Assorted Thoughts

Given that, as of late, the world is revolving around the Financial Crisis and its ramifications (or the Crash of 2008 - I think we should now think of this as a seminal event that deserves capitalization!), conversations usually veer off on that topic. I was recently discussing the measurement of prosperity with a friend - and how, for rich countries, GDP appears to be the single most important determinant of prosperity. As Megan McArdle from The Atlantic aptly puts it:

Because fiscal stimulus "working" is more than a question of increasing measured GDP. In every other context, liberals are all too aware of the limitations of GDP as a proxy for human wellbeing. In the context of the stimulus debate, however, all those reservations seem to fly right out of their heads.

Interestingly, the stimulus measures being debated in the United States are intended to positively affect different areas of our society - chief among them, economic output - but also, for instance, the quality of education and access to medical care.

There seems to be a tension in the public debate: we are asking for genuine, systemic change, but at the same time, we are not willing to spend the time and resources necessary to do so. What gives? And the United States is a good example, but it's true in many other places where the status quo is maintained because of some sort of collective inability to compromise.

We have been using the Human Development Index to measure progress in and between countries for nearly two decades - perhaps it would be interesting to adapt some variation of it to suit a national context -- as a proxy for human wellbwing -- it would allow the public to construe well-being in a less unidimensional, more holistic way.

Just a thought.

By the way, the US ranks 15th in the 2008 HDI rankings. Liberia 176th out of 179 countries. And Sierra Leone, its neighbor, trails in the last position.


- I like this, although I'll cynically add that there might be something a little bit contrived about it... (via TED)

- I missed this story earlier this month. The violation of refugee and human rights goes unabated, in a context of complicated politics between Egypt and Israel. Once again, the UNHCR is unable to weigh in decisively - I'm looking forward to the 2009 edition of the Human Development Report, which will focus on migration, both within and beyond borders.

- Lastly... I am extremely pleased that B. Easterly just debuted his blog. He started with a bang, throwing punches at Jeff Sachs and Robert Zoellick, and making fun of Davos party-goers (I am secretely hoping that the title of that particular post..."and now for something completely different:..." is a direct reference to Monty Python.)

A good response to Easterly's criticism of Zoellick's plea for increased and sustained foreign aid flows can be read here. Excerpt:

But these are not normal times we are living in. Poor countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, are facing an unprecedented crisis. Private capital flows, which had been rising faster in Africa than any other region, are drying up or reversing. Remittances, estimated at $20 billion a year to the continent, are also slowing because, for the first time, the crisis started in the sending countries (77 percent of remittances to Africa come from the U.S. and Western Europe). And the fall in commodity prices is sending many commodity exporters into a recession. Previous growth decelerations in Africa have been associated with increases in poverty, infant and child mortality and out-of-school children. Worst of all, just when economic reforms were beginning to take effect in Africa (growth had been sustained for ten years and accelerating over the last three), people are being asked to tighten their belts—for a crisis that is not even remotely their fault.

New Look!

Well, I'm not gonna lie -- I'm a little bit excited about my new layout and look. I find it "cleaner", easier to read, no? For all 8 of you (oh boy!) who follow me on Google Reader and other feed aggregators, I guess this won't make much of a difference to your Meanderings experience... (although you should click now and check it out, if you haven't already - aren't you curious?)

I'm hoping that my spiffed up new blog will force me to write more regularly... I tend to compose entire blog posts in my head on my way to and from work, or during yoga (yes, I know I should be "in the moment", but I can't do it!), or other times when my mind wanders (meanders! my mind meanders... hence the name of this blog). However, once these posts are all composed in my head, I get caught up in other things and forget to actually write it, and publish it.

In any case, I've gotten some positive feedback from actual people I know who read this blog (hello JK and LDP!), which is nice. I hope to keep improving - please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email if you agree/disagree/love/hate what I have to say... I'll continue to write earnestly and honestly about topics I care about, and hope that you'll keep following me, wherever my meanderings take me...

Davos not as chic anymore

Via The Daily Beast:

GENEVA — The titans of Wall Street no longer sit atop the magic mountain.

Not long ago, at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, Richard S. Fuld Jr. of Lehman Brothers held forth on the state of the global economy before mesmerized journalists and cowering subordinates while other Wall Street stars mingled after-hours with the likes of Claudia Schiffer, the German supermodel.

As business, government and nonprofit leaders trek up the peak originally made famous by Thomas Mann’s novel, but now better known for the gabfest that begins Tuesday, star power is no longer in[...]

The crisis, to be sure, is hurting some more than others. While Davos will draw about 2,500 participants — roughly the same as last year — it looks as if there will be many fewer members of the tasseled-loafer set strutting down the resort’s snowy streets.

(I love the term "tasseled-loafer set" - perfect!)

At the same time, though, "the superclass parties on":

In short, Fubini's reporting suggests that despite the global financial catastrophe and the PR nightmare of the visit of Detroit's "Big Three" CEOs to Washington via private aircraft, corporate jet traffic to the big party in the Alps is up 25 percent in just two years even as the number of attendees remains flat. As Federico wrote in his note, "It's a relief as I thought there was a financial crisis and global recession out there. I was wrong."

Mmm.

Boon, or bane, or what?!

This is definitely one of these stories that slips under everybody's radar: it takes place in Lampedusa, a small Italian island, does not involve violence and death, and concerns people that no one really cares about - groups of African refugees fleeing from their circumstances.

Just last week, 400 would-be immigrants ended their perilous journey to Europe in Lampedusa. These individuals paid people smugglers $1,000 to cross the Mediterranean. And on Friday, 600 migrants and refugees staged a peaceful protest -- around 1,600 people were being kept in a center designed to accomodate 850.

This story is but one example of the enormous obstacles that migrants are faced with when they make the decision to leave their lives behind, in the hope of finding an "El dorado" in a richer country. In Ghana, often, I would speak with people whose understanding of Europe consisted mainly of money trees, jobs galore, and all around perfection. Even assuming that it's all relative... Clearly, there is a huge misunderstanding, and dealing with the information asymmetry would be a crucial first step to keep these incessant flows of desperate people under control.

It's quite a conundrum, really - because as much as European (and other Western) countries try to shield themselves from illegal immigration (and regular migration, too - it couldn't be harder for my French friends to move to the USA), we have to accept the fact that migrants are a genuine economic force. I know I'm not exactly breaking the news here - what with declining birth rates, aging populations and crises of confidence in the "developed" world, it's been obvious to many, and for a long time, that we need to harness the strength of migrant workers to boost our economies, to revive our countries. Instead, we continue to treat migrants as though they were subhuman -- the above story in Lampedusa is repeated ad infinitam.

In Malta, the same sort of welcome awaits those lucky enough to survive the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean - from the Guardian:

Criticism of Malta's detention policy is mounting. The island is the only EU nation to automatically detain all illegal migrants for a legal maximum of 18 months: there are currently 2,000 in ramshackle camps. The UNHCR has voiced concerns over whether the policy could violate the Geneva Convention, while other NGOs are urging Malta's government to soften its attitude to migrants.

The Jesuit Refugee Service - which carries out advocacy work on behalf of migrants - estimates 98% of young migrants do not receive formal education.

About half of the 4,000 migrants who have been released from detention live in two cramped, unsanitary open centres which are effectively African ghettos. They take the low-paid jobs shunned by an increasingly well-educated Maltese population: portering in hotels, working in factories, as refuse collectors or builders. After eight years of migratory flow to Malta, there few signs of social mobility for Africans.

"The result will be a social catastrophe," says Father Joseph Cassar, of the Jesuit Refugee Service. "In five years I fear we'll see ghettos, social unrest and a rise of far-right politics.

"What is being forgotten here is that these people come from terrible places and are running from the extremes of human behaviour - torture, rape and violence - and deep poverty. It cannot be right to treat them with contempt, detain or house them in horrible conditions, in Europe."

Railing rust bleeds down the once whitewashed walls of Marsa, a dilapidated former school converted into an open centre, which is now home to more than 1,200 migrants. They take turns to sleep in bunks and share putrid lavatories and showers.

Interestingly, on the other side of the world, in Japan: "Thousands of youthful, foreign-born factory workers are getting fired, pulling their children out of school and flying back to where they came from [...] That situation -- the extreme exposure of immigrant families to job loss and their sudden abandonment of Japan -- has alarmed the government in Tokyo and pushed it to create programs that would make it easier for jobless immigrants to remain here in a country that has traditionally been wary of foreigners, especially those without work. "

It is quite fascinating to see that one of the world's richest countries, and also happens to be a traditionally closed society, is among the first to bite the bullet and promote policies which provide incentives (INCENTIVES!) for economic migrants.

"The government's decision will send a much-needed signal to prospective immigrants around the world that, if they choose to come to Japan to work, they will be treated with consideration, even in hard economic times.

There is a growing sense among Japanese politicians and business leaders that large-scale immigration may be the only way to head off a demographic calamity that seems likely to cripple the world's second-largest economy."

So perhaps, once European countries realize that they are essentially shooting themselves in the foot by not harnessing the economic potential of migrants, we will see some changes in policy - but for now, the EU is still obviously figuring out what this will mean in concrete terms. Malta was just awarded 3.7 million euros over 5 years for the integration of migrants - which is great, bravo the EU, but when you read that just the month before, they were granted 122 million euros to "strengthen their borders", it puts the paltry figure for integration in perspective. (Also, knowing that we've been throwing tens of billions of dollars at zombie banks in West on a regular basis makes these numbers look ridiculous, but that's another story)

Japan's policy move is interesting, and I wonder if other countries will follow suit. In the mean time, people will continue to put their lives on the line in the hopes of a brighter future... I suppose this will remain a constant - there will always be more people fleeing than room available to welcome them in third countries. And so it goes... But let's welcome the Japanese initiative as a sign that pragmatism is beginning to punch through the dogmatic straight jacket that holds that "immigrants = bad people".

*****

Last June, I had the opportunity to work with Pierre Le Tulzo, a young photographer, when The Niapele Project hosted events for World Refugee Day. We displayed some of his work in a small exhibition entitled "Malta's Castaways". Through photos and testimonies, Pierre captured the essence of the island. I'll let you see for yourself -below are some photos (of his work, and of the show at Sciences Po in Paris)

© Pierre Le Tulzo Mustafa, 19 , Somalian. « My dream is to solve all my problems, try to go to another country in Europe, if it is possible. That is why I wake up every morning to try to get some job. First I didn’t want to come here, but fuel problems made us come to Malta, we first wanted to go to Italy. » October 2007. © Pierre Le Tulzo

Great Leap Forward

Barack Obama yesterday ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and CIA secret prisons, closing the book on the Bush administration's controversial "war on terror" policies. (Financial Times)

Thank you for restoring dignity to the United States, President Obama.

He is striking the right notes in my book - banning torture, closing Guantanamo Bay, capping the salaries of White House staff to $100K (unlike a certain disappointing someone when he was elected in 2007)

A great leap forward, or a just return to order? Either way, fabulous news. Cheers to GOOD news, for once.