The lecture I'll always remember from Harvard...

It was our orientation to the MPA/ID program after having gone through a three-week math marathon with one of the greatest mathematics professors I had ever encountered, Prof. Deborah Hughes Hallett, that I heard the sentence "we don't use math because we are smart; we use it because we are not smart enough" from Dani Rodrik, the then chair of the MPA/ID program. He also pointed out, jokingly, that we are at least smart enough to know we are not smart enough to do it without math, thus suggesting that we are one step ahead in the race towards solving the world's problems and making it a better place.

Anyway, what else do I remember form that day? Rodrik started by discussing "the global poverty among plenty"...something that had drawn eighty something of us from around the globe (roughly 50% of us from developing countries alone, which for a change put American students in minority position within the US :)

He then went on to discuss two fallacies:
1. The fallacy of determinism, which basically suggests that the plight or success of a nation is determined by a specific factor, such as history, geography, or the like of it.

2. The fallacy of holistic reform, which basically suggested that small steps won't work and that we need to change 'everything' to get the desired outcome of a better world

Rodrik stated that both these are termed "fallacies" because they are not quite accurate and not the best place to start as they tie our hands, leaving us to believe that well "we can't change their history or geography" or that "changing everything at once is impossible..." so let them (the developing countries) live the way they are as there is not much we can do about it anyway.

He suggested that a better place to start is that something can be done, but obviously, economists being economists just can't agree on this "something" [I am obviously not quoting Rodrik, but just using his ideas and sometimes caricaturizing it, so noone should quote me as having quoted him!]. He suggested that there are broadly three schools of thought on what could be done:

1. Money, and only large quantities of it will do the job. And one way to get the free money is to wait for foreign aid! We need foreign aid and we need alot of them. (Read Jeffrey Sachs)

2. Market is the way, so if things are not working well (automatically, or based on laissez faire), we should make sure there are no impediments s to market mechanism and the rest will take of itself through the market's magical "invisible hands" to use Adman Smith's terms. (Milton Friedman, Friedrick Hayek?)

3. Governance is the way to: Listen to the current world bank advice!

Well, which of these schools of thought did Harvard promote? Not so easy to catch them! Another line that I will always remember from that day was the claim that "we teach you HOW to think, not WHAT to think." I wonder if that claim stands the test of time!

This last line is especially relevant to my current PhD studies at the Korbel School. Some of the faculty members here are quite critical of the "economic approach" to solving social problems, but they (at least the specific individuals) don't shy away from stating their bias...

GDP under fire by Nobel Laureates!

GDP as a measure of a country's well-being is under attack, not for its traditionally cited shortcomings such as not accounting for unpaid work done at home (imagine eating out every meal, washing and cleaning all your clothes outside, raising your kids in daycare centers, etc.), but because it doesn't take into account costs of joblessness and environmental degradation. Read here the NYT article....

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has formed a commission, headed by two Nobel laureates, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen. It comes at a time when the most the world, most noticeably the US And Western Europe, are still suffering from the economic recession, which most people believe is due to imperfect neoliberal policies. Some longtime critics see this is as a sign of the beginning of the fall of the promise of neoliberal policies and free market. Let's see what comes out of this initiative.

One week into PhD!

So I survived my first week of PhD courses. Korbel School is great and given its rather smaller size, you get a lot more student-professor interaction. The good news is I am taking 3 courses only, but the downside is a) it is quarter system, so time really runs fast, b) courses are often reading-heavy (especially if you wanna read the 'optional' ones too), and c) I am taking an RA job and insha'allah will soon get a teaching job too, which will keep me pretty occupied.

Here is something I found really interesting in one of my readings:

Someone was stopped by a cop for speeding at 56 miles an hour. She argued, "But officer, taking the car ahead of me as fixed, I was not moving at all." "Never mind that," replied the officer, "You were going 56 miles an hour along the road, and (as he stamped his foot) this is what is fixed." "Oh, come now, officer; surely you learned in school that this road as part of the earth is not fixed at all but is rotating rapidly eastward on its axis. Since I was driving westward, I was going slower than those cars parked over there." "O.K., lady, I'll give them all tickets for speeding right now-and you get a ticket for parking on the highway." Nelson Goodman (1989) p.84

I know such stuff may be too basic for many people, but having never taken any courses in the field of philosophy, which this particular course is all about (The Normative Foundations of Global Political Economy), it is quite amazing to read this kind of material for a change from graphs and models and Hamiltonians, etc.

The Incred!ble India and some pics :)

The Cricket Team...a lot of fun!

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I often get asked about my experience India. T short answer is that "it was great." And here is the longer answer...

They don't call it "the incredible India" for no reason...it is incredible in so many ways. Of course, I had heard a lot of this in the past, but seeing it is a different story. It was incredible how the entire system works in face of a bursting population, heart-wrenching poverty (with rising inequality... some of the richest people in the world are Indians!), extreme weather conditions, the infamous monsoons and of course the unmatched diversity (Chennai, where we were staying is an entirely different world from any other place, say Kerala, or Mumbai or Hyderabad).

Let me get into some more details - I know this means falling victim to the criticism that I always have of others ("tourists") who stereotype based on their very superficial and 'scratching the surface' understanding of a people. So I am hoping my critics (esp my Indian friends) would be a bit more forgiving. ;)

What really impressed me about India was how "content" people were with their lives. You would see people literally having nothing, born and raised on the streets, often with no shelter or regular food, but still "happy" and satisfied with their conditions (at least seemingly). And it's not that they are unaware of the worldly luxuries. They see skyscrapers and SUVs and posh malls, yet they don't seem to have the temptations or the burning desires to own them...

There were other more obvious things that impressed me about India. One is their touristic sites such as their world famous Taj Mahal, which is again un-describable in words, Humayoon Tomb, wild sanctuaries and places like Munar in Kerala. The food is another obvious element. Although I was unable to develop a taste for Idlis, I loved their Dosai, and snacks like pav bhaji, dahi puri, etc. As for fruits, I believe nothing beats their mangos, and all fresh fruits were simply amazing.

But like anywhere else, not everything is rosy…I won’t discuss the over-discussed issues of poverty, pollution, congestion, etc. What I found uncomforting and sometimes puzzling (for lack of a better word) is how class plays a role in every day life. An example of something that didn’t (and still doesn’t) make sense to me is this: we are all sitting in a restaurant and enjoying the food. Someone calls the waiter and asks him to serve the food that is right in front of him on the table...I always wondered if it was easier to simply help yourself as the serving dish is right in front of you rather than calling the waiter and asking him to do so…maybe I am missing something (I am pretty sure I am), but I had a couple of such observations where hierarchical relationships were simply perplexing.

You can see India as the next rising economic power in the region although they have many many issues to deal with from the environment to poverty, to cultural practices and so on. The Slumdog Millionnaire, although a controversial movie, raises some of these issues in the bustling city of Mumbai.

Below are some of the pictures from our one year time in India, looking at which always takes us back there, reminding us of the good old times, nice friends and colleagues and the incredible experience!

In Kanchipuram, a transition school ran by Hand in Hand (Montessori-style), Photo credit: Joanne Sprague

Najim & Salma enjoying their first camel ride in the beautiful and serene Pushkar!

Heaven on earth....the magnificent tea plantations of Munnar.

Houseboats in Kerala

And now there is "The weekend Taliban"...will we ever learn?!?

Click here for the BBC Article on 11th Sep, 2009
Eight long years have passed since the US-invasion of Afghanistan - nicely named Operation Enduring Freedom - that toppled the Taliban in no time despite their tight control over 95% of the country. One would think that they (the Taliban) would have been wiped off the region by now given more than $20 billion dollars being spent on reconstruction aid (let alone the roughly $30 billion each year spent on the military) in the country. But to our surprise, eight years from the invasion, not only are the Taliban NOT wiped off, they are actually making a comeback and getting more and more popular support from the people every minute that we spend arguing how the billions should be spent. The answer is simple: stop putting them in deep pockets where they disappear or get siphoned off through multiple layers of contracting and sub-contracting, and instead try to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people who suffered under the Taliban and now have no choice but to return to them because they (the Taliban) at least feed their families on roughly $8 a day.

There is more than enough evidence that there are no scary beings called "the Taliban insurgency"...read here...but we are creating them on a daily basis through our unfulfilled promises and repeated mistakes. There used to be the "occasional Taliban" ...read here... and now there are the "weekend Taliban" ...read here... and soon they are going to be the full-time Taliban unless we (all those in charge in Afghanistan who control the flow of money) take immediate actions now to truly win their "hearts and minds" and stop them from becoming full-time Taliban and start another chapter of war and violence in the already war-ravaged country.

Alas, those in charge are caught in a bureau-political quagmire and won't listen no matter how many times the same mistakes are repeated!