whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

... being without ambition. After all, make things tough enough and anyone with any real skill migrates (viz. Zimbabwe, Myanmar, North Korea). This leaves the nation with less ambition than it had befo...

2.
(Comments)

You\'re going to have to do significantly better than a flippant \"there was definitely a need to revisit Zimbabwe\'s property rights\", Omodudu. When you start messing with property rights you are

3.
(Comments)

...over correcting the balance. I wish he was more systematic about it. There was definitely a need to revisit Zimbabwe\'s property rights....

4.
(Comments)

I agree that Zimbabwe has survived due to remittances and informality. However, I question your conclusion that \"No government should ever get rid of its informal economy, even if it were possibl

5.
(Comments)

...r analysis is spot-on, it made the Editor\'s Pick on AfricanLoft. http://www.africanloft.com/whythawk-on-zimbabwe-the-war-of-informal-markets-against-central-states-a-bellwether-of-support/...

6.
(Comments)

...h some form of unfairness. Like rich people stole all the poor people\'s iPhones. This article is about Zimbabwe. A few short years ago Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. Did ...

7.
(Comments)

...c and free-market states. The only countries where the starving exceed the well-off are disaster zones like Zimbabwe, Somalia or the Sudan. These are not countries that many, perhaps even yourself, w...

8.
(Comments)

...with the aggressiveness of city officials - all street hawkers pay something. If our informal sector was Zimbabwe - a sovereign state - would you be so eager to demand of them that they must first ...

9. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

...having the fortune of an entire nation in their hands, or is it about personal enrichment? Independence in Zimbabwe came at a high cost. Many lost their lives and homes. Parents never saw their child...

10. Zimbabwe's winds of change are blowing once more
(Analysis/Analysis)

... at night they were working with the Americans and the British - what a shame. They can never be leaders of Zimbabwe - they are traitors and all Zimbabweans see them like that. They are abandoning the...

11. Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist?
(Analysis/Analysis)

The queues in Zimbabwe, that shopper's paradise, were extra long this Christmas. Ordinary people were withdrawing their maximum daily allowance of Z$ 50 million while business owners were shunted

12. Simba the Saviour?
(Analysis/Analysis)

For 28 years, the Zimbabwean ruling party, Zanu PF, has campaigned using the same old slogan, "We liberated this country." Thank you very much for your efforts, now liberate us by stepping

13. Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent
(Analysis/Analysis)

...epredations of despotic, all-powerful, capitalists. A quick glance around the planet reveals the opposite. Zimbabwe, North Korea, Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq all have lots of politics, but very little ca...

14. Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...you think that the nation of Lesotho would benefit if South African mines sent the Basotho home? How about Zimbabwe if the 3 million of their citizens in the diaspora were sent back? Minister Manuel...

15. Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom
(Analysis/Analysis)

...onomic freedom and wealth," says Neil Emerick, of the Foundation. It should come as no surprise that Zimbabwe is considered the least economically free nation on Earth. Economic freedom is dis...

16. Africa, China and Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

..., or you can voluntarily give our nominees a share of your company. Old Mutual, with a large investment in Zimbabwe, is being forced to hand 51% of their local value to government nominees. South Af...

17. The spectre of loyalty over ability
(Analysis/Analysis)

...hey have most value. The migration of talent happens especially at the supra-national level. Millions of Zimbabweans fleeing the collapse of their nation are doing so in the hopes of investing thei...

18. Investment cannot happen if the market isn't private
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y see they will want to invest. Who knows, despite the obvious failures of government strategy on AIDS and Zimbabwe, they may be right. Foreign tourists arriving in South Africa in 2010 will (all go...

19. Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality
(Analysis/Analysis)

... makes little sense," they conclude. In a failed state, such as Nigeria or Sierra Leone or Myanmar or Zimbabwe, there is a clear government. What is not clear is who that government governs. W...

20. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y society that kills production has a finite bank account that will eventually be overdrawn? The world of Zimbabwe resonates with John Galt Yet what Rand had to say resonates today. Her antagonism...

21. Zimbabwe: the Hollow State
(Analysis/Analysis)

Three weeks ago Tama Muru from the BBC asked me if I thought Zimbabwe would explode. At the time I said, "No." Was I wrong? The situation three weeks ago was this: The Zimbabwe dollar

22. Zimbabwe: recovering the irrecoverable
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t has taken those against free-markets at their word. Over 1 300 business owners have been arrested across Zimbabwe. Their crime? Raising prices. For the past decade Robert Mugabe has accepted eve...

23. The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support
(Analysis/Analysis)

"When do you think Zimbabwe will collapse?" asked Tama Muru, from the BBC's HARDtalk. "It has already collapsed," said Whythawk. Zimbabwe, for all the posturing by Robert Mug

24. Getting Home in Zimbabwe: The impossibility of public transport
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e time you finish reading this article the cost of a taxi-ride home from work in Harare will have doubled. Zimbabwe, which continues to subsidise fuel prices, has had fuel shortages for the past seve...

25. The tragedy of innovation: how brilliant ideas are criminalised
(Analysis/Analysis)

... For the record: life expectancy in the US, EU and Japan is around 77 - 80 years; it is 33 in Zambia, 37 in Zimbabwe and 47 in South Africa. It may interest you to know that the AVERAGE age in the US...

26. Two Frontiers: wars of liberation and of determination
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y and how come there are no opposition newspapers allowed in Saudi Arabia. Geoffrey Nyarota, editor of the Zimbabwe Daily News whose printing presses were fire-bombed, his newspaper banned, and who i...

27. The efficiency of markets and how protectionism leaves the poor behind
(Analysis/Analysis)

...oil on the planet. Far from producing food, most of the land is either within unstable kleptocracies (like Zimbabwe) or covered in landmines (like Angola and Mozambique). Sub-Saharan Africa could pr...

28. Nigeria, or the idiots guide to stealing an election
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ngratulate Yar'Adua on his success. I don't know what he sees that we don't. Comparisons with Zimbabwe will not be mentioned," he laughs again. Kukah was alluding to Zimbabwe's...

29. Jacob's ANC Ladder: the power of the state, the power of the party
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nbsp; The Unions are now in the ascendancy after Mbeki squandered his moral authority on the twin perils of Zimbabwe and AIDS (in both cases the president supports inaction).  That's just the...

30. Racial arguments muddy human rights and the ending of poverty
(Analysis/Analysis)

...  Colonial rule in Cambodia gave way to Pol Pot, the Khmer’s Rouge and the killing fields.  Zimbabwe’s Mugabe has justified his oppressive and heavy-handed dictatorship in terms ...

31. Zimbabwe at the Security Council; South Africa's unequivocal support
(Analysis/Analysis)

...r window of opportunity is fast closing, as Britain will next month assume the chairpersonship. If they put Zimbabwe on the agenda when we opposed such a move, our moral high ground will be lost compl...

32. What happens when they hate you? The impact of charity.
(Analysis/Analysis)

... expend effort developing land that may be taken away before they experience the rewards of that labour; as Zimbabwe does.  It is no good refusing to purchase agricultural produce from a nation a...

33. The 'War Against Corruption' starts with ending the 'Culture of Entitlement'
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tandard market practice and stealing something directly. Consider the land “reform” process in Zimbabwe.  The government identified that poverty was associated with landlessness and ...

34. Does the new Apple iPhone cause poverty?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...act on the lives of refugees from the conflict in ((Darfur)) or those suffering under the dictatorship in ((Zimbabwe)).  They are not involved in its production and none of the materials required...

35. The quiet nobility of the men by the side of the road
(Analysis/Analysis)

... learned to accept assistance from the outside will pay little attention to their own development.  In Zimbabwe the very foreign governments that Robert Mugabe rails against are responsible for f...

36. A revitalised UN may improve development in Africa
(Analysis/Analysis)

... land in the world is currently under plough.  And all this land lies in a broad swathe across Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, , Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique.  Most of the agricu...

37. The Responsibility Gap
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ed, there is little the US - or anyone else - can do about it. The same is true for Ethiopia, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe or any of the other benighted spots that are mentioned in the UN report. It is not ...

38. Our Analysts
(Static Content)

...cts analysis and formative research in the production of individual development ratings. Gerald was born in Zimbabwe where he was involved in rural education.  He is currently studying for a Bach...