On Bill Easterly' International Aid Worker Appreciation Day

Bill Easterly takes time out to tip his hat at aid workers by declaring today, the International Aid Worker Appreciation Day. 

Parodies aside, aid work is not all flying business class to stay in luxury hotels. The pace of travel can be punishing, the accommodations uncomfortable, the food unfamiliar. And sometimes conditions are dangerous. Aid workers by profession take risks that range from just inconvenient to lethal: jet lag, homesickness, food poisoning, petty crime, disease, terrorism, war.

A lot of international aid work can involve zero international travel; more than adequate time to get acclimatised in new places, to blend in as far as possible. Disease might be a problem, but most aid workers have access to the best medical facilities/health insurance available. This is of course in contrast to the large majority of local development sector workers who rarely enjoy such luxuries.

Of course these hardships are taken on voluntarily, and small compared to those of the people aid workers are there to help. But many aid workers are highly-educated and come from privileged societies, where they could have easily found jobs that pay more and require less dedication and hardship.

Aid workers are not necessarily smarter than their peers in other occupations. A significant number of them end up in the development industry because they tried and failed to enter their 'ideal' career preferences. And it is not just the frustration with unproductive 'good intentions', but quite often, the plain incompetence of many of us, that makes us the butt of so much ridicule and incompetence.

Being Indian

greatbong (gotto love that name...captures the true Bong spirit!) doesn't like Priya Ramani's article in the Mint in whichh she explains why she doubts that she really is Indian. A couple of particularly sarcastic excerpts from Ramani's artiicle first -

...and I don’t spit in public or private (except for that one time I tried a meetha paan). I don’t understand that other national obsession, cricket, either. White is not my favourite skin colour.

I don’t read Chetan Bhagat or Paulo Coelho. I feel depressed every time I wear a salwar-kameez. No sir, I will not discuss my private life with a stranger on a train journey. And I don’t think I’ve ever begun a conversation with: “You’ve lost/gained so much weight!”

I don’t think we’re the greatest people on earth. I don’t understand our sense of fake pride and nationalism. 

and finishes with

I feel increasingly alienated from this country as I grow older. Sometimes I wonder why I came back here after I completed my master’s abroad in 1993.

 greatbong rebuts Ramani by claiming

I love cricket, have a genuine appreciation for subaltern music videos of the “Eh Buchi bolo seal kaha tuthi” type and do not feel bad that my popcorn is getting cold when I am asked to make a gesture, however symbolic, in honor of those people who have made it possible for me to sit in an AC multiplex and enjoy a movie. Which possibly means I am Indian.

But at the same time, I do not spit in public, do not inquire about people’s weights (purely to avoid any reference to mine), do not talk loudly to anyone, find Paulo Coelho grossly over-rated and do not refer to domestic help as “maids”.

So who am I? If you ask me to settle the issue, I would say I am unabashedly and proudly, yes proudly, Indian.

Further, he wonders -

Today, when I was going to the airport from a client meeting,  I saw the driver, a non-South Asian true-blue son of the Pennsylvanian soil, spitting out from the driver’s seat onto the road. Should I have been convinced then that he was Indian and asked for a des-wala bhai discount? When I got stuck, a few weeks before, right behind two other pure red-white-and-blues who got out of their cars mouthing obscenities in a raised voice after a fender-bender in front of a College Park shopping plaza, should I have tried talking to them in Hindi?

In the second half of his post, greatbong reverts to his staple right-leaning nationalistic fervour. I did enjoy reading his rebuttal though. He makes a very important point towards the end -

However in today’s India it is this tolerance which is under the most attack. Violent gangs, of for-hire goons, under the guise of “taking offense” are terrorizing people who express their opinions or lead lifestyles “not acceptable”—-attacking pubs, raising fatwas and pouring invective on the Net. Books are being banned, offices are being destroyed in the conflagration of “spontaneous displays of anger”.  There is a justification for this too—”For far too long, we have taken insults lying down. Can so-and-so say the same thing in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan about their God without any kind of repercussion?”

Here is when I want to say in response—-”Yes but that’s why we are not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan”. And I intend for my country to stay that way. No politician, even if they born outside the country, should be deprived of their right to exploit and misrule the country. No speech, no matter how hurtful, should be met with threats of violence or crude language.

All that I would add is that Ramani is entitled to her views and her apparent disgust with India's problems doesn't make her any less Indian in my eyes. Neither does greatbong pointing out India's liberal heart (in comparison to other countries) make him any more Indian than Ramani.

Degrees and Development

Chris Blattman links to Lyinoluwa “E” Aboyeji's post in Project Diaspora (via Africa Unchained). While Aboyeji takes a delightful swipe at international aid when he writes - 

The current system where African higher education receives little or no support while universities in the west launch multi-million dollar “Development Research Centres” they don’t need is not only clearly unsustainable, but highly self serving. 

Ouch! But he gets scathing with the following - 

It pushes an imperialistic mindset that allows western institutions to serve as command centres for Africa’s economic and political systems without the proper context and it leaches Africa’s best academic minds, leaving young Africans not fortunate enough to afford an expensive international education largely clueless and underesourced with respect to international development issues in their own countries.

The development sector in India is quite evenly divided among those who respect a western degree and those who don't. The ones who don't are quite convinced that an idyllic western campus is the wrong setting to be analysing problems of the developing world. Worse still, they suspect that young professionals armed with a western degree tend to come back with their heads in the air, quite unsuitable for the grind of development projects back home. And being one such western degree holder, I have to admit that quite a few of us have done our bit to strengthen this skepticism.

Apart from the above, there is the practical issue of what opportunities are in the offing for a western-educated development professional back in their home country. Armed with concepts and discourses, he/she is a better fit for research/policy organisations and think-tanks - the kind of which have been the traditional stronghold of the west, as opposed to the rest. I have blogged previously about my disappointment with arguments that seek to further widen the gulf -

In his speech, Simon talked about the need for institutes like IDS/ODI etc to focus more on "moving up the value chain" by working with the UN General Assembly, the EC and the other IFIs, instead of wasting time and resources working on rather "low value" agendas like community farming systems, tribal customs and rural surveys.

That is probably why Aboyeji ends with - 

So that when I must obtain from a reputable university, my masters degree in International Development, there will be reason enough for me to be resident in Nairobi,  not New York.

Low-cost in China

Casey Wilson, writing in the CGAP Microfinance Blog points to another side of the debate over interest rates in microfinance. Quoting from his experience with the microfinance sector in China, the author writes about how the lack of investment in critical organisational infrastructure is constraining opportunities for growth of the MFIs in the interiors of China.

If as the author says, the MFI staff have to travel over 100 km to reach their customers, its administrative costs must be very high. In that scenario then, limiting interest rates could make business unviable or just slow-growing. Therefore, there cannot be a universal cap on interest rates in microfinance - it depends on particular business environment.

The post ends with - 

"Thus, it is a mistake to think that 1) interest rates on microloans should be judged by a universal standard and 2) that interest rates above a certain threshold (e.g. 20%) indicate that a MFI has lost focus on its mission.  MFIs have a responsibility to sustain and scale their operations"

A debate worth having, for sure.

The UK to us

Today's Hindu carries the UK government's message for India, through Andrew Mitchell, the minister in charge of DFID. Reading the piece, I felt the minister (Secretary of State in the UK) had started off on the wrong foot by saying -

Today I want to deliver a message from the new Coalition Government of Britain directly to the millions of Indians who are battling against poverty and disease.

Surely, Mitchell hasn't forgotten that India is not just about poverty and disease. He must then be specifically addressing the poor and vulnerable in India (who by all accounts form a significant proportion of the population).

An interesting aside here - often, opinion-pieces on any African country (or the whole continent) that focus on its poverty and deprivation gets roundly criticised for not recognising its vibrant diversity and enterprising population, among others. Some of us Indian bloggers are the exact opposite. Actually, if anyone dwells on the prosperous India, we wouldn't miss an opportunity to criticise them for being taken by the "India Shining" jargon and of ignoring the reality of the aspiring superpower. I guess, by now, the UK has seen India long enough not to make that mistake...

So then, Andrew Mitchell goes on, treading a familiar track, talking about malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality and preventable diseases. He assures that the financial crisis won't mean that the UK will cut down on its development assistance -

Of course, there are those who argue that in these difficult times aid and aspiration are inevitable casualties of austerity. I disagree. This is a time to reaffirm our promises to the world's and India's poor people, not abandon them. We won't balance the books on the backs of the world's poorest.

Apart from the regular spin on empowerment, Mitchell picks out direct cash transfers as a favoured mechanism DFID would like to try out.

The most impressive aspect about this message from the UK was the commitment to focus on ensuring greater transparency, which in India, rightly builds on the landmark Right to Information (RTI) Act -

In future, when we give money directly to governments in developing countries, we want to earmark up to five per cent of the total amount to help parliaments, civil society and audit bodies hold to account those who spend their money.

Acknowledging that transparency is not only for the recipient, but also an important obligation of the donor, he continues -

I'm pleased to announce a new U.K. Aid Transparency Guarantee that will help to create a million independent aid watchdogs — people around the world who can see where aid money is supposed to be going and shout if it doesn't get there.

The Guarantee commits us to publishing full information about DFID projects and programmes, including our work in India, on our website (www.dfid.gov.uk) — in a way that is user-friendly and meaningful. Over time, we want to make that information available, in an open and standardised format to the people who depend on the funding: the communities and families living in developing countries.

The DFID is one of the biggest donors in India. Working with the government, it can definitely impact various public expenditures significantly. However, being a message from the new government in the UK, responding to India's development needs, I expected to read about much more than just aid money. In any case, within what was said, the focus looks right.

Junior Jesus?

JJ Rawlings provokes mixed reactions - some think of him as a dictator, the man responsible for 2 coups (1979, 1981) in Ghana; others credit him for holding Ghana together during the 1980s and 1990s, before yielding to a peaceful transition in 2000 through elections (in which the opposition won)

Here is a blog dedicated to Rawlings.

Attacking Buffett

for defending rating agencies in this video here

No conflict of interest here, its basically about making money. Buffett's a fine teacher, alright!

The BP oil spill and Africa's oil future

CGD's Todd Moss writes about the likely effects of the BP oil spill fiasco on 'Africa's oil future'. He makes four points -

• Higher costs due to additional safeguards and costs that are likely to be 'passed through to reduce the governments’ shares rather than trimming company margins'.
• A scramble for drilling in the Gulf of Guinea if the US bans deep-water drilling.
• Slightly unlikely, but possible 'regulation shopping' - seeking out places with lax regulations to drill in
• The oil-curse may compound if more money pours into unstable African states

But why should the companies be allowed to pass on these costs to the host governments? The cost of additional safeguards, at the very least, should be shared between the companies and the governments, since the oil majors have clearly been exposed for not having standards they ought to have had all along in the first place.

Also, one should use this opportunity to look beyond the weak governance in African states at how the oil majors could be regulated better and deterred from seeking out weak regulatory regimes and striking deals to the convenience of all. The least one could do is to begin to deal with horrors such as this in Nigeria where oil spills are no big deal any more.

MBA as an insurance policy

Sidin Vadukut, an IIM-A graduate and now an author, confirms a popular stereotype in this (video) and this.

In the video, at the very end, he talks about how the Chief Guest the convocation, Raghuram Rajan spoke of the IIM A degree being a life insurance policy - one that guarantees that the IIM A graduate should not be risk-averse for even if everything goes wrong, he/she can fallback on the degree. Sidin says he took that advice to heart and that's probably the reason he could chuck the comforts of a salaried consulting job to take a stab at writing for a living.

An MBA from many a top b-school could act as a similar guarantee. Not too many of us use it to really explore our creativity. There are a couple I know personally, and admire - one, a wanderer and the other, a musician. Of course, an MBA is not the only guarantee, but its an easy one...

The missing pride

A big Indian delegation is in the US. As usual, the event is not lacking in platitudes. Sample this from a news report in The Hindu -

Mr. Obama quoted from an eminent Europe scholar who travelled to India more than a century ago, who said, “Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study, whether it be language or religion or mythology or philosophy, whether it be law or customs, primitive art, or science, you have to go to India, because,” he said, “some of the most valuable and instructive material of the history of man are treasured up in India, and India only.”

And Hillary Clinton too -

“I came across a quote which I think summarises what we feel. Mark Twain once wrote, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition.

I am really struggling to feel any pride on hearing all this. Visit after visit - in India and in the US, most of what we have been hearing is this kind of rhetorical platitude, most of which amounts to nothing. Particularly when the US continues to ignore the rightful Indian demand to interrogate a terrorist who planned attacks on India on Indian soil. And the millionth time that someone in the US administration even indirectly hints that they will consider India's bid for an UNSC seat (not that I in any way support India's bid, which is a vain attempt at global leadership without sorting out its myriad internal problems).

A lot of the reporting is just a reflection of the standards of reporting in the Indian media, which revels in announcing that Obama wants an Obama platter at an Indian restaurant, to compete with the Hillary platter which that place already serves. This time, I still haven't seen much about the usual hype about the meeting between the "two biggest democracies" etc...Of course, it probably is an indication of how important this occasional jamboree is to the American audience that the New York Times doesn't even mention the ongoing bilateral talks (as of Friday, June 4, 2010 1:52 AM ET (05:52 GMT))