Comments for wondermentwoman.com

Comment on In Egypt, entrepreneurship isn’t all business by Web Consulting

Web Consulting — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:44:33 +0000

Interesting article. Everyone knows there is a lot of skill in Egypt but the problem is who will let the people prevail? The rich business men have it in their best interest to keep the smaller entrepreneurs out of the game. I mean isn’t that just a small part of Egypt’s long list of issues?

Comment on Rwanda: Progress or Democracy? by Misty

Misty — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:14:53 +0000

Geez, that’s uenbielvable. Kudos and such.

Comment on Whole Foods Education? by John B. Chilton

John B. Chilton — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:30:25 +0000

You didn’t really scratch the surface of Don’s argument. He’s trying to get the reader to see some of the problems of public education are due to mechanism design, by taking the mechanism and looking at how it would look in another situation (much more stimulating than going all theoretical).

For example, look at the way public education is funded — by local property taxes. Is it any wonder what happens — that those with higher incomes move away from those with lower incomes? The result is that public school education funding is very uneven, as is advocacy for better schools (those with higher incomes can afford to take time for this activity).

If food was provided through the same mechanism you’d need see the same forces at work — voting with you feet.

If we want to solve the public education problem the way it’s funded is an essential reform.

I presume Don would say it should be funded with vouchers for the power and that education should be privatized. But an alternative is retain public education, but fund it at the state level.

Comment on Dialogue 2010: I’ll take my anger with me by What’s a global niche? A psychic solution to your global identity crisis!

What’s a global niche? A psychic solution to your global identity crisis! — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:16:09 +0000

[...] Many of us know the bittersweet liminality of living between multiple worlds, and the soul-sprung righteousness of refusing to settle on just [...]

Comment on The color of writing by Hybrid ambassadors

Hybrid ambassadors — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:14:55 +0000

[...] Praag ~ We Write History Today Anastasia Ashman ~ Great White People Book Club Elmira Bayrasl? ~ The Color of Writing Jocelyn Eikenburg ~ The Problem with ‘Chinese [...]

Comment on Stop it by Rose

Rose — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:17:19 +0000

Thank you. It hits me in my core, too. We just have to keep writing and working and making change — we’re all in it together.

Comment on Move over MBAs… by Colleen

Colleen — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:41:27 +0000

GREAT post… but I’d go a step further. I think the notion that nonprofits need MBAs is out-dated. We’ve learned over and over that running nonprofits like private businesses (how MBAs are trained; in the private market) is not only unhelpful, but completely irrelevant (nonprofits operate in the realm of market failures, a thing MBA programs don’t touch). The nonprofit sector DOES need a forward-thinking, entrepreneurial mind-set in their leaders.

The good news seems to be that we are breeding a new generation of leaders that is both entrepreneurial AND public service motivated. Hopefully in the future, the two sectors will thrive hand-in-hand. “Move over MBAs…” is right!

Comment on Wonderment competition: What is development theory? by Ed Carr

Ed Carr — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:49:31 +0000

E: Kaplan has no idea what he is talking about . . . something well-known in development studies. There is a huge body of development theory out there, and absolutely none of it (classic or otherwise) has anything to do with rising expectations and political upheaval. This is a vague rereading of the neoliberal vision for development . . . but hardly a fair reading. It is hard to think of anything as “classical development theory”. When I teach it, I tend to see several historical schools: “big push” theories (aka Stages of Growth) (50s-60s), modernization (60s-70s), poverty reduction (70s-80s), dependency theory (a body of critique loudest in the 70s-80s), neoliberal approaches (aka Washington Consensus 80s-90s), and rise of the “posts” – various forms of postmodern critique (90s). Of course, none of these is exclusive – big push was always going on somewhere, even in the Millennium Village Project today. I recently rebutted a blog post on the Guardian’s development blog calling for a return to modernization. And I don’t claim that this typology is perfect – I am sure that others have their ways of splitting things up.

This quick post is probably not the most compelling I’m happy to try to condense a reading of any/all of these bodies of thought for you – or to offer some resources for learning about them. I think that knowing the history and philosophy of development is hugely undervalued in development and aid circles . . . and the cause of a lot of problematic projects.

Comment on The irresponsible nation? by Catherine Yi?it

Catherine Yi?it — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:55:47 +0000

It’s such a powerful image – the schoolyard taunts. And so very sad that we haven’t moved past this stage yet.
It’s much easier not to hear people, when everyone talks at the same time.

Comment on The irresponsible nation? by Anastasia

Anastasia — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:52:02 +0000

Thanks for the reminder Elmira that responsibility is not the black and white issue we’d like to make it in moments like this, nor is the whim of public opinion what the country is founded on.

However it may be wrong to lay blame (willy-nilly I want to say but have no idea why the horrible expression is coming to me), though, the urge to do so is indicative of a general feeling that the truly responsible parties are unreachable.