Behind on Reviews: Dead Aid

Done quite a bit of reading lately - through the summer and the travels, but am desperately  posting reviews because the pace of jumping off and on the globe trotting train. Nothing allows for more reading than getting on a 13 hrs international trip, and ending up in a walking urban city with trains that encourage reading, or a  beach. The former was exactly what I got when I headed to Stockholm in May to attend a World Bank Development Conference and pick up an award.

For one, the theme of the conference meant I had to read up very quickly on global development and social intervention. I had purchased three books related to this topic, advocating radical solutions to a pending problem of escalating poverty in the face of increasing aid. This nagging dilemna had exposed me to interviews by author Dambisa Moyo, hence her book Dead Aid readily was my choice for the trip.

Dead Aid really in the first part did an excellent job of identifying the problem of aid. External driven solutions, no local relevance, inability for local economy and capacity to allocate and digest aid and ultimately grinding poverty in the face of donor fatigue. Dr. Moyo's pure market solution however falls short clearly off the mark. The idea of obtaining commercial debt to invest in social infrastructure with no market return is clearly nonsensical. Clearly, in accusing the current donor state of using outworn ideas of state driven solutions, Dr. Moyo missed an opportunity to recommend a framework that is people centric, focusing on innovation and the individual entrepreneur rather than the state.



Dr. Moyo's insistent focus on the aid givers modifying the behavior clearly misses the point. Who is to tell the aid givers don't seek continuous relevance by insisting on giving aid wrongly? She clearly ignores the politics of aid giving (read, Confessions of Economic Hitman and Predator State). The emphasis then must be on the response of the aid recipients, whose life have not improved regardless of the aid...and not even the giver or the leaders of the recipients. The recipient in this instance will be the African on the street...the right response will be :

• Insist on good governance, and real representation
• Reject enslaving external debt: be they concessional or commercial
• Insist on local priorities relating to projects etc.
• Commit to education, innovation and self-help versus hand-outs
• Consolidate aid, and direct resources to area of most need.
• Embrace Public Private Partnership 
• Insist on local production, and eschew importation 

These are seven step responses that Africans, the aid recipients, can take rather than quite frankly waiting on dead donors of dead aid. It is he who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches the most.

Patton: A Story Worth Retelling

For history, and more especially military history buffs, this book is worth picking up. Essentially a chronological retell of the life story of one of the most storied Generals of the last century, the authors put a scalpel in a history often bereft with half tales, luscious gerrymandering and flourishes and attempts to bring some dose of reality to the man, the story and the legend.

The book was an easy read..taking less than forty eight hours to devour at a sitting. The authors while seemingly not making excuses for the General, did attempt in many cases to explain away his weakness which they themselves highlight. No doubt, readers were steered in the direction of coming away with a fond recollection of the man..which essentially all, perhaps except a few purist or antagonist, would find easily anyway.

The book gets a A+ for honesty, B for literary flourish and C for objectivity. Four stars from me.

__
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Brothers on Spice Isle

Smack in the middle of East Caribbean, at Grenada, am enjoying a vacation of a lifetime. It has been a thrill thus far savoring this beautiful Island of peaceful people and diverse vegetation and wildlife. From the beaches to the mountain ranges, my brother and I hiked to the fresh water of the lake formed by the twin waterfalls we swam in or the indelible lake Antoine a mile or so to the ocean, at a depression in the middle of mountain ranges that disappear into that ocean, or even to Grand Etang Lake formed as a back drop the rain forest mountains...this has been a thrill.

If nature was all that I connected with on this trip, after a year travelling to the pacific coast twice, to the south east coast of Miami once, then it would be a wasted trip. This trip however have afforded me an even greater appreciation of the human connection and how small our world is. Here I met our immediate neighbor in Ibadan working on Island as a medical instructor, a friend of a friend that have seen over and over in Houston also is here and we plan to meet tomorrow. The daughter of our host, an uncle to my brother, lives fifteen minutes off my home in Houston...what a coincidence unh? Small world.

What else? Yes my brother..that guy. This has been a journey of discovery and bonding for both of us, Aside for affording us an opportunity to rub minds of pending family issues and make key decisions, it also offered us an opportunity to bond and explore his matrilineal heritage together. Of course, we ran into doubters of our blood relationship, and we occasionally had to fake who was older (yes, he is..by many years..lol). But in all, we have had a good bonding experience together.

For one, my feeling around my elder brother that I never really grew up with (guessed, I longed for that), was one which freed me of the responsibility of leadership and moral precepts that such forces when say holding court in Nigeria with my two sisters, younger cousins or even friends..which invariably always mean I always took the higher road of leadership. This time around, I could be irresponsible and daring (like at  St. Margaret Falls or at Grand Anse beach, St. Georges beach).  and I could cheat him, or play dirty like at the Bathway Beach, St. Andrews. In it all, I stoically enjoyed my little brother role; knowing fully well this would last only about a week or so, and that cascading responsibility that seem never to dodge my footsteps will come all over again.

For now am enjoying myself..three more nights to go; and am already missing Grenada and the joys of brotherly bonding...see complete pictures here.