Krugman gets tribal; Bank v Fund; new blogs for wonks; does Islamic rule boost women’s education?; and an easier way to fetch water: links I liked
‘Which side are you on?’ Paul Krugman gets tribal on healthcare reform
‘The current crisis has yield a windfall gain for the IMF in terms of new resources and enlarged mandate. Where does this leave the World Bank? The Bank seems to be faltering in making its case. The initial reaction to calls for a capital increase at the Istanbul Annual Meetings were decidedly negative. All attention was focused on the Fund.’ Danny Leipziger, a former World Bank Vice President, turned academic, laments the Bank’s institutional eclipse at the hands of the IMF.
The world needs new blogs, (honest), and here are two promising additions at the techier end:
Complexity and change wonks should check out the ‘aid on the edge of chaos’ blog (sounds like my desk….)
The ‘real world economics review’ (formerly the much more memorable, but less correct ‘post autistic economics review’) has started a blog. Economic dissidents like Frank Ackerman, Paul Davidson, Paul Ormerod, Kevin Gallagher, Mark Weisbrot, Steve Keen and Dean Baker have already posted (and I believe women are also allowed…..)
Time for some ‘man bites dog‘ research findings: ‘Islamic rule has had a large positive effect on education, especially for women’, from a new academic paper that looks at post-election education and employment trends for women [h/t Chris Blattman]
And finally, (also c/o Chris) no more back breaking trips to the well – can
anyone tell me why water wheels are not a brilliant idea?
November 9th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Interesting research about education for women in Islam. I’ve not the figures to prove it but I’ve seen something similar with evangelical Churches in Latin America. Their USA fundamentalist inspired theology is not particularly woman friendly at first glance ( sorry if that upsets anyone ) but it does provide an area for women ,particularly poor women, to develop and participate in a society where such opportunites are v. limited.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Water wheels are an amazing idea.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
For the water wheels: you need a flat terrain (no slopes, no rocks in the middle, no deep sand, no mud…), you need width (forget slums), you need retailers with the product available to replace it when it breaks (same reason why water filters are great in theory but don’t work once the NGO leaves). Also, pulling it as on the picture is OK on flat terrain, but as soon as the wheel is blocked, the extra push needed is really bad for your back.
And more than £35 per drum? What exactly is their market?
Remi
November 9th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Don’t know if it’s cheating to post twice but I can see lots of reasons why the water wheel is not a runner.
I bet it’s expensive to produce for one. The link doesn’t seem to show how much each costs.
They will be quite expensive to transport too, it takes up space with empty volume inside.
You have more surface area per volume so I’d guess it would be relatively harder to keep clean and keep the water cool.
Finally I guess ,while it might be a pragmatic solution to an individual families problem , I think it would be better (and cheaper) development for communities to develop community solutions to community problems like lack of clean water. (like the UK did in Victorian times)
November 9th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Water wheels:
I’d be interested to know if they have any implications for needing more frequent handwashing… presumably they can get relatively dirty as they roll which then can transfer to the users’ hands when they tip it to pour (unless you wash the sides once you put it upright for storage). Other vessels I can think of only usually have the base in contact with the ground.
And I’d be interested to know how much easier the users consider it is than other options… a common issue I’ve seen is people going to the most convenient source regardless of water quality – has the water wheel encouraged people to go further to get better quality water? (In addition to the more obviously likely benefits of greater quantity and ease of transport, regardless of quality).
November 10th, 2009 at 7:07 am
because they’d be hell to pull uphill. Balancing something on your head makes it more or less equal effort uphill, downhill or flat.
and because they’d get damaged very quickly on rocky rough terrain.
finally the PAER is very good, so that new blog is a great piece of news.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Are those water wheels anything new? My parents use a rolling drum for fetching water for their caravan and have done since I was kid.
They are probably a great thing to put on the market but development organisations shouldn’t get distracted in to providing this kind of thing in comparison to building greater economic opportunity and equality to give families the choice themselves of whether to buy one or not
November 13th, 2009 at 4:58 am
On impacts of Islamist rule in Turkey, my question would be, are the Mayors elected by predominantly high-school and university educated citizens or not? My observation in Indonesia, when an Islamist mayor is elected, his (I’ve never heard a woman being an islamist Mayor) voter base is university students and university graduated. A contrasting example is Depok, one of the first cities in Indonesia to have an islamist Mayor. Depok is a students’ city for almost 20 years, with universities and their facilities spread in the city.
So if cities compared according to the political orientation of their Mayors and impacts on women education and jobs, it’s not anymore man bites dog news, as most islamist voter bases in developping countries have better education than those of populist voter bases. And it is the interest of islamist parties to grow in better educated communities.