Posts Tagged ‘development’
Is development a (Waltian) “bad idea”?
If you haven’t seen it yet, Stephen Walt’s piece, “Where Do Bad Ideas Come From?”, in the new issue of Foreign Policy demands a read. He starts with the obvious — that we never learn from our mistakes — but asks, when it comes to our policy decisions about the world, why? The possibilities are [...]
A poetic pause for “The Brown Man’s Burden”
TexasinAfrica recently pointed me to a poem I hadn’t seen before, and I basically think it should be required reading for anyone in aid, development or journalism that writes about either of those (and so many other) things. The poem is by Henry Labouchère, at times a journalist, at times an art critic, at times [...]
An almost-meeting of the minds
Two weeks after I get back from Rwanda, who shows up but Paul Kagame? He is, of course, the president of Rwanda, and he’d been invited to MIT to give a lecture about the role of science and technology in African development. It is a little embarrassing, but I did in fact tear up a [...]
Decoding the news
Here’s an article from Agence France Press, which is like the A.P. or Reuters–those big news organizations that cover the world in “traditional journalism style.” You’ll recognize it; it’s that thing Jon Stewart mocks so brilliantly. The article is short, but I made it shorter, so I can get to the point: BUJUMBURA (AFP) — [...]
You know you’ve hit the next peg of development when…
There’s a rush hour. That’s right, Kigali has a full-fledged rush hour. It took ten minutes to get from the hilltop to the traffic light near my house, the entire length of which is maybe a quarter of a mile. The lane opposite us was free and clear, but we were clogged like the Lincoln [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [