taken aside, organization can be creative and liberating.
With the following TED talk I hope that you will leave this blog inspired and start looking at the usual daily news chewed and thrown at you in a brighter, more color-coordinated light.
The question is, how do we organize it? Information, just like life itself, can be very beautiful if looked through a reflecting prism, at a particular angle. Moreover, overflowing stats taken aside, organization can be creative and liberating.
With the following TED talk I hope that you will leave this blog inspired and start looking at the usual daily news chewed and thrown at you in a brighter, more color-coordinated light.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Quote of the Day (QotD) #1
Today's blurb is about Malthus and sustainable development.
The sage Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."
How to Deal with Street Charity Collectors
Cynicism may be one of the few ways to remain sane in this starving world. Looking through the prism of a skeptic allows us not to fall for cheap and empty promises, to question how much of donated materials and effort reach their intended destination, and to consider more effective options for aid and assistance.
Personally, I am not easy to convince when it comes to charity. I'd much rather volunteer time and effort. Yet, I can't stop wondering if harm reduction is all we could do at the moment. Charity collectors in the streets of Boston have not failed to amaze me with perseverance and cheerfulness even in the freezing single-digit temperatures of winter. Great actors those guys and gals. Not long ago I decided not to stare down at my feet while passing by one such "hustler" by being so naturally distracted that I failed to notice him coming my way and to act distracted. Too late to pretend, I was left with two options and I didn't have the guts to run. And I am glad I didn't. What I learned from a pretty lengthy conversation was that the person I had feared would sweet talk me into doing something I had been careful to avoid was actually clueless. Not only was he the worst salesman I have ever met, lacking the type of magical charisma that would turn a stone-cold, heartless person like me into Mother Theresa, but he barely knew anything specific about the organization he was supposed to represent. I guess it didn't help him much that I had previously casually researched it, not to mention my educational background and interest in aid. He ended my monologue with a sincere regret that he had wasted his time with me, because "[I was] a good person and knew a lot." Those were his words, not mine for mine would have been something along this line: "You can't expect to easily persuade anyone to do a thing, for which they have made it their life goal to find a reliable substitute."
Personally, I am not easy to convince when it comes to charity. I'd much rather volunteer time and effort. Yet, I can't stop wondering if harm reduction is all we could do at the moment. Charity collectors in the streets of Boston have not failed to amaze me with perseverance and cheerfulness even in the freezing single-digit temperatures of winter. Great actors those guys and gals. Not long ago I decided not to stare down at my feet while passing by one such "hustler" by being so naturally distracted that I failed to notice him coming my way and to act distracted. Too late to pretend, I was left with two options and I didn't have the guts to run. And I am glad I didn't. What I learned from a pretty lengthy conversation was that the person I had feared would sweet talk me into doing something I had been careful to avoid was actually clueless. Not only was he the worst salesman I have ever met, lacking the type of magical charisma that would turn a stone-cold, heartless person like me into Mother Theresa, but he barely knew anything specific about the organization he was supposed to represent. I guess it didn't help him much that I had previously casually researched it, not to mention my educational background and interest in aid. He ended my monologue with a sincere regret that he had wasted his time with me, because "[I was] a good person and knew a lot." Those were his words, not mine for mine would have been something along this line: "You can't expect to easily persuade anyone to do a thing, for which they have made it their life goal to find a reliable substitute."
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