whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

...who would likely not otherwise have access to them. Those computers have the potential to connect those children to so much information, ideas, other nations and cultures, and give them something int...

2.
(Comments)

...e yourself or others if you did not know how to drive it. Is there any such similar and real risk to the child and the community with receiving the computers? If so, I would genuinely be interested in...

3.
(Comments)

...er start forgetting that they\'re employs and start thinking they\'re the parents of particularly stupid children....

4. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nly replaced after death. In many cultures, they are replaced by a family member, a sibling, relative or child. This culture appears to have rubbed into many African leaders who, against the wishes of...

5. Perlemoen and the Tragedy of the Commons
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t other options don't exist. It is just as clear that many, such as Ehrenreich, would rather their children deal with environmental disaster in the future than accept responsibility for their ow...

6. This festive season: the accumulating effects of individual activity
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ere those terrible leaches on society – capitalists – who would sell their own grandmothers, children and wives to make mincemeat to sell to horses to make craft-glue-macramé-sandal...

7. Science gone wrong: when self-delusion leads to death
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nd rubella are terrible diseases that have plagued humanity for generations. They are so common amongst children that they are normally abbreviated together as MMR. Parents all across the world have...

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

...ebel armies hacked off limbs, carving their initials into the victims' flesh as a warning to others. Children, some as young as eight, were forced to batter their parents to death, then eat their ...

9. Freedom of speech is fine, just don't try to use it, says Patricia de Lille
(Analysis/Analysis)

...our society, and to tolerate a platform for this kind of sexual predation and deviance against our young children is inexcusable.  The right to freedom of expression is not absolute." Any t...

10. The future of Newspapers, journalistic integrity and the battle for Google's soul
(Analysis/Analysis)

...or human rights. All we're seeing so far is a pursuit of freedom from responsibility. How much like children. ...

11. One Laptop Per Child, now costing 75% more ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

I have had an ambivalent attitude to the One Laptop Per Child project ever since Nicholas Negroponte, stumped for an answer on the ultimate purpose of the computer, declared, "... there is no el

12. Internet Bubble 2.0: the future of dotcom depends on the mobile phone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...hite males.  We need to do more to democratise the Internet.”  I enquired as to what his children use:  “SMS and MXit,” he responded.  In other words, what a demo...

13. Unlearning helplessness: how donors reinforce poverty and dependency
(Analysis/Analysis)

... that they can do nothing to change their own circumstances. Women who remain in abusive relationships, children who are bullied at school, students who don't study because they believe they'...

14. Demonstration Health HIV / AIDS Orphanage B
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

... Infrastructure - Care-givers Capacity: BBB Physical Infrastructure - Quantitative (Childrens' / Cluster Homes Only): not rated Soft Infrastructure - Information Syste...

15. Demonstration Health HIV / AIDS Orphanage A
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...city: AA Infrastructure - Care-givers Capacity: AA Physical Infrastructure - Quantitative (Childrens' / Cluster Homes Only): A Soft Infrastructure - Information Systems: AA ...

16. The US$ 5 trillion market at the bottom of the pyramid
(Analysis/Analysis)

... of the poor is US$ 5 trillion, according to a study conducted on behalf of the World Bank.  “Children are told, ‘Eat your veggies, there are starving people in Ethiopia!’ and s...

17. While no-one was watching
(Analysis/Analysis)

We have recently started rating AIDS children’s care facilities (the term “orphanage” is anathema).  We received a report about an organisation that was neglecting the children

18. The Last King, the Centralised State, and Democracy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...and methods of interaction; law societies, journalists, rate-payers associations, animal welfare groups, child welfare, tourism societies, NGOs, charities … anyone or anything that acts to crea...

19. Mama Jackie - the "Angel of Soweto" - assaults a journalist
(Analysis/Analysis)

... supporting charities. Mama Jackie was exposed by television actuality show, Carte Blanche, for getting children and family members to fabricate stories in an effort to raise funds for non-existing c...

20. A story of an African Orphan
(Analysis/Analysis)

...This has prompted a flurry of activity in civil society in an attempt to shelter vulnerable and orphaned children. Questions always arise about the best way to look after the little helpless victims o...

21. The Tyranny of Red Lights
(Analysis/Analysis)

...press our desires. The government should act more like a concerned but allowing parent.   If your child wants to find out if they can swim across the deep end of the pool, you could panic and s...

22. The ANC government of South Africa declares its comfort with violence and brutality
(Analysis/Analysis)

...gn nations to intercede in the South African state.  After the Sharpeville Massacre , in which 566 children were killed during a peaceful protest, the world chose to express their condemnation o...

23. Government rewards the worst schools for poor performance
(Analysis/Analysis)

A particular focus of development is always on the value of ((education)).  Without a solid foundation it is impossible for people to look after themselves and they may remain reliant on whatever

24. Millennium Development Goals and the Measurement of Change
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ng the proportion of people who earn less than $ 1 a day Goal 2: achieve universal primary education for children everywhere, both girls and boys Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women by e...

25. The end of wild seafood and the myth of "free"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nbsp; If we fail to express that value the danger is that the free good will be used up like sweets at a children's birthday party.  Deforestation around Lake Victoria - shared by Uganda, Ke...

26. X Challenge: Develop the cheapest most effective school
(Analysis/Analysis)

...er use in schools correlates with lower maths scores and a reduced reading ability.  One laptop per child isn’t going to change this. In essence the requirements are good teachers, a ple...

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

...d Nations is still the best hope for international cooperation and Africa is the world’s difficult child that just doesn’t seem able to kick some vile habits. I hope that Ban is able to b...

28. Is the $ 100 laptop no more than a really expensive light-bulb?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...so the question of moral hazard, that niggling thing that economists worry about.  If you give your child a mobile-phone and they know you’ll simply replace it without comment if it disappe...

29. How much does a free education cost?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...for thousands of suppliers at thousands of different low-level businesses. It is much cheaper to send a child to an existing school or university than it is to build and staff a new one.  There ...

30. School vouchers offer the poorest an opportunity to learn at better schools
(Analysis/Analysis)

...sp; This entrenches the rich – poor divide and creates a form of educational aristocracy where the children of the rich have greater access to opportunities. Fee-paying parents flee poorer scho...

31. "Madiba's children" failed by their government
(Analysis/Analysis)

... is time for the Department of Education to adopt the same mechanisms of the private sector and give our children hope for employment and success.     ...

32. What do Richard Branson and Che Guevara have in common?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...keep up with those preferences.  Businesses that can’t do so (such as businesses caught using child labour when it is no longer politically acceptable to do so) get left behind and shut dow...

33. Guide To Volunteering
(Analysis/Donation Tips)

...ties that are too under-funded and under-staffed. A volunteer might stuff envelopes, feed animals, tutor children, build housing, serve as a museum docent, counsel those in crisis, sell tickets or jus...

34. Responsibility Reputation Risk - a conference on corporate social investment
(Events/Events)

...s along with esoteric and poorly-measured objectives.  Dr Allan Boesak defrauded Paul Simon’s Children’s Trust of R 1.1 million.  Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Nelson Mandela h...

35. Poverty: when second best isn't good enough
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s have, only they don't work as well. We'll come by and visit when we're not too busy." Children play with toy-versions of grown-up tools knowing that they will get a chance to use th...

36. The Feedback Loop
(Analysis/Analysis)

...products and little competition or differentiation between rival products. Needy people are treated like children: "we know what’s best for you." Just like cancer, development organisa...

37. Vouchers and Individual Choice
(Analysis/Analysis)

... Public schools are a public good where politicians spend taxpayers’ money on other people’s children. Schools, frequently, don’t achieve the objectives for which they were set up. G...