these are some links i've liked over the past month (sorry if they're a little outdated, i don't get a lot of internet leisure time):
on liberia:
on liberia:
- "liberia's security will not be at risk": as she leaves, the UNMIL SRSG, Ellen Loj, says that the international community will continue to stand by liberia, and cites the improvement of security sector as major remaining priority. while not groundbreaking news, certainly, it is vaguely reassuring, i guess?
- ellen promises GDP growth and, more importantly for national reconciliation in the wake of electoral unrest, youth employment programs targeting the main constituency of the opposition.
- an op-ed in the nyt opposing the strategy of economic growth that relies on granting concessions of land and resources for foreign countries. i think that one of the most interesting things to watch going forward in liberia will be if and how the government manages to ensure that the benefits of extracting liberia's abundant natural resources (rubber, palm oil, lumber, gold, iron, and, possibly, oil) devolve to the population. this has historically reeeallllly not been the case in liberia. more on this at some point....
- discussions (including important critiques of methodology, or lack thereof) from a view from the cave and find what works in the global journal's ranking of 100 best NGOs
- a criticism (and response) on the world bank's excellent impact evaluations blog of the use of conditional cash transfer for school enrollment (giving cash directly to mothers on the condition that their children, mostly daughters, attend school)
- johnson and johnson declines to put three ART patents into the medicine patent pool to reduce cost to poor consumers. this is a bummer.
- the argument for technological change, and thus economic growth, being driven, not by markets, but by government investment.
- paul simon's graceland reconsidered, on the anniversary of its relase.
- vote in bill easterly's exploiting africa academy awards for the movie that uses "the most insulting and exploitative images of Africans, usually being heroically saved by some white people" (h/t blattman)
- highlights and conclusions from the sixth annual poppov conference on population, reproductive health, and economic development
- an typically awesome infographic from information is beautiful on the way we talk about ideas.
- if you're doing research on illegal activity as an academic, the government can, apparently, demand your notes and even the names of your informants. this kind of suppression of academic freedom is completely horrifying to me. more than it should be maybe.
- without engaging on the ethics of the activities of this memoirist, i just want to say that the concept of "tit whisker" is pretty much my new rallying cry. it's emblematic of something that's not inherently scatologically gross, but is discomfiting and taboo because it runs counter to the very specific ways that the acceptability of women's bodies is policed. and we're complicit in it! it's bull. TIT WHISKER, I SAY.
- speaking of empowering: check out this article on "how to be a woman in any boys' club". it is so intimately familiar, but so much better ariculated than i ever could have done.
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