What’s wrong with volunteers?
Another post recycled from my blogspot site, on volunteering. It might seem completely contradictory that I am about to lay into volunteers, given that I a) spent a lot of time being one and b) lead...
View ArticleGreen beans and Agriculture : who benefits from Africa’s exports?
A few months back, I went to a debate in a committee room deep in the Houses of Parliament hosted by the Royal African Society jointly with the London International Development Centre. Richard Dowden,...
View ArticleThat warm fuzzy feeling…
A while ago, I wrote about the precarious situation of volunteers and how, in quite a few cases, they do nothing more than fulfil a sense of self-worth and provide a good stock of stories of that time...
View ArticleCensoring just makes me mad!
Ok so whether or not you actually agree/support/endorse this Kony 2012 campaign (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc ) you should be able to accept that if it is ok to plaster facebook and...
View ArticleWhy I don’t support the Kony2012 campaign
I’ve been struggling to know whether/how to respond to this on my blog. For starters, so many others have done so more eloquently here, here and here. I want to just outline my own personal...
View ArticleUnderstanding the links between agricultural productivity and poverty, and...
Ok so here’s a recent paper I wrote on rural livelihoods and agricultural productivity. Let me know what you think and please comment! 1.0 Introduction The question of how best to alleviate poverty...
View ArticleDo the arguments in favour of development aid outweigh the arguments against?...
1.0 Introduction Development Aid (DA) ‘works, it doesn’t work, it can work but that depends…’ (McGillivray et al 2006). Aid works well in some contexts, has no impact in others, and at times can cause...
View ArticleMove on up….
I stumbled across this article in the Washington Post this week about Joyce Banda, Malawi’s new premier and Africa’s second female leader. Perhaps a more thorough and considered analysis of the future...
View ArticleOn the road to Mandalay…
Mingalarbar! Well here I am in Myanmar; a beautiful country full of temples, pagodas, a despotic military regime and a whole lot of ancient history and culture on show for the few tourists that are...
View ArticleConflict and Progress
Myanmar – indeed East Asia – is an entirely new world to me. As the name of my blog indicates, I have spent a lot of time learning and working in Africa focusing on spreading positive and real stories....
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