Russia-Nigeria energy linkup

I'm sorry to double post Chris Blattman once again but this one is too funny:

It probably seemed a good idea at the time. But Russia's attempt to create a joint gas venture with Nigeria is set to become one of the classic branding disasters of all time -- after the new company was named Nigaz.

The new company Nigaz plans to invest at least $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in oil and gas exploration and aims to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations across Nigeria.

The full Guardian article is here.

France in Africa - Quotes

Finally some fine comments from Chris:

“Africa without France is a car without a driver,” he said. “France without Africa is a car without petrol.” (Bongo)

“Elf is not just an oil company but a parallel diplomacy to control certain African states, above all at the key moment of decolonisation. Alongside exploration and production, opaque operations were organised, to keep certain countries stable.”

"Critics of China's (dodgy) Africa resources ventures need not look long into the West's own past to see deeds much worse". (Blattman)

The frist 2 quotes are from Nicholas Shaxson's Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil.

Trade and Climate Change

Last week, the WTO and UNEP released a joint report entitled "Trade and Climate Change".

The Report provides an overview of the key linkages between trade and climate change based on a review of available literature and a survey of relevant national policies. It shows that trade intersects with climate change in a multitude of ways. For example, governments may introduce a variety of policies, such as regulatory measures and economic incentives, to address climate change. This complex web of measures may have an impact on international trade and the multilateral trading system.

While the Report is reminisant of the Stern Review or the IPCC Assessment Report, it's worth having a look at because of its specific focus on trade issues, its detailed examples of national and international policies being adopted, and its overview of the relevant WTO rules. And of course, I can't forget to mention that a couple of Graduate Institute students contributed significant parts of the report.

Corruption: Why fight the roots if addressing the symptoms is so much easier

Here is another example of silly policies to address corruption:

"Staff at Nepal's main international airport are to be issued with trousers without pockets, in an attempt to wipe out rampant bribe-taking"

The entire story is on BBC News

The need to listen

It seems like our school's administration finds it hard to listen to students' recommendations. I was reading the minutes of the Institute's comittee, only to be, once again, exasperated by some kind of stubborness:

- " M. Burrin explique que l'idée est de doter l'Institut d'un texte sur les principes et les valeurs qui devraient lier l'ensemble de ses collaborateurs et être appropriés par tous, comme cela se fait dans de nombreuses institutions universitaires."

- "M. Burrin explique que les professeurs sont payés principalement pour faire de la recherche et que l’Institut ambitionne de développer celle-ci, car c’est grâce à elle qu’une institution rayonne et que les professeurs nourrissent leur enseignement."

- "Mme Komar estime important de trouver un équilibre entre les deux, car l’Institut est également composé d’étudiants."

- "Mme Komar suggère d’ajouter sous « Mission » une référence à la « contribution pratique »
des alumni ayant une position importante dans la société."

- "M. Burrin souligne que le texte sur la mission de l’Institut a été élaboré il y a plus d’un an et qu’il serait probablement formulé en des termes légèrement différents aujourd’hui, mais qu'il ne s'agit pas de le réécrire, l'essentiel de la Charte portant sur les valeurs et principes."

Here's the deal, Komar is a student, and she highlights rightly that teaching is important. The administration seems to want to build a reputation by downgrading teaching. It is obviously completely insane. HEID will have a reputation only when its degress become serious ones, when students finish their degrees with a certain satisfaction and a lot of ambition acquired through influential and motivating professors. This is not the case at all now (with very few execptions) and I don't think the direction has the capacity to grasp this concept.

It's obvious from the minutes above that the director is not willing to take seriously any advice coming from the student body. With this attitude, the school is doomed, with good research output or not.

Corruption or sloppiness?

This past Saturday, an entire apartment building in Shanghai collapsed. Did this happen because of a) sloppy engineers, b) corruption, or c) god's will? Source here.

Jobs to Geneva

"The British-based Economist Group decides to move its headquarters for continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa to Geneva while closing offices in Vienna. In an interview with Swisster, the regional director of the famed financial publishing house, whose multi-faceted operations have expanded to include business intelligence gathering and conference organizing, says the Swiss city “ticks all the boxes.”"

Source here.

If Paul Krugman Were A Woman

'If Paul Krugman Were A Woman' is the title of this great piece on the blog Slate.com, which is a bio of Noriko Hama, a professor of Economics at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

Apparently Hama shares several of Krugman's attributes - as Slate writes, 'she [Hama] is a scholar and polemicist who doesn't shrink from speaking directly about politics. She's also got the columnist's [Krugman's] gift for phrasing and buzzwords'.

RDB Quarterly Report

The RDB just released its first quarterly report! You might be too busy to read the 1,5 pages of text, but still, have a look at it, it's full of nice charts and images!