De Soto on Cities

The primary problem is the delay in recognizing that most of the disorder occurring outside the West is the result of a revolutionary movement that is more full of promise than of problems. Once the potential value of the movement is harnessed, many of its problems will be easier to resolve. Developing and former communist nations must choose to either create systems that allow their governments to adapt to the continual changes in the revolutionary division of labor or continue to live in extralegal confusion--and that really isn't much of a choice...

Extralegal zones in developing countries are characterized by modest homes cramped together on city perimeters, a myriad of workshops in their midst, armies of vendors hawking their wares on the streets, and countless crisscrossing minibus lines. All seem to have sprung out of nowhere. Steady streams of small crafts workers, tools under their arms, have expanded the range of activities carried out in the city. Ingenious local adaptations add to the production of essential goods and services, dramatically transforming certain areas of manufacturing, retail distribution, building, and transportation. The passive landscapes that once surrounded Third World cities have become the latest extensions of the metropolis, and cities modeled on the European style have yielded to more noisy, local personality blended with drab imitations of suburban America's commercial strip. (De Soto, The Mystery of Capital)

Why Learning to Write is Important

This caustic piece about the patronizing, self-congratulatory language of people writing about Africa reminds me of the importance of learning how to write. I'm not talking about how to put a sentence together. I'm talking about all those tools of literary analysis that you learn in English Literature that seem to have no direct relation to something like economic development--tone, style, imagery, metaphors, cultural theory and all that good stuff--and how to apply those tools to produce effective writing.

Learning how to write about another culture is neigh impossible. Maybe it is impossible. Chinua Achebe is familiar with the contradictions and difficulties. To me, it seems obvious that the difficulties of development are akin to the difficulties of writing about Africa or any less developed country/poor country/third world country/country of the economic south. How does one figure out the right tone/authorial stance? the right narrative structure? How, if one desires to persuade in development writing, does one overcome the difficulties of establishing ethos/speaker credibility? Surely, part of what is so offensive about Brooks' recent column about intrusive paternalism in Haiti is the fact of his unalterably being white, male and upper class.

Similarly, how do developed countries and aid organizations figure out their role in the development of other countries?

Jet Lagged

I am severely jet lagged at the moment and reading Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I ordered the book off Amazon after a recent trip to Bangkok and exposure to the city's in-your-face sex tourism.

My decision to read the book was questionable at best. Its journalistic prose flows easily and doesn't induce the sleep I was seeking. Also, I am not quite sure I want to fall asleep thinking about the forced prostitution in Cambodia and India.

Anyway, the book provides an interesting perspective on the efficacy of aid work, which I found a refreshing respite from the economic analyses of Easterly and other development economists. In describing a Seattle private school community service project to help construct a school in Cambodia, the authors write:

In February 2003, the school construction was complete, and Grijalva led a delegation of nineteen students from Overlake School to Cambodia for the opening. A cynic might say that the money for the visit would have been better spent building another Cambodian school, but in fact that visit was an essential field trip and learning opportunity for those American students.

From personal experience, advising high school community service projects in Ecuador, the inspiration and broadening-of-perspective dividend to be had in helping others is non-negligible for sure. But few economic analyses of aid work take this factor into account.

Call me a romantic, but I'd like to not undervalue inspiration and goodwill.