Venting and Other Things, Many Other Things

For my International Development and World Monetary Systems class I had to write a summary on some article by Eduardo Aninat who is some Deputy something or other at the IMF. I wouldn't mind reading these articles so much if I'd never read The Elusive Quest For Growth by William Easterly or The Mystery of Capital by Hernando De Soto. Unfortunately, I haven't read The Other Path, but I've heard it's good. De Soto is the only economist I've heard of that has become the target of a terrorist group because of a book he wrote.

That's not the point, though. The point is, I had to summarize this dumbass article touting the Millenium Development Goals. First off, I thought I was done summarizing articles. Part of the reason I choose the math and econ as my majors is that I don't have to write pointless papers that are basically regurgitating someone else's words. Summarization is an exercise in creative plagarism, as far as these assignments are concerned. Second off, those goals are a pleasant idea but that's really all they are. If there was some enforcement of some of the goals, like actually getting countries to allocate 0.7% of their budget for development aid, then maybe some progress could be made. But wait! Even then, how are we going to monitor that aid? After reading a couple of those previously mentioned books, it's a wonder why we give some of these governments aid at all. One blatant and famous example of this is Iraq's "Oil for Food" program. Who did the money that was flowing into Iraq benefit? Saddam? Yep. And many African and Latin American countries have similar problems. There's that and there are other bureaucratic reasons, as well. For development issues, the best source of current information and genuine debate is Bill Easterly's blog.

Also, the article mentioned some of the cures for poverty. Programs like debt relief, which have been tried in the past and have failed, were one of his suggestions. The article was written in 2002 when Bono, the Pope, and Jeff Sachs were in vogue and pushing debt relief as the cure for poverty. Another measure mentioned was a call for social safety nets for developing countries to soften negative transition impact. Where are these governments getting the money to fund these programs? The rich countries? And would the money even actually make it to those who the programs intend to benefit? Who knows? The kicker sentence was this: "The need for the kind of high-quality analysis that the IMG provides, helping to keep the global economy on an even keel, has become more evident." That's one helluva plug.

Needless to say, it took me forever to write the damn summary and it's quality is... questionable.

Thankfully, Pichler (the prof) decided that instead of a test we'd write a midterm paper and a term paper. I really am happy about that, too, because he asked us to analyze these papers rather than regurgitate them. I much prefer those types of assignments. The only problem is that if I don't get this midterm written before April 3rd, I'll be gone to Italy for a couple weeks. When I get back to Vienna, Iori and I (and hopefully Sam) are going to Budapest, Bratislava and (maybe) Prague. Though I doubt we'll have time for Prague since Iori's leaving on the 20th. I need to make it to Prague, though, because so many people have said so many good things. I feel like I need to see it for myself. Also, I'm thinking I might join Iori in London (if he doesn't mind, of course) for a few days because my break goes from 13:30, 1 April to 14:00, 27 April. It just might be the longest spring break ever.

Besides the cities I've mentioned above, the other cities I'd like to see are, in no specific order:
Dublin
Sofia
Barcelona
Amsterdam (specifically for the Van Gogh Museum)
Belgrade
Istanbul
The Cappadocia Area (Huge underground cities. Awesome.)
Izmir
Munich (specifically for the Hofbrauhaus. I want to see how it compares to the one in Newport.)
Berlin
St. Petersburg
Moscow (these two Russian cities mostly because Ayn Rand's novel "We the Living" is set in St. Petersburg and she - basically - calls Moscow a bitch city, which is why the Reds chose it as their capital. I'd like to compare)

Tyler Cowen recommends rural Albania. I'm not convinced. Out of all of those, though, I'd like to see Sofia and Barcelona the most. I'd like to see what Bulgaria is like since I've heard so much about it from Iori and would like to see where he spends his summers (since he knows where I've spent mine). Barcelona is there because I did a project on it in my high school Spanish course on Gaudí and I remember many of his buildings, including the Sagrada Família, are there. His buildings have a similar attitude that Hundertwasser's buildings have and I like that thing.

Also, I made Cincy style chili yesterday and it was the best batch yet. I used less chocolate and less Worcester sauce, which probably helped it a lot. I bought some Chili Powder today. Hopefully, that'll do the trick. I also think I'm cooking it too long. It's thicker than it should be.

I've covered enough. Done for now.