Jun 3, 2009

Analysis of the six first rounds

During a break, one of the pugilists, Bill "The Watchdog", gave his summary of the match against "Smiling Face" Jeff (the special rounds with Dambisa "One Million Kwachas Baby" are not analyzed):

Huffington PostSensational attackDefense against previous round of attackValid point
Sachs 5/24: Aid IroniesE got aid himself but opposes it for dying babiesNoneImmunization works
Easterly 5/25: Why Critics are Better for Foreign Aid than ApologistsS as bad as Cheney intimidating opponents with smearsS previously quoted E accurately as in favor of what S now says E is againstAid needs critics to make sure it reaches poor people
Sachs 5/27: Moyo’s Confused Attack on Aid for AfricaAid critics don’t understand geography of AfricaS: Don’t worry, I’m smearing Moyo tooMalaria is bad
Easterly 5/29: Geography Lessons: Correcting Sachs on African Economic DevelopmentConvoluted S geography theory uses a lot of Ifs, Buts and Excepts to fit Africa, ignores bad governmentE: Bad government is more important than bad geography to explain Africa’s povertyAid should not go to bad governments
Sachs 6/1: No Need to Oversimplify PovertyE has “pre-scientific” mono-causal, bad government explanation for povertyS admits Zimbabwe has a bad government; geography theory data mining is justified in “complex systems”Poverty is complicated
Easterly 6/2: Astrology, Despotism, and AfricaS doesn’t understand data mining, which makes geography analysis = astrology; S calls despotisms besides Zim “potentially well governed”E: All science tests one thing at a time, such as bad government, not equivalent to believing only one thing mattersPeople adapt to geography thru trade & technology (like bed nets from S!) & migration

4 comments:

Pierre-Louis said...

you seem to be following the debate...when will we have the chance to read your opinion about it? or are you just a neutral observer?

me when I read stuff like "Moyo’s book has done a lot of harm, which will have a real human cost.
" or "it is adding to the prejudice against aid that is so common in the UK public and other rich nations" I think Moyo's detractors are insane...

Pierre-Louis said...

these quotes are from here

Dany Jaimovich - Bakary Baludin said...

Well our One Million Kwachas Baby is not helping her self too much saying things like:
"For example in the 1970's less that 10 percent of Africa's population lived in dire poverty -- today over 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa lives on less than US$2 a day."
Even a lot of her ideas make sense, if you just say something like this you shouldn't expect to be considered too seriously in academia...

I have my opinions, but I will wait until my upercut is good enough to jump in the ring...

Katine Editor said...

Jeffrey Sachs will be doing an online chat answering questions on aid and development on the Guardian’s Katine website next Tuesday (9th June). You can post your questions here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2009/jun/02/jeffrey-sachs-online-chat