Author Archive
Sunday, June 10th, 2007
Sachs on Africa: on the front line
Or “on the ground”, to use Professor Sachs‘ own choice of cliche. Having sketched out human economic history, the causes of poverty and his own history of economic fiddling, the director of the Earth Institute and author of The End of Poverty devotes its final few chapters to a detailed analysis of the steps [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, June 7th, 2007
More criticisms of the Africa Commission
The report of the Commission for Africa, summarised here and more heavily here, is an ambitious and sophisticated analysis of the problems plaguing Africa and the steps needed to solve them. But it isn’t without critics. Last time, I looked at those who criticised the Commission for being too conservative in its calls for Western [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals, criticisms by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
Ghana: another perspective
The BBC World Service recently broadcast a two-part documentary about Ghana’s independence and history since, and it offers a nice intro to follow up on the previous post. It’s expired from the “listen again” function, but you can listen to it here by clicking the arrows below or right-clicking the links.
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
No Comments » - Posted in Useful sources by Rav Casley Gera
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Have a look around
I’ve made a few, subtle, ultra-geeky changes to the navigation of the website to make it easier to find your way around. When you’re looking at a tag, a category, or a date archive, you should now see a list of posts with introductory excerpts rather than all of each. That should make it easier [...]
No Comments » - Posted in About the Site by Rav Casley Gera
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Ghana: 50 turbulent years
You won’t have missed all the fuss in the media a few weeks ago about the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Ghana.
Following on from our recent dash through African history since independence, I thought it would be a good time to focus briefly on Ghana for a slightly more detailed look. Ghana was not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Getting Started by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, May 7th, 2007
Criticisms of the Commission for Africa
The report of the Commission for Africa, the brain trust of African and other leaders, economists and thinkers set up by Tony Blair, became one of the highest-profile “packages” of solutions for African put forward in 2005, during the Make Poverty History campaign in the leadup to the G8 summit in Gleneagles. We’ve summarised its [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals, criticisms by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Sachs on the MDGs and 9/11
Last time, we saw Jeffrey Sachs discussing Africa’s tremendous burden of disease and its relationship to the continent’s poverty and slow economic growth. Next, Sachs turned his attention to the rest of Africa’s problems, and to broader lobbying for more international action on poverty. But a small matter of a terrorist attack got in the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
At last! Sachs on Africa
We’ve followed Jeffrey Sachs through his book The End of Poverty as he outlines his basic theories of economic growth and developmental economics, as he recounts his personal experience in Bolivia, Poland and Russia, and as he offers his view on the economic booms in China and India. Finally, in the books’ tenth chapter, he [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Tantric Sachs*
For our purposes, the interest of Jeffrey Sachs‘ book The End of Poverty is what it has to say about Africa. However, he first turns his attentions to the world’s biggest developing countries, China and India.
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Sachs on China
Jeffrey Sachs‘ book The End of Poverty is as much autobiography as pop-economics. Last time, we looked over the sections where he discusses his work advising Bolivia, Poland and Russia on the management of their economies, and their transition towards various types of socialism to liberalised markets. Next, he turns his attention to the world’s [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
Sachs on the beach*
Jeffrey Sachs’ book The End of Poverty is not only a blueprint for a new world free of poverty. It’s also an autobiography. And having introduced his approach to economics, he takes a lengthy detour to review his (accidental) career in development economics. Fortunately, he packs some useful wisdom in along the way.
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, April 9th, 2007
African history in ten minutes
Martin Meredith’s excellent book The State of Africa1 gives a concise, thorough, generally impartial and often exhilarating run-through the rollercoaster ride of African politics since the beginnings of independence in the 1950’s. A tale of tyrants, cruel conflicts and broken promises, it’s often scary but never morbid. Its conclusion, though, is striking: “Fifty years after [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Getting Started by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, April 9th, 2007
Sachs: a catchup
Right, now that we’ve finished our run-through the Africa Commission Report, it’s time to get back to unfinished business: Jeffrey Sachs. You can track the summary of his book The End of Poverty from beginning, but if you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick catch-up.
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Africa Commission: the summary, summarised
The Commission for Africa was a collection of African and non-African politicians, academics and activists, appointed in 2005 by Tony Blair to put forward proposals for policies to kick-start African development. Their report was released in early 2005; as well as the 464-page full report, there’s a reduced “The Argument” version which is also available [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Stats without the snoozing
I don’t normally tell you guys about individual information resources, preferring to distill them down into a meanigful melange of facts and theory. But this one’s so fabulous I’ll make an exception.
No Comments » - Posted in Useful sources by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, February 4th, 2007
Making it happen
Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked over the recommendations of the Commission for Africa on governance, peace building, trade, social policy and aid. In the final chapter of their report, the Commission outlines the other, wider changes to the process of international governance, and the attitudes of rich-country governments, that are needed to “make [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, January 21st, 2007
Africa Commission to world: “Show me the money”
Over its first eight chapters, the Report of the Commission for Africa discusses a huge range of the obstacles facing Africa’s development, from the continuing prevalence of conflict to the scourge of AIDS. It also proposes a range of solutions to these problems, from policy shifts to massive infrastructure projects. Almost everything proposed, however, has [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, January 14th, 2007
Giving everyone a bite of the pie - or, at least, the maize stew
The Commission for Africa Report doesn’t do itself any favours by calling its eighth chapter “Leaving No-one Out: Investing in People.” To anyone who’s worked at an organisation undergoing the personnel policy inspection of the same name, this just conjures up images of council busybodys measuring steps against wheelchair access standards. Mercifully, the chapter is [...]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
Because Trade Legislation Sunshine Clauses *Can* Be Exciting
In my last post, I talked about the Africa Commission’s proposals for preference agreements, that give selected developing countries access to selected rich-world markets on a country-by-country basis. The Commission praises the US for loosening its agriculture preferences so that poor countries can export clothing they’ve manufactured to the US without punitive tarrifs - even if [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Researcher's Log by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
Trade: rich countries’ responsibilities*
The discussion of how economic growth can help Africans out of poverty has often become a row between those who focus on the steps Africans and their governments can take to improve growth rates, and those who focus on the steps rich countries must take. As we saw last time, the Report of the Commission [...]
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