“Assuming an average annual 5.3% economic growth rate, it will take until 2060 for the DRC to reach the level of GDP per capita it had in 1960.”
“East Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta announced that he has taken a job with the UN as human rights czar, although his term does not expire until 2012. The fact that he already has a job as elected leader of the southeastern Asian island nation will force a special election within 90 days of Ramos-Horta’s departure, an event that could spur political instability and violence.”
So . . . it turns out the most expensive city in the world actually is not London, not New York, but . . .:Luanda, Angola! Interestingly, Africa bosts both the highest and lowest cost cities! (RE: my earlier post, Juba wasn’t on their research list so the jury is still out)
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With the return of summer and free time, I’ve found myself listening more to NPR. As such, I have a few show recommendations, all available as podcasts:
APM: Marketplace describes itself as a “money show for the rest of us.” In other words, you don’t need to have a finance specialization or economic background to listen to the show. Though having a basic economic background definitely gets your head churning. The last show on 6/20 talked about China’s attempt to lower oil demand. I found myself thinking why it would and wouldn’t work. Overall, it’s a clever show that provides a daily summary of national and international economic events. For those hardcore, I would also recommend Marketplace Morning Report. The morning show is under 8 minutes and provides slightly better coverage of international market events.
KCRW’s Left, Right & Center is a weekly news roundup that discusses American politics. Unlike other the talking head format, where the discussion can be tedious at best, and devolve into a yelling match, “Left, Right, & Center” attempts to provide a fair and balance discussion of current events. The discussions are always engaging and the differing views are “refreshing.”
I stumbled upon WBUR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook when my friend sent me a link to their show about Rwanda Rebirth. As a non-expert on Africa, I found the show engaging and better than some articles about Africa in the Economist. I haven’t been listening to it that long, but the show appears to be two hours long and divided into two segments. Today’s show talked about War and Peace in Afghanistan while the second hour had the founder of Maxim Magazine talking about how ruthless and getting rich go hand and hand.
I haven’t even gotten to where I’m going yet, and I already have problems. I could say: I’m off to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo), but that’s a mouthful. So I’ve tried shortening it to Congo, in which case I sometimes get: which one? I’ve tried DRC but that’s not always clear to people either (although not usually the same people as those who ask the previous question, but how do you know which category people are in with the first sentance). Then there’s Dr. Congo. Of course if you say Zaire, most people will know exactly what you’re talking about. But one would really have to say: the state-formerly-known-as-Zaire. And there’s always that lovely Conradian nickname, “Heart of Darkness.”
Wikipedia’s disclaimer entry says this: Democratic Republic of the Congo: “Not to be confused with the Republic of the Congo; see also the disambiguation page Congo.” More »
Back in Africa for the summer, on my way to the DRC this time, I am restarting my blog. But before I jump into the future, I have a few Sudan stories that have been written in my head many times and on a piece of paper in the back of a notebook somewhere, but here’s putting them online:
On my last trip out of Juba in mid-December, I got to be part of an inter-community peace meeting. The Lou and Murle cattle raiding had turned into deliberate killing of women and children, with reprisals, and both communities wanted it to end. So, Pact offered to help local NGOs set up a meeting to bring the chiefs, elders, cattle camp youth, women and other key members of the community together to discuss their differences and build trust. This is what I’d come to Southern Sudan for: Conflict Management at work! Finally, away from the unanswerably difficult questions of development to the familiarly challenging questions of Conflict Management: who should be at the table?, where should the meeting take place?, what are the root causes?, what was the trigger for the recent incident?, what does it take to rebuild trust?
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I’m standing at the counter in the kitchen of my comfortable “guest house” aka the Tree House (aptly named for the large tree in the yard) cutting the ends off of green beans for the US Embassy’s July 4th party. In Juba, there is a nice, although chaotic, market where I go nearly every Sunday to get fresh produce: green beans, egg plant, avocados, eggs, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas are my staples. The combination of the market and having a kitchen makes life feel normalish, but the limited ingredients make creativity a necessity in cooking. Thus, I have developed a few “specialties” such as guacamole, eggplant anything, and green bean salad made with blanched green beans, the local cheese (jibna - much like feta), and chopped onions - serve cold (trust me, cold is always better when you don’t have A/C). More »
I have learned two things in the past 48 hours (actually, 3 things):
1. If you want to make a lot of money, consulting is definitely one way to do that. I cannot believe the estimates that I’ve seen roll in regarding this project I’m doing at Nissan.
2. If you want a great summer project (and resume builder), be the intern for a company that is receiving really high estimates from consultants.
3. (see the end of this post)
This is why I’d like to take a moment and thank the well-paid consultants at a particular firm for asking for too much money. Without you, my summer might be less interesting, and my resume more sparse. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Because without you, my bosses would never have said, “They want how much?! We’ll just tell them we’ll have our intern do it.” More »
I know this makes me the worst SAIS student in the world, but I am exhausted from all the politics that have gone on during the primaries and frankly, I stopped “caring” a few months ago. Obviously, I was still concerned with which candidate would secure the election, but my role was complete. The pundits, the rantings, the accusations… I had to get as far away as possible. Tokyo seemed reasonably far.
Turns out, it isn’t.
I arrived in Tokyo a few days before Obama secured the Democratic nomination. While hoping for a respite from the talking-heads by putting an ocean and a continent between myself and DC, I was instead routinely interrogated about the elections, my predictions, and what was going on back home. While I had no desire to regurgitate information about the elections, what was interesting was getting the Japanese perspective on things. More »