Today I decided to go to another lecture at the LSE.
The speakers were Professor Devarajan, Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank, and Eric-Vincent Guichard, who was also at the World Bank from 1990-1996 as portfolio manager, but is now an entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Homestrings.
The debate wasn't your typical Aid vs Trade argument, "but they'll become dependent", "but they're already in a poverty trap", "but aid won't get them out of the trap" type thing, it was somewhat broader view of the whole issue.
Basically Prof. Devarajan's view was that everything that Africa tries to do is tied up in a political mess, which causes government failure, and then he gave some proposed solutions. He was very easy to understand.
The other guy, not so much. I did understand some of it- he proposed that the old paradigm of "Aid vs Trade" was passe, and that a new paradigm of "Pre vs Post commodity boom" was needed. Then I got really confused when he started talking about the Diaspora and Diaspora bonds :/
*Pauline Hanson voice*: "Please explain?"
It finished at about 10 to 8 and then I made my way home. I'd missed dinner and so I signed up for late dinner. Late dinner is at 10-10.15. The senior kids are supposed to come and serve the food.
They rocked up at 10.15. Hmmm they really didn't take it seriously. There were 2 of them, and they were just taking the piss out of everything. Until I asked them whether we could have the light on, I think we were expected to eat in darkness. And then after they served us, they played with the shutters of the canteen, pressing the button and opening and closing it. Real mature, peeps :|
Then I went to sleep. I have a slight sore throat :(
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The speakers were Professor Devarajan, Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank, and Eric-Vincent Guichard, who was also at the World Bank from 1990-1996 as portfolio manager, but is now an entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Homestrings.
The debate wasn't your typical Aid vs Trade argument, "but they'll become dependent", "but they're already in a poverty trap", "but aid won't get them out of the trap" type thing, it was somewhat broader view of the whole issue.
Basically Prof. Devarajan's view was that everything that Africa tries to do is tied up in a political mess, which causes government failure, and then he gave some proposed solutions. He was very easy to understand.
The other guy, not so much. I did understand some of it- he proposed that the old paradigm of "Aid vs Trade" was passe, and that a new paradigm of "Pre vs Post commodity boom" was needed. Then I got really confused when he started talking about the Diaspora and Diaspora bonds :/
*Pauline Hanson voice*: "Please explain?"
It finished at about 10 to 8 and then I made my way home. I'd missed dinner and so I signed up for late dinner. Late dinner is at 10-10.15. The senior kids are supposed to come and serve the food.
They rocked up at 10.15. Hmmm they really didn't take it seriously. There were 2 of them, and they were just taking the piss out of everything. Until I asked them whether we could have the light on, I think we were expected to eat in darkness. And then after they served us, they played with the shutters of the canteen, pressing the button and opening and closing it. Real mature, peeps :|
Then I went to sleep. I have a slight sore throat :(
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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